On Christmas Eve, three little knights guard their castle
against a red-and-white invader: Santa Claus!
Visit illustrator Scott Magoon’s site for his holiday playlist
and a peek at his preliminary sketches
Join
Joan Holub at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC for a celebration of The
Knights Before Christmas on September 26 (Saturday, 2pm). Castle
catapult games and snacks!
2 comments:
Hi! Me again. Don't worry, it's good stuff this time (well, mostly). I read two of your books for the first time, which is kinda lame, because I think they've been out for awhile now. Whatevs. I haven't been to the library in awhile, and lost the need for a good book since I discovered the Ascendance Trilogy and Netflix.
Anyways, I read Athena the... Proud was it? Great cover, btw. I could already tell it would be your scre-uh, modification/interpretation/kid-friendly version of Theseus and the Minotaur. Now, me being me, I didn't feel like Theseus deserved to be portrayed as nicely as he was, but that's just because he and Heracles win the Academy Award for being the top dishonorable, jerkiest, WORST heroes ever. And they're cousins. Go figure. Okay, so the cousin thing. I was kinda confused. I mean, I know that Heracles is Zeus's son (ahem, like almost every single other main character in this series, Artemis, Persephone, Ares, just to name a few) and in some versions of the myths, Theseus is Poseidon's son (which makes no sense, I know, since Poseidon is... the same age as all the student???) so that would make them cousins. But in your, um, I'll call it "kid-friendly" version, just to be nice, they're still cousins, yet, I... uh... very confused. I just think it would be better to make them... friends or something.
Skipping over that cousin confusion, how dare Athena feel jealous? They're... FREAKING... COUSINS!!! Geez, gal. Then again, I kinda hate Athena, because she dissed Percy... long story.
Haha, love how you made the boys sooo dense. But it doesn't really fit with the other books. Did boys like, change or something?
Anyway, I love how at the end, you squeezed in that little part about Euripides writing a play about him. I mean, the basic moral of "Hippolytus" is "Theseus is a jerk. The End." I mean, he goes off and has a bas- er, illegitimate child with Hippolyta/Antiope (I go with the first, it makes more sense), then ends up killing the unlucky dude because, well, Theseus is a jerk. "Great king and will serve his country honorably" or something like that, I don't exactly remember. Did you research the guy?! Cassandra's first not-fortune was closer to the truth! But, again, whatevs. Kids need their happy endings. This was an... okay book. I didn't like it as much as, say, Aphrodite the Diva. But that's just me, because I also hate Aphrodite (even more than Athena), and I loved how you started it with her FAILING a class. Oooh, BURN, APHRODITE!!!
Part 2:
Okay, to the better part. I also read "Ares and the Spear of Fear." Gosh, how I love this series so much! I don't remember what I put in my last comment about this series, but long stuff short, it's amazing! The characters are better, the plots are better, the mythological accuracy is better, EVERYTHING is better!
Moving on... hahahahaaa. Apollo's poetry is as hilarious as ever. Love it. Gosh, Apollo and Ares are, like, the two best thing that happened! They're SO FUNNY!!! Even though Ares and Apollo, like, shouldn't exist in the reign of the Titans, I'm so glad you included them! Gosh, I'm not sure who's my favorite, Apollo or Ares. They're both hysterical!
Spear of Fear, oh my gosh!! That's so funny!!! How the spear is actually afraid of stuff!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!
I like how you bring out Ares's kinder nature (assuming he actually has one). I like how thoughtful he seemed when he was talking to the spear (<--what?), and how he actually seemed to be... a person. I just feel that in GG, boys are just... there. Kinda like an accessory, they're just... there. No personality, nothing really that makes them... them. Here, it's like the opposite. Everyone has a personality that is unique to themselves. They face challenges, but actually learn from them. It's more than just kids gossipping. I love everything about this series, this book! Except...
GRRR... Athena. I should've known. Well, she's got to nose her way into EVERYTHING, right?! I mean, come on!!! Just... out of nowhere, she appears?! No fair! Great!!! She's probably going to jeapordize this series now, like she did the last one! It makes no sense for her to show up! Hey, what about Apollo? He's missing his twin sister for... years! Heck, it makes more sense for DIONYSUS to show up before Athena. Not really, but come on? I would've thought, given the fact that Apollo was found first, Artemis would be coming along pretty soon after. I hope her entrance is better than A-pee-na (haha, I like that). Could she have had a lamer entrance. "Hi, I'm Athena, and I'm the goddess of wisdom, because you dumba**** really need it right now." They call Aphrodite the diva, but Athena is always, ALWAYS the MC!!! It's not fair, how she's always involved in everything about everything, especially when Artemis is obviously better. Ughh... I really hope Artemis comes along soon. I also really hope A-pee-na's limbs are decapitated from her, and Poseidon smashes her and her STUPID OLIVES to the mouth of a great white shark!!!!!
Great job, besides that!
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