Author: Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
Illustrator: N/A
© Date: 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Inc
Pages: 137
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: none
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: no
Summary from Book: Persephone’s tired of pleasing everyone else…
As Persephone’s mother encourages her to do, she often “goes along to get along” instead of doing what she really wants. but when she meets Mount Olympus Academy bad-boy Hades, she finally feels she has found someone with whom she can be herself. He’s the first person who actually listens to her, and she finds herself liking him, despite the fact that the other goddessgirls think he’s bad news. But if he makes her feel so special-and so comfortable-can he really be all that bad?
Authors Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams put a modern spin on classic myths with the Goddesss Girls series. Follow the ins and outs of diving social life at Mount Olympus Academy, where the most privileged godboys and goddessgirls in the Greek pantheon hone their mythical skills.
Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this awhile ago.
Page Pig Thoughts: This series is a fun way to dip your toes into mythology without dealing with the scarier sides of it. That being said, I chose this book to review because it was the scariest of the ones that I read. But even then, it wasn’t too bad. The Underworld is the Underworld though, so that brings it’s own scare factor.
The Goddess Girls series deals heavily in who is crushing on who, and that isn’t just because Aphrodite is one of the main characters. For the most part, everyone at Mount Olympus Academy accepts everyone else regardless of being pulled from an ocean or born from an insect mother. I appreciated the Medusa story that we read because she was usually used as the antagonist, but in her story, we see what makes her tick and that maybe she really isn’t evil.
My biggest complaint is that there isn’t a pronunciation guide. The Little Goddess Girls have a pronunciation guide and a summary of the mythology that the story is based on, so I was disappointed that this series does not have that.
Page Pup gives these a thumb up. These were enjoyable enough that we read several, but weren’t so into them that we attempted to read every single one. Which is a good thing, there are lots.
Family Unit: Persephone lives at home with her mother
Conflict/Social Issues:
- Persephone says her mother is a “chariot mom” (meaning helicopter mom) that won’t give her much freedom.
- Persephone doesn’t feel like herself most of the time because she is just going along with what everyone else says and does. She doesn’t feel like anyone really knows her.
- Persephone’s friends think Hades is bad news.
- Godboys and goddessgirls do not think nice things about Hades because he is from the Underworld.
Positive Items:
- Turns out where you are from does not determine what you are like, even if you are from the Underworld.
- Persephone’s friends like her for who she is, even if she is not always going along to get along.
Items of Interest:
- Persephone goes along with whatever her friends want to do, even if it isn’t anything that interests her.
- Persephone finds peace in the cemetery.
- Hades does not always go to school, but he does get bullied when he is there.
- Hades enjoys hanging out with Zeus at lunchtime.
- The other goddessgirls are concerned about Persephone, so they tell her mother about Hades. Persephone finds out and gets upset.
- Persephone runs away from home to the Underworld. When Hades finds out, he sends her back home.
- Persephone finally has an open conversation with her mother and is given some space to try things her way.
- Persephone discovers that her friends will still like her for who she is, she just needs to let her own opinions and ideas out sometimes.
- Persephone and Hades go to the school dance together. Hades, Persephone and her friends manage to diffuse an uncomfortable situation when some godboys do not want Hades to come in.
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- Looks like around 30 or more books are in this series