In the world of Greek mythology retelling, I’m having to get used to the idea that authors will take liberties with the stories. In principle, I’m not even opposed to hearing from the other side, hey some retellings from the baddie’s point of view turn out fabulous.
The inconsistency nettles me though, while famously bad dog Cerberus is Medusa’s puppy, Cassandra is one of the mean Champions who tease and bully Medusa. I’m not sure where Collins is getting his information, but in every version I know Cassandra is cursed, an outcast and treated as though she is crazy. Not exactly the girl I’d cast in the mean girl part (Helen, anyone?) The Minotaur (also evil) is Medusa’s friend, but so is Chiron (generally represented on the side of good).
While this book is set up to look like a beginning chapter book, with illustrations throughout, the vocabulary and background knowledge aren’t necessarily in line with this. With words like pulsating, terrain, petrified, harrowing and disembodied, I think you’d need a fairly advanced primary grades student to understand. An entire joke about how the Minotaur lives in a house like a labyrinth will be lost on most readers because they won’t know the story of the Minotaur and plus, Collins never even says it’s a maze, just describes it. Great if you want parents chuckling, not so much if you want kids to laugh.
And of course, then there’s the ending (which from what I can tell annoyed more than a few reviewers). It’s pat. It goes against the whole rest of the book. And it’s done in pictures not words.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – A peck on the cheek.
Profanity – Made their lives a living “Hades” rather than hell, “Shut up,” “horse’s bum,” “carnies” which is a kind of unfortunate slur of carnival folk. There’s somewhat relentless name calling on both sides. It seems to be the characters’ main way of expressing that they don’t get along. Since the name calling is done both by the protagonists and their enemies, it’s hard to say anyone is choosing the higher ground, or more deserving of your respect.
Death, Violence and Gore – Medusa can turn people to stone. The hairdresser snips off a snake head, blood is seen dripping from his scissors. The snakes attack him biting his hands. A teacher carries a pocketknife.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Miss Medea can’t get Medusa’s name right and one of the names she calls her is Madeira.
Frightening or Intense Things – Some children will be scared of snake hair, although the illustrations definitely aim for humor not fear. Medusa and friends hear screaming in the night.
I’m a mom, not a teacher, but for my kids interesting words made them more likely to read the book, even at a very low reading level. My older kid learned to read in his own way, and I’m still not sure he looks at the inside of words, but he always had a big vocabulary. Maybe books like this are better for reading at home where you can just shout out if you need help with a word’s meaning.
I think the inaccuracies of the legends would have bothered him more than the tough vocabulary in second grade. Thanks for the review — you do a good job of describing what we’d like or dislike in a book.
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