Posts Tagged ‘Book Reviews’

Goddess Girls: The Girl Games Super Special!!!

It’s Steven’s favorite time again!!! The maximum amount of time till the next Goddess Girls book!!! Actually, he complained way less about this one. I don’t know if it was because it’s super special or he’s just become inured to the pain.

300 pages of super specialness!!!

Summary of Amazingness
By Patricia
Remember a few books ago when Artemis got Zeus to agree that it was totally unfair that girls couldn’t participate in the Olympics?? It’s time for the girl version, the Heraean Games!! Goddess girls and mortals from all over the world have come to Mount Olympus Academy to compete and Artemis is going crazy trying to organize everything! Aphrodite and Persephone are busy passive aggressively fighting about a kitten named Adonis that Aphrodite found, plus trying to hide him from everyone because they’re not allowed to have pets! Plus, there’s this weird boy trying to ride Pegasus and Athena ends up accidentally helping him steal it, but it’s cool because they end up defeating a rampaging chimera. Between practicing for their events, worrying about their crushes, and trying to get along with the international goddess girls, Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Persephone hardly have time for their friends! In the end, Aphrodite and Persephone learn to share, Artemis learns to delegate, and Athena learns that she can talk her way out of anything.

Faithfulness to Original Mythos
By Steven
This one is a little harder to rate than previous volumes as it doesn’t actually follow any single myth. Plus, not much is known specifically about the Heraean Games of yore, so that doesn’t give us much to go on either. But, there are at least plenty of mythological shout-outs to acknowledge and rate, so let’s get started! First off, there are the foreign delegations (mixed mortal and divine). From the Amazons, we have Penthesilea and Hippolyta, both mythological queens and so in pretty good standing to compete. Fun fact: Hippolyta has more variations to her original tale than almost any other character in the series to date, all of which originally ended in her gruesome and tragic death and two of which blamed the murder on different characters in this book. Extra credit if you guess them both! Then come the Norse goddesses, Freya [Freyja] and Skadi [Skaði] (originally the patronesses of love/fertility and hunting/winter, respectively). Bonus points for Freya’s necklace, Brisingamen! Egypt also makes a showing with Satet and Neith, goddesses of floods/hunting and war/hunting (noticing a pattern here?) as does China in the persons of Mazu, goddess of the sea, and Wen Shi [Long Mu], mortal Mother of Dragons and post-mortem goddess of parents and children. Double bonus points for including her five snakes, though half a point off for not identifying them as infant dragons. The real fun is in the two traditionally Greek mentions: Bellerophon (and Pegasus, naturally) and Adonis. Here’s where my vote splits; their treatment of the Bellerophon myth is pretty close to the original where it counts, following his dream-sequence introduction to Athena, receipt of her golden bridle, capture of Pegasus, and [near-]suffocation of the Chimera. For that part, 9/10 points! Adonis, on the other hand, shows up as a black cat in the marketplace. We spend the whole book waiting for some dramatic reveal that will unmask him for the epitome of human masculine beauty which we know him to be, only to hit the end…and he’s still just a cat. Props for having Aphrodite fall for him, in a way, I guess. But yeah, no love interest? No life-death-rebirth action? How does Persephone figure into it? And what’s with the cat thing? We may never know.

Steven kept insisting that something like this was bound to happen, and I was like “You STILL don’t understand tween fiction, do you?”

Tween Girl Life Lessons
By Patricia
1) Just because you’re competing against someone, doesn’t mean you can’t also be friends!
2) If something is against the rules, just hide the fact that you’re doing it for awhile and everything will work out
3) Stealing is okay if you use the stolen goods to defeat monsters!!

Steven’s Favorites!
Character: Cerberus. For all his fierceness, he’s just a big ol’ softy with the kittens.
Part: The mail-order mixups! Nice to see that shipping hasn’t appreciably changed in the last 2,500 years.
Thing I Learned: Zeus has a nasty cat allergy, but is otherwise 100% immune to illness. Who knew?

