The Little Myths Library
Not the Bad Guy
The Story of Hades
Everybody ran from Hades. Everybody except a boy called Milo.
The story
What happens in this one.
This warm and funny picture book introduces children to Hades, god of the underworld in Greek mythology — the god everybody runs away from, and the one who has been quietly looking after them all along.
In short, rhythmic sentences made for reading aloud, Orson Vale, creator of The Little Myths Library, tells how three brothers shared out the world by drawing pebbles from a bowl — the sky for Zeus, the sea for Poseidon, and everything under the ground for Hades — and how Hades went down into the dark, lit a hundred torches, and took care of the silver, the gold and the seeds asleep in the soil, with a three-headed puppy that nobody else wanted.
Read a sample
The first five pages, as they are printed.
The opening of the story — 5 of the 26 story pages. Tap a page to start reading, then turn the pages with the arrows. The rest is in the book.
For the grown-up reading aloud
“About the Real Hades” is the last page.
Every book in the library closes with the original legend retold in plain words — so when the question comes after the last page, there is an answer on it. Nothing is watered down; what changes is the gentleness of the telling.
- Reading age
- 4–6
- Read-aloud time
- About five minutes
- Format
- 8.5 × 8.5 in paperback
- Also on
- Kindle, tap to enlarge
The rest of the library
More myths, told small.
Three Heads, One Good Dog
Don't Open the Jar!
Whatever You Do, Don't Look!
Hold On to the String!
The Girl Who Ate Six Seeds
The Boy Who Flew Too High
The Baby They Hid in a Cave
Born from a Headache
The King with the Three-Pointed Fork
Up, Pegasus, Up!
The King Who Turned His Toast to Gold
Hello-ello-ello
My Name Is Nobody
Never Trust a Giant Wooden Horse
The Man Who Stole Fire