Comments | fashion_piranha: Review: Atticus of Rome and Pandora of Athens, both by Barry Denenberg

fashion_piranha

Review: Atticus of Rome and Pandora of Athens, both by Barry Denenberg

Feb 01, 2009 20:56

I'm doing a double-book review today of the first two books of the Life and Times Series by Scholastic. Put together by the same team who created the My America, My Name is America, and Royal Diaries series, this particular set of childrens' books focuses on people who lived during the ancient civilizations. I believe the series has since been ( Read more... )

greece, barry denenberg, 2004, athens, historical fiction, gladiators, fiction, socrates, rome, slavery, children’s fiction, 4th century bc, life and time series, 1st century bc, r2009

Comments 7

forever_meg February 3 2009, 10:05:03 UTC

That's a shame. He wrote some of the Dear America books and I loved them. Though getting curious and looking, he didn't write any of my favorites at least!

fashion_piranha February 3 2009, 16:44:04 UTC

That's what I thought. I saw these books and thought "Hey! He wrote at least one of the Royal Diaries series, and that was fun! I bet these'll be cool, too!" Then after I read these, I went back to BookCrossing to see what I'd said about the other books he wrote...and it turns out I said that his story about Elisabeth of Bavaria was the weakest, dullest book in the whole series!

So which books did you like in the Dear America series? I've started to collect those in hopes of reading them this summer.

caramel_lunacy February 3 2009, 13:19:02 UTC

Actually if he was born 82 BC and it's set in 30 BC, wouldn't he be in his 50s?

fashion_piranha February 3 2009, 16:38:47 UTC

Yes. Yes he would. Apparently I'm just as bad at math as Mr. Denenberg. Of course, this could explain why I'm not a published author!

mindlikeasieve February 3 2009, 16:39:56 UTC

Oh dear. That is rather depressing. I've never actually ever read any of the Dear America series, but they are VERY popular at the libraries I've worked at.

Maybe Denenberg should have written them as Sci-fi/Fantasy and had characters going back in time from modern day. Then maybe he would have been able to get his dates correct and written a female character who could actually do something while highlighting the fact that Athenian girls couldn't.

greek girls laotahn February 4 2009, 01:55:04 UTC

Well, if you're trying to rewrite the myth of Pandora, how else are you going to do it?

Besides, the endlessly whining protagonist who can't do anything sells copy these days. Look at Twilight.

Re: greek girls fashion_piranha February 4 2009, 03:05:42 UTC

It's not a re-write of Pandora's myth, though; it's just some Greek girl who happens to be named after her.