Ladies of Ancient Greece: you really want to keep Zeus away? Just get a cat!

Patricia’s Favorites!!
Character: Penthe the Amazon girl! She totally hit on Artemis’ crush to distract her and give Penthe an advantage during archery!! Smooth.
Part: One of the competitions in the girl games is thumb wrestling!!! Yes!!!
Thing I Learned: Ms. Hydra’s many heads each represent a different personality trait. The pink one’s the most gossipy and the gray one worries too much.

Next Time: Pandora the Curious!!
Previously:
Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4, Book 5, Book 6, Book 7, Book 8

Banned Books: The What’s Happening to My Body? Book For Boys

Title: The What’s Happening to My Body? Book For Boys: A Growing Up Guide for Parents and Sons
Authors: Lynda Madaras with Area Madaras
Banned In: 21 school libraries in Buda, TX
For: being inappropriate for an elementary school library

This books gets challenged a lot, and I can see why. Any book about sexuality for children or teens is going to cause issues because everyone has a different opinion about what age is best for different information on the topic. The particular instance the ALA is reporting on here (from 2010) is actually a challenge I don’t disagree with. I know we usually concentrate on challenges that force one person’s narrow view of morality on a community, but this is a good example of how not all challenges are like that. As I’ve said before, I’m not against challenging books because I think it starts a meaningful conversation about the purpose of the library and gets more people reading and talking about books! Also, I’m pleased that someone has a strong feeling about the library–one way or the other–because it’s such a refreshing change from the passive indifference I’m met with daily. Also, sometimes librarians totally make mistakes and need patrons’ help to catch them. This case is just one such instance.

As the librarian explains in the news article I linked to above:

“That did not belong there. That really was a fluke. It really was a mistake,” said Nancy Turner, the director of Library Services at Hays CISD.

The book was immediately pulled off the shelf at Pluger and Carpenter Hill elementary schools, two schools that just opened this year.

There are two books with the same name that are geared toward different age groups.

“Just through a fluke in the ordering process, with them having the same series title, we got the one that was really aimed more for the middle school,” said Turner.

There are books that explain where babies come from to elementary age students, but I agree that this title is better suited for someone experiencing puberty or on the cusp of it. Chapters explain the changes taking place in your body, with diagrams showing the different stages. A lot of text is given over to reassurances about what’s “normal”, which can be a real worry since everyone matures differently. There’s even a chapter called “Spontaneous Erections, Orgasms, Masturbation, and Wet Dreams” which includes real (anonymous) questions from puberty-age boys and fair, honest answers about what is normal, including suggestions about how to cope with these issues in a less-awkward way.

The author suggests in the introduction that “beyond providing the basic facts, I hope that the book will help parents and sons get past the ’embarrassment barrier.’ Ideally, I imagine parents sitting down and reading the book with their sons” (xxv). I think this would be really useful for getting a basic overview of puberty before it happens to you–so you don’t freak out and not know what’s going on–and also as a kind of reference guide afterward. Maybe you won’t care that much about how to ask someone to go out with you right away, so eventually the chapter on “Romantic and Sexual Feelings” will be useful to you later on. It’s the parents’ responsibility to go through all the different “your changing body” or “where do babies come from” books available and find one that’s right for their kid at that time. Because not every family has the same beliefs about what information their kids need, and not every kid matures at the same time. Since kids, especially girls, are hitting puberty younger and younger, a greater variety of these books is necessary since something like Deal With It! would probably be too much for an 8-year-old, but you still want to give her the basic facts since with the onset of menstruation she is capable of getting pregnant.

