| Booktalk
#1
Siphnos is bathed in blood
and fire. Once again my home has been snatched from me. If
not for my goddess, I too would be part of that blood bath. My goddess
gave me courage to jump from the cliff into the water. She gave me
will and strength to snatch an octopus from the sea and plant it firmly
on my head and the voice to shout into the winds, “I am Medusa! Look
upon me and die!” This curse struck terror in the bloodthirsty pirates
and they left my desolate island home. What will become of an orphan
on an island where nothing lives? Has my goddess given me a blessing
or a curse?
Prepared by: Samantha McManus
for South Carolina
Junior Book Award 2005
Booktalk #2
Goddess of Yesterday is the
story of Anaxandra who lives on an island in the Aegean Sea. When
she is six years old, she is taken by a king from a neighboring island.
Her job is to be a companion to his daughter Princess Callisto. Six
years later when Anaxandra is twelve, she is the sole survivor of the island
after pirates attack she island where she has been living. A group
of ships led by Menelaus, king of Sparta, comes to investigate. Anaxandra
decides to impersonate Princess Callisto in order to avoid being taken
as a slave. Menelaus is kind to Anaxandra, but his wife Helen is
self-centered
and suspicious of this red-headed child that her husband brought home.
Read Goddess of Yesterday to find out how Anaxandra becomes involved in
a war between two countries, to discover if Anaxandra is able to keep her
true identity a secret, and whether Anaxandra ever finds a place she can
call home. (Karen Williamson, williakw@pickens.k12.sc.us,
Pickens High School, Pickens, South Carolina) |
