Daedalus and the Minotaur

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

In this fresh and gripping version of the Greek legend, the Minotaur is
presented as a lonely, deformed boy. Having carried out the order of
King Minos to build a labyrinth to conceal the Minotaur (who is the
king’s son), Daedalus (who fears the king will now kill him to keep
the secret) escapes with his son, Icarus, on kitelike wings. In an
epilogue, Galloway points out that temperatures at positions further
from Earth become colder, not hotter, and hence “perhaps the first
teenager to soar into the air and ride the current of the winds did
follow his father and land safely in the sea, to be picked up by the
waiting boat.”

This creative retelling features intrigue, danger, and touchingly human
characters. The bold and imaginative illustrations perfectly complement
the text. Highly recommended.