Here are some interesting things about this book that I was not expecting:
1. In the chapter title “An Owner’s Guide to the Sex Organs: What’s Normal? What’s Not?” there was an entire section on uncircumcised penises that explained the difference, why a boy might or might not have a foreskin, and care instructions. Many of the diagrams explaining changes in the body also had uncircumcised equivalents. This more inclusive focus is something I’ve never seen before in these sorts of books, and the author explains in the intro that it was added for this latest edition because:

Today only about 60 percent of babies are circumcised in the United States. More boys than ever are reaching puberty with their foreskins still intact… Doctors in the United States often know little about the foreskin except how to remove it. The result is that all too often minor foreskin irritations are treated rather drastically–by surgical removal. I hope the new information in Chapter 3 will not only help answer boys’ questions, but will also help them hang on to their foreskins should problems arise.

What a good idea that I probably would never have thought of! Not that I’m surprised. Madaras really focuses the text of the book on reassurance. This age group is definitely one that needs a lot of it, especially since they may feel uncomfortable asking their parents/friends “What is this doing? Is this normal?” It’s good that–circumcised or not–there are books like this one available to address their worries.

2. There’s a whole chapter about what happens to girls during puberty!! Obviously there’s an equivalent book by the same author for girls, which I’m assuming has way more information, but I think it’s really important to address the similarities and differences between the sexes. Even though boys don’t have a period, they should still understand it: what it is, its biological function, how girls deal with it. Otherwise they can form misconceptions that take an oddly long time to wear off. I met guys in college who thought “it all came out at once in a big rush”.

3. There’s a section in the “Romantic and Sexual Feelings” chapter about being just friends with girls, something that often becomes more difficult with the onset of puberty. The author explains that, despite the teasing you will no doubt encounter, there’s nothing wrong with continuing your opposite-sex friendships, and suggests ways to deal with the teasing and make things less awkward between yourselves.

I don’t know if the 21 schools that this book was removed from were all elementary schools or not. I can see why this book has also been challenged in collections for older children or teens because it does deal frankly with topics like masturbation or homosexuality. The author has a great solution for this in the introduction, though:

For instance, when discussing masturbation, I explain that some people feel it is wrong or sinful and not at all a good thing to do, and I talk about why they feel that way. But the truth of the matter is that I feel very strongly that masturbation is a perfectly fine, perfectly normal thing to do, and I’m sure that this comes through in what I’ve written. You may find that your opinions on masturbation or some of the other topics covered in this book are different from mine, but this doesn’t mean you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Instead, you can use these differences as an opportunity to explain and elucidate your own attitudes and values to your child

THIS!!! I almost want to make this my final Banned Books Week post for this year, because I think this gets to the heart of Banned Books Week, and why a lot of challenges genuinely confuse me. My reaction to a book I disagree with is not “Get away from me” but “This is so interesting, I want to understand how we could have such different opinions”. I’m not really afraid that any book or person could dramatically change my views, but I’m willing to give them a shot to at least better understand people who disagree with me. It’s the same with the middle school girl I tutor. If we start reading a non-fiction book that treats a topic differently than I would (say, it thinks Thomas Edison is a genius instead of a douchebag or glosses over the Age of Exploration’s terrible consequences for Native Americans), I don’t say “We have to stop reading this book or you will be brainwashed into believing these lies!” Instead, I present both sides and both views and let her use her critical thinking to form her own opinions. Her parents have taught her their beliefs and she’s naturally compassionate and bright, so they trust her to decide the right thing, even if she comes into contact with opinions different from their own (which she undoubtedly will in her life, no matter how vigilant they are).

Ultimately, I think it’s far more important to build up a person’s inner defenses and strength of character against all the badness in the world, because no matter how many books you challenge, how closely you monitor Internet usage, there will always be terrible things in the world. “Sometimes people are the worst,” the girl I tutor says to me, after we read about Europeans screwing over Native Americans out of bigotry and greed or the carnage of the Revolutionary War. And she’s right. I’m not happy about it. I wish we could only learn about happy things, like how awesome Queen Elizabeth I was, but then I wouldn’t be a very good tutor because we’d hardly be covering any of the real history she needs to know. It’s natural to want to protect your children–I sigh every time I have to check out another book for her about war–but ultimately it’s more important to teach your children morality and strength so that they can protect themselves.

