This impressive and inspiring volume is the latest addition to those published in the Our Mythical Childhood series, and is the culmination of research undertaken since the early 2010s. It is a truly international and interdisciplinary effort, with contributors from Brazil, Cameroon, Germany, Greece, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland and the UK and contributors who work as educators, artists, curators, and musicians. Its title accurately describes its contents - it does indeed contain lesson plans, vase animations and resources - but this does not quite convey what else lies within the book; repeated glimpses of the power of human connection, both in the present and with the past.

The book is a companion to the Panoply Vase Animation Project, the brainchild of Sonya Nevin and Steve K. Simons, which has developed an enormous bank of materials, all freely available on their website, as is this volume. Animations, explanatory videos and text, a blog, and useful links to further resources blog guide the user around the materials and educate them in the practical and aesthetic aspects of vases (mainly, though they have animated some reliefs and frescoes too). Some of the materials on the website are themselves the result of collaboration in an educational environment.

The same is true of this volume, although it was not part of the original research plan; Katarzyna Marciniak’s foreword provides a fascinating overview of the development of the Our Mythical Childhood project and explains how the seeds of this book were sown during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the world began to communicate via colourful messages pasted in windows - especially rainbows. Nevin and Simon took the opportunity to share their Iris animation with young people in lockdown, engaging them directly with the ancient world and the world they could see and feel around them. The therapeutic value of art, creativity and learning was clear from the responses of the youngsters, and led to the authors deciding to develop more materials, and working with teachers, students and other collaborators on what became an experimental project of live reception.

The information and materials in the book are designed to be accessible to those with little or no specialism in Greek art, or even in antiquity. Each lesson plan is prefaced by a guide as to its country of origin, the age range of the pupils for whom it was intended (or with whom it was trialled), a list of keywords for the lesson and, importantly, a guide to the prior knowledge needed by the teacher and students. Of the sixteen lesson plans provided, eleven of them require the students to have no subject-specific knowledge, and six require none from the teacher. In most cases where the tasks are dependent on prior knowledge, an alternative, simplified plan is also provided; this is a feature of the book, alternatives and adaptations are provided throughout, and therefore the ‘plans’ can easily be tailored by the user. The age ranges targeted are mostly 11+, though there are two lessons recommended for slightly younger learners (from 7 upwards).

The book contains sixteen lesson plans, organised into eight sections. The first section is introductory, and lessons guide learners in the shapes and uses of vases, as well as how they were made and painted; Sonya Nevin’s succinct explanations are likely to be helpful to anyone introducing Greek pots, and one of her lessons suggests handling and marking clay sherds with the learners.

The next five sections each correspond to a specific animation - on Sappho, Dionysus, Libations, Iris, and Herakles and the Erymanthian Boar - and any context (of vase, myth, character or actions depicted) is provided in an introduction at the opening of each section. The lesson plans themselves demonstrate the huge range of activities and topics envisaged by the contributors. The Sappho vase is used to teach about ancient music, using whatever musical abilities we may have, from clapping in rhythm to reading the musical score of Fragment 44 provided by Armand d’Angour. The Iris vase provides an opportunity for comparative mythology by looking at a rainbow-figure from Maori traditions. Appropriately, drama and movement activities are suggested in one lesson for the Dionysus vase, encouraging performance and an almost directorial analysis of the animation as a starting-point for the learners’ own creative projects, while a lesson on the Herakles vase has students creating maps. There is sadly not the space for me to summarise here the many approaches taken by the teachers involved, but exploring this volume is a pleasant reminder of the creativity of educators and pupils alike.

The book is enlivened by examples of student work; from the colour illustrations of Sappho’s nightingales by learners in Finland and Greece to the incised red-figure crayon drawings of Herakles pots from Polish students, as well as poems and song-lyrics from the pupils responding to Dionysus in Cameroon. My personal favourite were the poignant ideas of the Brazilian teenagers, who imagined Troy if it had not been sacked. The lesson plans were as interesting to read for the evidence of their impact and results as for their pedagogical instruction.

The final three sections of the volume provide guidance and practical advice. Lesson plans are provided to show how to use the animations to educate learners about museums and curatorship - a fascinating idea - and Steve K. Simons provides useful expert advice on producing stop-motion animations. The last section contains a wealth of materials; photocopiable templates, handouts, storyboards, figures to copy; the teacher who wishes to emulate any of these lessons, or to develop their own, is fully supported to do so, whether they feel they have artistic flair or not. Additionally, web-links to further material are provided throughout the book.

This book is easy to use, packed full of useful materials, and thought-provoking both in the ideas presented and in what it reveals about the power of (Greek) art to engage learners in accessing or visualising the past and relating it to the present - to ‘hold hands across the dark’. There is evidence of it on every page.