“Mythology” becomes “Mirthology” in this hilariously revisionist account of the war between the Greek gods and the Titans. Outraged by the version of events promulgated by his boastful little brother Zeus in The Big Fat Book of Greek Myths, Hades enlists a (what else?) ghost writer to help set the record straight. True, Sky Daddy Cronus did eat his children Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Poseidon, but it was their mother Rhea, not Zeus, who supplied the herbs that made Cronus finally barf them up. Similarly, when the gods needed help against Team Titan in the Olympic Games’ climactic kickstone match, it was Hades who not only sprung allies from an underworld jail, but saved the day again when mighty Typhon attacked. And how did Zeus repay the debt? By cheating Hades out of Rulership of the Universe in a crooked poker game. Is it any wonder that Hades took a gig in the Underworld—“It’s my job to make sure that the ghosts of those who were good in life get to go to an eternal rock concert. . . . The ghosts of the not so good? They have to wander around, trying to memorize an endless list of really hard spelling words. And the ghosts of the wicked? You don’t want to know”—to escape all of his squabbling sibs? The disgruntled deity promises more exposés (“ ‘I think I’ll call it Phone Home, Persephone!’ ”) to come. The sooner the better. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7868-0857-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
Alice, 12, has been asked to care for little cousin Amy at Aunt Kate's summer home while her aunt paints. Almost immediately upon arrival, Alice tells a lie—a relatively innocent one, intended only to make her seem more interesting, but it leads to another, and then to more lies to cover them up.... The cumulative weight of these lies bears down intolerably on Alice (and the reader). At last, after Amy is lost in a storm (and found), Alice finds release by confessing her deceptions to Aunt Kate, her grandmother, and the neighbors, and discovers that they accept the person she really is; she also realizes that she's glad to be herself. Poor Alice seems a bit young and inexperienced to be spending so much time caring for Amy; she also seems horribly preoccupied by her lying. One wonders what she thinks will happen if her aunt finds out she didn't win second place in a school art contest, or if the eccentric elderly neighbor finds out she's pushing the planchette on the Ouija board. Why does such morbid dread afflict the child? This debut has some glimmers of promise, but it's an uncomfortable read, despite the happy end. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: May 31, 1993
ISBN: 0-02-767702-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
The first title in Lerner's new ``Runestone'' imprint is an only slightly revised reprint of a 1971 publication—a fact mentioned nowhere in the book—with more readable layout but mostly recycled b&w illustrations (except for a photo of demonstrators protesting the Rodney King verdict). This sweeping survey of the Arab and European slave trade, sandwiched between brief accounts of slavery in the ancient world and the abolition of trade in African captives (at least to the Americas) is written largely in generalities (``The Underground Railroad was risky but full of adventure''). Wide-ranging and usable but drab, especially compared to Meltzer's All Times, All Peoples (1980) or Hamilton's Many Thousand Gone (p. 147). Index. (Nonfiction. 11- 13)
Pub Date: June 9, 1993
ISBN: 0-8225-3150-X
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Lerner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1993
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