Previously: Pit Bull and Tenacious Guard Dogs
Next: Revolutionary Voices

Banned Books Week: Great Soul

Title: Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India
Author: Joseph Lelyveld
Banned In: parts of India
Event Honoring Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Cancelled by: Foundation for Excellence in Santa Cruz, California
For: raising the possibility that Gandhi had a homosexual relationship

How much did I not know about Gandhi? So much! This book was fascinating. Everything was meticulously researched, but also very well-written so I never felt like I was reading a history text book. Joseph Lelyveld’s Pulitzer is well-deserved; he really understands how to use story in a non-fiction context, which is, I think, something many biographers struggle with. I was particularly interested to learn about Gandhi’s time in South Africa, and how this British-educated, suit-wearing lawyer transformed gradually into the leader of a spiritual and political movement.

I can also see why this book might upset some people. You can tell Lelyveld has the utmost respect for Gandhi, but he’s also a researcher interested in the truth, even when that truth differentiates from Gandhi’s own autobiography. He always cites multiple sources, and postulates about the most likely reasons why they might disagree. Though the story it tells is still overwhelmingly admiring and positive, it is difficult for some people to see this person not as a saint, but as a man. One who sometimes made mistakes or changed his mind or acted for political and practical rather than ideological reasons. And that’s not even taking into account the specific question of his relationship with Hermann Kallenbach.

Lelyveld isn’t just making wild claims to create a literary sensation. As always, he backs his postulations up with evidence:

“They were a couple,” Tridip Suhrud, a Gandhi scholar, said when I met him in the Gujarati capital of Gandhinagar. That’s a succinct way of summing up the obvious–Kallenbach later remarked that they’d lived together “almost in the same bed”–but what kind of couple were they? Gandhi early on made a point of destroying what he called Kallenbach’s “logical and charming love notes” to him, in the belief that he was honoring his friend’s wish that they be seen by no other eyes. But the architect saved all of Gandhi’s, and his descendants, decades after his death and Gandhi’s, put them up for auction. Only then were the letters acquired by the National Archives of India and, finally, published. It was too late for the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson to take them into account, and most recent Gandhi studies tend to deal with them warily, if at all. One respected Gandhi scholar characterized the relationship as “clearly homoerotic” rather than homosexual, intending through that choice of words to describe a strong mutual attraction, nothing more. The conclusions passed on by word of mouth in South Africa’s small Indian community were sometimes less nuanced. It was no secret then, or later, that Gandhi, leaving his wife behind, had gone to live with a man.

Lelyveld goes on to describe the course of the relationship–whether close friendship or romantic or a mix of the two–and quotes from the letters often, as well as other sources. He certainly raises the possibility, but, in the end, makes it clear that any sexual aspect was ultimately of less importance historically than the close friendship that helped develop many of Gandhi’s ideas. To me, this chapter is a nuanced and well-researched treatment of a subject which another writer might have exploited more crassly for attention. But I can see that some people would be unhappy with any perceived criticism of Gandhi. Though the possibility of a homosexual or homoerotic relationship is hardly a criticism–especially as Lelyveld writes it–it’s the sad reality of our society that some will take it as such.

If you’re interested in reading more, the book’s Wikipedia entry has quotes from the letters, and more about the controversy this book caused.

Previously: The Awakening
Next: Pit Bulls and Tenacious Guard Dogs

Banned Books Week: We’ll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives

Happy Banned Books Week!!!! I’m going to try to post with a Banned Books Week review every day this week. We’ll see if I make it!

