Monster Diaries: The Cyclops and the Worst Party Ever

This comedy series for children reimagines Greek myths and tells them from alternative perspectives. In this story, the evil, man-eating Cyclops conquered by Odysseus tells his side of the story.

Most children will know what a cyclops is, but few will know about Polyphemus from Homer’s Odyssey, and almost none of them will have ever tried to empathise with the one-eyed monster. Polyphemus explains straight away that Homer has told the story all wrong, that he has been unfairly misunderstood for millennia and so has the hero, Odysseus.

It turns out that all Polyphemus wants to achieve in life is to throw the world’s greatest ever party. It is hard to cut loose and find friends when you are surrounded by sheep and other monsters and when your dad is God of the ocean. When the sailors are stranded on his island, Polyphemus spies an opportunity to throw a wild party and get everyone involved with dancing and party games and eating lots and lots of cheese!

Sadly, Odysseus has other ideas, and plays cruel and unnecessary tricks on the cyclops…just because he occasionally, accidentally gobbles up the odd human or two (who could resist? They’re delicious!). The party plans end in tragedy, and friendly Polyphemus is the victim of unforgivable violence, as well as the crime of not being a good party guest!

The book is a love letter to ancient Greece – with plenty of geeky facts hidden in the story – and the inclusion of fact files and appendices will engage readers and also help them to understand the story within a broader context. This celebration of classical history is somewhat undermined by the goofy humour of the cyclops’s hapless and accident-prone antics, which are brought to life by Caldwell’s calamitous cartoons. Though there are laughs to be had, the comedic value of re-casting Odysseus as the villain is stretched rather thinly at times, and children are likely to take more pleasure from the less silly parts of the story.