Book Review-The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg

~ A. Siegelster
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth

The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I did not know what to expect when I first picked up The Encyclopedia of Early Earth. I sort of assumed that it would be different entries on all sorts of flora and fauna found in prehistoric Earth. But, as Isabel Greenberg says on the back cover, “this book is not a real encyclopedia”. Instead it is a story about the adventures of a storyteller and the stories that he tells and learns as he meets all sorts of people.
The stories, interwoven, going deeper and deeper (you could call it story-ception) are definitely based on known myths and folktales, and tales from the Torah, though Greenberg has, through her ingenius world-building of her Early Earth, given these stories a unique flavor.

The art is charming, very simple, and mostly monochrome, illustrating well the stories that take place in cold lands, and also making it so that it is the stories the reader focuses on, with the illustrations as the supplementary medium.

As a lover of folklore, this has been the perfect book for me. I recommend this to those who love stories, whether you listen to or tell them.



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Published by A. Siegelster

I am a classicist specializing in Latin and ancient Greek literature, a writer of poetry and short fiction, and an avid reader. I'm based in Los Angeles, California, and am pursuing an MA in classics in Canada.