Title: We’ll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin’ Showbiz Saga
Author: Paul Shaffer with David Ritz
Challenged In: Mitchell, South Dakota
For: “too frank depictions of sex and sexual matters”

This book actually was shocking. Shockingly boring. It let me down so hard. I meant to have it read by Friday, but I kept having to push myself to get through it. The writing style is (I think?) trying to be conversational, but just ends up sounding like even it would rather be somewhere else. It jumps around chronologically with no purpose or structure until the text reads like the undirected rambling of someone approaching senility. Occasionally in the beginning it switches from first to third person for no obvious reason, like the writer just forgot what he was doing for a few moments.

So, I’m pretty shocked that anyone made it through this book to object to it. Maybe they saw the cover and thought that was reason enough. It’s happened before. The author does mention sex a few times–maybe three?–but not nearly enough for a tell-all showbiz memoir. The only example I can think of off hand was when Paul Shaffer sleeps with a groupie, but he doesn’t describe it at all. I feel like I need to write to Mitchell, South Dakota and suggest some books that are actually racy, because this wouldn’t even satisfy a Gossip Girl fan. And it’s shelved in the adult section, so there’s no excuse for holding back.

Here’s a “racy” excerpt:

She had slipped out of all her clothes except her high heels and stockings and had spread herself across my bed like a Playboy centerfold. “Praise God!” was the one thought that came to mind. I was so surprised, so delighted, that I spilled my vodka tonic.

Bow-chicka-wow-wow! This is going to get steamy, right? Wrong.

Here’s how he describes “it”:

I soon saw that I was dealing with a master craftswoman. Her attention to detail was exceptional, and she handled her task with both confidence and cunning. I had absolutely no complaints.

Is he talking about a sexual conquest or getting his teeth whitened at the dentist? Impossible to tell.

The book is made up of barely-connected reminiscing about the “author”‘s experiences as leader of David Letterman’s band and on Saturday Night Live. It’s almost entirely name dropping, but most of those names are people maybe my parents have heard of? I recognized Eugene Levy and Martin “Marty” Short, at least, but I’ve never been really aflame with curiosity about them. It’s hard to tell how much of the shitty writing and boring plot is Paul Shaffer and how much is David Ritz, his ghost writer. It’s annoying, because I’m not sure which of them to hate for wasting a week of my reading time. Is David Ritz really a competent writer, hampered by Paul Shaffer’s lackluster material and onerous input? How much work do celebrity “authors” really put into the books published under their name? Until Sam Neill hires me to ghost write his memoirs, I may never know.

Here’s the part I found the most ridiculous:

I have reason to believe my behavior may well have changed the landscape of our pop culture and, in a vastly more important way, even changed the always-sensitive dynamic between Christians and Jews in the United States of America… After Mel [Gibson] had charmed his way though Dave’s graceful interview, Dave asked him, “May we turn your pants into shorts?”
“Sure,” said the amiable actor. “Why not?”
I was called over to help circumcise Gibson’s trousers. That’s when my hand slipped and the state of Judeo-Christian relations changed forever.
Believe me when I say that the slip was unintentional. I merely placed the scissors too close to Mel’s skin. In doing so, I cut him. The skin broke. He bled. Drops of Gibson’s blood fell to the floor. Mel looked at me murderously. He was enraged. He had been bloodied by a Jewish piano player.
Because of my Hebrew heritage, I couldn’t help but feel great guilt when I started hearing about Gibson’s bloody movie, The Passion of the Christ. I couldn’t help but wonder whether the slip of my hand had caused what some reviewers were calling a blatantly anti-Jewish version of the Crucifixion story.

Yeah, this guy is totally taking credit for Mel Gibson’s Antisemitism, because one time on David Letterman he cut his leg a little by accident. The things I slog through for you.

Previously: The Quran
Next: The Awakening

Banned Books Week: The Notebook Girls

Happy Friday!!


