Corydon and the Island of Monsters (Corydon Trilogy)
Grade 7-9–Not to be confused with Virgils or Gides, this shepherd boy is a goat-leg misfit, a scapegoat, and an outcast rejected by his mother. He finds an unlikely surrogate in Medusa when he rescues her (immune to her glance) from a freak show. With her newborn baby and two immortal (and bizarre) Gorgon sisters, they form an odd family, underscoring the theme of maternal love and acceptance. A hero needs a quest, so Corydon and a handful of monsters (Sphinx, Minotaur, Lamia, et al) are pitted against Perseus and a ragtag loser-army. Its difficult to work up alarm, since Medusa can petrify unlimited numbers, but Perseus gets help from Zeus (a despicable character here) and beheads her. The best scenes are those in the underworld: pace and imagination pick up in these Dante-esque episodes. Otherwise, the occasional glances at social satire, the number of two-dimensional characters, some obscure poetic references, difficult diction (bonhomiously), and lack of focus work against this first novel.–Patricia D. Lothrop, St. Georges School, Newport, RICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.