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Young readers book reviews for ages 8 to 12 years old




*Pandora Gets Vain* by Carolyn Hennesy- young readers book review
 
Also by Carolyn Hennesy:

Pandora Gets Jealous
Pandora Gets Vain
by Carolyn Hennesy
Ages 9-12 288 pages Bloomsbury USA August 2008 Hardcover    

OMG! Pandy and her friends Alcie and Iole are back in another heart-stopping adventure. Readers of the Mythic Miss-Adventure series and/or those familiar with Greek mythology will remember that Pandora is the one responsible for opening the box filled with all the evils that could plague mankind, letting them loose into the world to wreak havoc upon us all.

Zeus, the all-powerful King of Olympus, has given Pandy one chance to redeem herself:
“…recapture, within six months’ time, every evil plague that had escaped, no matter where it was, no matter how dangerous.”
If she fails, everyone related to her will be punished.

Pandy and friends set off across the ocean to Egypt to capture Vanity, but will they even live long enough to see the shores of Alexandria? A monster storm threatens to destroy their ship and everyone on board – a storm that Pandy soon realizes was cooked up by Hera, the wife of Zeus and Pandy’s greatest enemy.

Luckily, Pandy has her clever and talented old friends with her, plus a new friend – a really cute guy named Homer, who has been charged with protecting the girls as they travel. They’ll certainly need all this help and more. With the aid of a little magic from Athena, Pandy manages – barely - to save them all from the storm.

But Hera loves the idea of sending Pandy to the bottom of the sea for eternity, so her next storm is something new, never before tried and thoroughly destructive. No matter how hard Pandy tries to do the right thing, Hera is always on her heels with an evermore devious and dangerous plot.

Author Carolyn Hennesy crafts a charming and sophisticated tale full of non-stop action and witty dialog. Pandy, Alcie, Iole and Homer are remarkably well drawn, each of them full of personality and life that transcends the pages.

Peripheral characters, too, come alive in Hennesy’s skillful hands, each serving a well-integrated purpose in the plot while standing out as vividly as the main characters. The Egyptian setting adds a new dimension, comparing and contrasting mythologies from different times and places in a fun yet educational way.

According to the publisher, this book is aimed at the 8 to 12 year old reader, but Pandora Gets Vain is so full of cunning allusions and clever connections that it never reads like anything other than a highly entertaining and skillfully wrought mainstream novel. Teachers would do well to add this series to the Required Reading List for students, by the way, to introduce world mythologies and encourage further exploration by of mythology.
 
Young readers book reviews for ages 8 to 12 years old

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