Title: The Notebook Girls
Authors: Julia Baskin, Lindsey Newman, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen, and Courtney Toombs
Challenged In: Waukee, Iowa
For: foul language, cussing

I’ve gotta say, I was really looking forward to reading this book. Look at that cover! I was totally expecting Amelia’s Notebook for an older crowd, and that’s just what I got!! Plus, it’s non-fiction! I am all about this concept, probably because I could read epistolary works all day–such a voyeur, I know.

It’s possible that in middle school or high school you too had a notebook with one or more friends. I did in 6th grade. Rather than pass individual notes, my best friend and I would trade a notebook with each other, filling its pages during spare moments in class or at lunch or at home with funny anecdotes, doodles, questions, observations, whatever. I distinctly remember how about half of our notebook was given over to deciding which nicknames we should use for each other, and then changing them almost daily. The other half was probably about boys.

This book came about when four girls took their notebook and published it, pictures and doodles and all! It’s way more interesting than my old middle school one for a number of reasons:

1) Four girls instead of two=more drama and “plot”
2) They’re in high school, so have slightly more interesting observations about the world and life events than I did in 6th grade
3) This notebook covers a huge amount of time for a project like this, 3/5/02–12/27/03 so you really get to see the “characters” change and grow
4) They live in New York City and talk often about September 11th, which was only 6 months behind them at the start of the notebook! Their discussion of their experiences and their reflections on them at multiple points afterwards is fascinating

Also it’s published with handwriting font, and there are pictures!

I found the whole concept of this book amazing. Because it’s non-fiction, you don’t get as coherent a narrative as you would out of something more constructed. Sometimes characters or events just happen for no reason and then are never mentioned again, or aren’t really explained that well since all four writers are already familiar with them. Giant blocks of time are just missing, specifically in the summer, but all of this makes me feel like an archivist detective (maybe only I am in love with this feeling, but whatever). I think these issues might frustrate some people, but for others it’s a really enlightening look into the real lives of four teens.

But since it’s real, there are lots of things I can see some people objecting to. Lots of cursing, as the challenger pointed out, as well as drugs, drinking, and sex. Since this is real life and not a constructed story, there’s no authorial voice saying “… but that’s a bad idea” so I was surprised and pleased when the original writers do this anyway. Okay, not to the extent that Concerned Parent would like, probably, which would undoubtedly include Go Ask Alice-levels of “try marijuana one time and you will obviously die homeless in the streets”. But over the course of the narrative all four girls have moments where they admit things like “last night was a mistake, I shouldn’t drink that much” or “all of us smoke too much and it’s getting in the way of other things” or “this boy is taking advantage of me and just not worth my time anymore”. Sometimes it takes them awhile to realize these things, but I think these decisions about moderation are all the more compelling to the reader because they’re real. Teens are capable of thinking about their own lives and making their own decisions, and I like how this book validates that, yeah, we all make mistakes or try things that we might later regret–though not always–and that doesn’t make us terrible people.

This challenge, to me, had a happy ending–or mostly happy. I couldn’t find any information about the original challenger’s reaction, but hopefully they were also satisfied with the review board’s decision. Before the challenge, this book was apparently shelved in teen fiction. The challenger wanted it removed from the library completely, but the review board decided it had been miscataloged and moved it to adult non-fiction. I actually agree with this decision, since teens can still access it in adult non-fiction and it seems like it fits more in that collection. I can see why this would be a difficult book to place–it’s clearly not fiction, though it’s written in a similar format, and the whole concept of a teen non-fiction section is widely debated, with each library deciding something different. At each library I’ve visited where I’ve noticed this book, it’s always been in adult non-fiction, although many of those don’t have separate teen non-fiction sections. Yay for continued access and more accurate cataloging! A library collection is always in the process of becoming.

Onward!
Previously: My Mom’s Having a Baby
Next: The Quran

Banned Books Week: “My Mom’s Having a Baby”

I thought I’d kick off my Banned Books Week posts with the only title on the 2011 list I hadn’t already read!

