January 1, 2020
An ancient Greek preteen on the verge of flunking school gets a chance to sail with Odysseus. Given but 10 days to compose an epic yarn as a class project or be expelled, despairing young Homer finds himself transported into the recent past along with Dory, an enslaved friend with a secret, to the dark and smelly belly of a big wooden horse. That's only the first stop on a wild string of encounters with drug-dealing lotus-eaters, cannibal Laestrygonians, dead spirits, vicious storms ("We were hosed. There was no getting around it. Making the gods mad was a really bad idea"), and, of course, monsters galore. Recording it all as he goes on an unusually capacious magic scroll, Homer picks up pointers about word choice and grammar, selection of detail ("I'd add more gory details, but it might not be appropriate"), character development, and other writerly skills with much blatantly editorial prodding from Dory. Hoover leaves out the Telemachus and Penelope plotlines but otherwise follows the Odyssey's general course before closing with happy endings for Homer and Dory both, plus appended lists of people and places, a disquisition on dactylic hexameter, and (for some reason) a recipe for hardtack. Homer presents white, as does Dory, but notes early on that Odysseus and his "guys" all have dark skin, "the color of ebony." Final art not seen. Awesome reading that will be most particularly appreciated by those already familiar with the original. (map) (Epic fantasy. 11-13)
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April 10, 2020
Gr 4-7-An origin story for the ages takes readers on an epically hilarious adventure. Meet Homer, a lackluster 11-year-old student in Ancient Greece. He's on the brink of flunking out of school, which for him is more than just embarrassing. His father has been missing for years, and if Homer can't stay in school, the mayor will repossess his family farm and take Homer and his mom as slaves. Homer's only hope is to complete his teacher's final assignment and bring him a scroll filled with an amazingly epic story, in dactylic hexameter no less. Homer doesn't even know where to begin until a chance meeting with the god Hermes magically transports him and his enslaved friend Dory straight inside the Trojan Horse. There they meet the legendary Odysseus and his crew, with whom they will travel through the action of "The Odyssey." Along the way, Homer grows as a storyteller and as a friend. Quick chapters replete with snappy, anachronistic humor make this an entertaining, laugh-out-loud adventure. Delightfully cheeky moments abound, like when the group has journeyed to the underworld for help and prophet Tiresias declares, "You done messed up, Odysseus." Despite the groan-worthy hijinks, Hoover weaves in an impressive amount of detail that readers familiar with the epic will appreciate, while those new to "The Odyssey" might find this a comfortable start that will provide helpful scaffolding before diving into more serious editions. VERDICT Recommend to fans of Percy Jackson, epic stories, and mythology looking for new fodder with a twist.-Darla Salva Cruz, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
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