cover image Book of Goddesses

Book of Goddesses

Kris Waldherr. Beyond Words Publishing, $17.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-885223-30-2

Waldherr (Persephone and the Pomegranate) ambitiously tackles no less than 26 goddesses in this comprehensive guide, which spans the globe from Navajo to Celtic to Japanese culture. Its ambitiousness, however, may be its Achilles' heel. Relegating each subject to one page of text with a facing page of illustration, Waldherr does not have the luxury of creating tension, crafting dialogue or establishing settings. The result feels uncomfortably like a series of highly compressed encyclopedia entries. Outside the context of a myth or story, these summaries may not hold the reader's attention, unless, perhaps, as research for school. In that scenario, the book is a useful resource, supplemented by an extensive bibliography and lush watercolors of each goddess in a setting reflective of her culture. All ages. (Mar.)