Yeah, I can already tell this is going to be downright salacious

Title: My Mom’s Having a Baby
Author: Dori Hillestad Butler
Illustrator: Carol Thompson
Challenged In: Carrollton, Texas and Hillsborough County, Florida
For: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

I feel like one of the most important points of this case which the author attempted to bring up when she was dramatically confronted on Fox and Friends is that this book is shelved in the children’s non-fiction section, J618.2. Even though it looks like a picture book, it’s not stuck in with Good Night Moon and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It’s with the explanatory books about childbirth, diseases, how blood works, and World War II. And if you let your kid wander around on their own in the non-fiction section, cool, but it’s not like the library makes a secret of what that section is for. Non-fiction books are meant to explain the world in ways a child can understand, and that’s what this book does. Here’s a sample page:

This fetus is clearly rocking out to some music inappropriate for his age group

It goes through month by month of the pregnancy, explaining prenatal development and what an ultrasound is, eventually culminating in birth (with all the blood and grossness tactfully edited out). The only difference between this and the countless other books designed to help parents explain what’s happening to mom is that it goes into more detail about how the baby got in there. Which, come on, they are totally going to want to know: Read the rest of this entry »

Goddess Girls: Medusa the Mean

It’s Steven’s favorite time!! Finishing a Goddess Girls book!! Meaning I won’t be forcing him to read one till at least the end of July (when Goddess Girls Super Special: The Girl Games comes out!). This one was about Medusa and was definitely my favorite so far!

Antiheroes are the bomb

Summary of Amazingness
By Patricia
Medusa is super unpopular at Mount Olympus Academy because she has green skin, snake hair, and a penchant for telling it like it is! Girl’s got sass, but it doesn’t help her make friends or win any ground with Poseidon, her “supercrush”. Hera and Zeus are getting married and Ancient Greek God custom(?) dictates that the seven groomsmen get to choose their own bridesmaids through ridiculous contests! Of course Medusa wants to get chosen by Poseidon, but to do that she’ll have to win his swimming contest. No big deal, considering her parents are inattentive, tragic-back-story sea monsters, but she orders a magical Pegasus necklace that’s supposed to give her immortal powers anyway, just to be on the safe side. It looks like she’s going to win too, when she decides to Do The Right Thing and rescue her kindergarten buddy Andromeda from bullies instead. Poseidon finally notices her anyway, but says she’s got to wear a hat to cover up her snake hair if they’re going to hang. She realizes he’s bad news and dramatically gives up her crush! It’s cool, Dionysus doesn’t mind her snakes, and loves her sassy sense of humor. You go, girl!! Also, a stray Zeus lightning bolt combines with kindergarten Perseus’ toy Medusa shield and the remains of her probably-fake(?) Pegasus charm to create an actual real life Pegasus!! Best wedding present ever??

Faithfulness to Original Mythos
By Steven
Short answer: what mythos? Seriously, they didn’t really try with this one. But, using the open-ended approach does let them pretty much make it up as they go along without being restricted by the myth, so I’ll award bonus points instead for honorable mentions. Points go for the mention of Medusa’s parents, Ceto and Phorcys, and (as usual) the inclusion of her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. There are a fair number of other minor mentions throughout, notably the appearance of Perseus and Andromeda roughly halfway through. Loss of points for Perseus being basically useless and contributing nothing to the plot apart from his Medusoid shield. At the same time, double points for their clever re-imagining of Medusa’s decapitation/Pegasus’ birth. Which, admittedly, required Perseus’ shield. So I’ll give them a pass and let’s call it even.

Being more faithful to myth would have made the ending kind of a downer

Tween Girl Life Lessons
By Patricia
1) Don’t get so caught up in a guy’s dreamy turquoise skin that you don’t realize what a loser he is on the inside.
2) Guidance counselors are never as helpful as BFFs.
3) Ancient Greek God gift registries are attended by creepy puppets.

