gods

Amber & Clay by Laura Amy Schlitz

| Tasha
Cover image

Amber & Clay by Laura Amy Schlitz, illustrated by Julia Iredale (9781536201222)

The Newbery-Medal winner brings us into the world of ancient Greece with her new novel. Rhaskos is a slave working in a Greek household where he spends his days picking up horse manure. He doesn’t mind the hard work, but he’d much rather be drawing the horses around him. He works in secret, steadily building his craft, inspired by a painting his master owns. Melisto is a girl hated by her mother, abused by her, but someone who has grown up used to wealth and luxury. She is precious, particularly for the connections she will make when she marries. She is selected to serve the goddess Artemis for a year, living wild and free for the first time in her life. By the time our two protagonists meet, one of them has died, though their destinies are entwined with one another.

Schlitz has created a masterpiece of a novel where she blends verse and prose, moving freely between the two. It is a complex novel with elements of Greek society explained, wars imminent and friendships being forged. Schlitz adds the voices of the god Hermes to the mix, also including the philosophical musings of Socrates who appears as himself in the novel. The book is marvelous, each of the elements working to support the whole and weaving together into a tantalizing tale that is surprising and fascinating.

Schlitz’s writing is exceptional. She explores ancient Greece along its dusty paths and roadways, showing readers how it felt to be these characters in these times. She speaks as Hermes and Socrates in voices that are unique to them and feel perfectly suited. The question of the value of a life runs throughout the book along with looking closely at suffering and pain. These deep questions and philosophies are ideally suited to the world Schlitz has created. They are enhanced by the illustrations that show various Greek artifacts and explain what they were used for.

Deep, dramatic and classical, this book is the best of historical fiction for children.

Reviewed from ARC provided by Candlewick Press.

I Am Pan! by Mordicai Gerstein

| Tasha

I Am Pan by Mordicai Gerstein

I Am Pan! by Mordicai Gerstein (InfoSoup)

From the minute he is born, Pan is filled with mischief. Born with his goat horns and hoofed feet, he is immediately silly and even gets the grumpy Zeus to smile. As Pan grows, he becomes bored with life on Olympus and gets into so much trouble that the Gods ask him to return to Arcadia where he was born. While there, he invents panic, falls in love with the moon, and helps battle the monster Typhon. He also falls in love and marries Echo and discovers his love of music and the pan pipes. Story after story shows the power of merriment, music and mischievousness.

Gerstein embraces the spirit of Pan on the page by telling the tales with a zany spirit and a wild feel. There is not attempt to contain Pan here, just a feeling of being along on a very rambunctious ride. This suits the subject beautifully, giving space to the large personality of Pan. The graphic novel format also works very nicely with retelling Greek myths, keeping them brief and showing rather than telling a lot of the action.

The illustrations of this picture book/graphic novel are done in loud colors with lots of action and movement. Pan almost flies off the page in some sections, particularly when creating panic personally. The illustrations match the subject, offering a loud and cheery look at this wild God.

I am hoping this is not the only Greek God book that Gerstein does, since this book works so well and offers a very approachable and funny look at Pan. Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.

 

Review: Mouse Bird Snake Wolf by David Almond

| Tasha

mouse bird snake wolf

Mouse Bird Snake Wolf by David Almond, illustrated by Dave McKean

From the author and illustrator who brought us The Savage comes this new book.  Three children, Harry, Sue and Little Ben, live in a world that is calm and lovely, but also incomplete.  They look around and see gaps where objects or things could be, but are not.  Up above, the gods are sleeping.  They are quite proud of the world they have created and spend lots of time bragging about what they have already done.  None of them are interested in creating anything new or filling any of the empty spaces.  The children though do have the drive to do just that.  So they create creatures out of twigs and leaves and dirt.  Their ideas start small but quickly grow to a frightening level.  Can anything be done once a thing is created?

Almond is not afraid to head right to the strangeness that keeps others at bay.  In fact, that’s right where he takes readers: to those dark and dangerous spots that others steer from.  Here he comes at that place through a mythological tale of bored gods and sparklingly intense children.  From the title alone, you know there is danger ahead, but what a ride it is! 

McKean takes those dark ideas and makes them visible to all.  Lest we think that Almond is speaking in broad terms and using metaphors, McKean’s art makes it all completely real and tangible.  Done in sharp angles and lean faces, there is a marvelous hunger throughout these images that shows in the eyes and postures.  It’s such an ideal fit for the story. 

Dark and dangerous, this book is not for everyone.  Fans of Almond and McKean though should cheer this new book from the team.   And once you start, I dare you to be able to look away!  Appropriate for ages 8-12. 

Reviewed from library copy.