Holub, Joan and Suzanne Williams. Goddess Girls: Athena the Brain.Athena, who lives with her friend Pallas' family in ancient Greece, suddenly finds out that she is the daughter of Zeus, and is whisked off to the Mount Olympus Academy, where Zeus is principal. Bringing along her bag of scrolls, Athena tries to settle in among the godboys and goddessgirls, investigating her new powers (have to watch those brain storms!), taking place in an invention fare, and dealing with Medusa after an invention goes wrong.
Warning: I was a Latin teacher in a previous life, so I get really picky about mythological books.
While this book (there are four in the series out) was not as annoying as the Pandora Gets Jealous series (which was very grating), it wasn't fabulous, either. There is some stilted language and phrasing (textscrolls, Revenge-ology?), and while the mythology is not incorrect, it's not quite right, either (why is Zeus the principal, while Poseidon is a student?). This would be a fine choice if your ten-year-old wanted to pick it up in a book fair; I think I will pass on purchasing it for the library.
I had such high hopes for this book and I'm sad to hear that it's less than stellar. I'll probably still pick up this one for myself (my college's patron "saint" was Athena), but pass on the rest of the series.
ReplyDeleteI just read this for the 48-HBC, and I agree with you on the stilted stuff. The story's very thin, cobwebby even, draped on a framework of altered mythology. I did think the second one was somewhat better.
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