Steven’s Favorites!
Character: Dionysus. He gets all the ladies.
Part: “…Career-ology Week. (Or Job-ology Week, as the students called it.)”
Thing I Learned: Go for the drunken ones. They’re more fun.

She just wants friends, you guys

Patricia’s Favorites!!
Character: Medusa!!! I love that she paints her nails in class so people will think she’s super blase about school, and then studies really hard secretly when no one’s looking
Part: At Zeus and Hera’s wedding when asked if anyone objects, a fly buzzes into the arena! Oh no, is it Athena’s inexplicable fly-mom coming to throw her tiny weight around?? Nah, just a normal fly, we cool. Loved this Ancient Greek insect fake out.
Thing I Learned: Medusa’s snakes apparently are named: Viper, Flicka, Pretzel, Snapper, Twister, Slinky, Lasso, Slither, Scaly, Emerald, Sweetpea, and Wiggle. Why don’t Ancient Greek legends record this? Apparently we never asked.

Next Time: Super Special: The Girl Games!
Previously:
Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4, Book 5, Book 6, Book 7

Goddess Girls: Persephone the Phony

Book 2 of the Goddess Girls series! This time we finally get to hear from quiet, nature-loving Persephone. The Fluttershy of Goddess Girls, if you will.

I would've gone with Persephony, but whatever

Summary of Amazingness
By Patricia
Sometimes Persephone just wants a little peace and quiet, but finds herself following her mom’s advice “going along to get along” and not telling her friends what she really feels. Way to go, PersePHONY! Then she meets cute loner boy Hades and likes him because he calls her on her bullshit. But he’s from the underworld so both her mom and her friends tell her to STAY AWAY! Fed up with being told what to do, she decides to dramatically run away from home one night, using her goddess powers to disguise herself as an old lady and flee to Hades in the Underworld. He’s only worried about her safety and that her mom will think he kidnapped her (lol) so returns her home. After a heart to heart with her mom and her BFFs, Persephone and Hades attend the school dance together!

All a hilarious misunderstanding!

Faithfulness to Original Mythos
By Steven
Oh Persephone, you get such a bad rap in mythology *and* this book. However, while the book Persephone is meek, mild, and passive-aggressive in a way most of us will find very familiar, her mythological counterpart was anything but. Hades-as-emo-boy is also something of a stretch, though, since the original was much less emo and much more devious and aloof. Witness the downfall of Pirithous for a good example. Demeter as helicopter mom is pretty funny, and at least a little true, though this book gives it a slightly happier ending. Double points for including Hypnos and Thanatos in the underworld, though, and for avoiding the slippery slope of the Dantean Underworld that so many people fall into when trying to describe the Greco-Roman version. And points again for Hades’ subterranean (tunneling?) chariot. All in all, this one did a better job than most of putting in the details with less inventive fluff. Kudos!

A slippery slope

Tween Girl Life Lessons
By Patricia
1) If your parents and your friends disapprove of your boyfriend, that makes him EVEN BETTER because clears you are starcrossed lovers!!
2) Running away from home and other desperate bids for attention always work.
3) Cemeteries are the hipster hangout of the pantheon (or maybe Olympian make out point?)

Steven’s Favorites!
Character: The shades in Tartarus. “And anyway, even if I did take the food and money, I needed it more than those orphans!”
Part: Persephone’s attempt to sneak back home after running away to the Underworld. Breadstyx and nectar water for comfort food!
Thing I Learned: Apparently, in ancient Greece, they were called “chariot moms.”

Chariot moms just need to learn to give their daughters a little space

Patricia’s Favorites!!
Character: Hades. I am all about his portrayal as a sad, misunderstood emo kid.
Part: Ares taunts Hades by calling him “Death Boy”, which would be a pretty good name for a band.
Thing I Learned: Charon is surprisingly easily fooled for a guardian of the land of the dead

Previously: Athena the Brain
Next:: Athena the Wise

Or, if you want to read them in book order Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4, Book 5, Book 6

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