From National Book Award finalist Katherine Marsh: Percy Jackson meets The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy in this fantastical adventure about Ava, who attends a boarding school for the descendants of Greek monsters and uncovers a terrible secret that could change the world forever.
Ava Baldwin has always tried to keep her anger in check, just like her mom taught her. But when know-it-all classmate Owen King tries to speak over her yet again, Ava explodes . . . and Owen freezes, becoming totally unresponsive.
Although Owen recovers, Ava's parents whisk her off to her mother’s alma mater, the Accademia del Forte, a mysterious international boarding school in Venice. There, Ava and her brother, Jax, discover that the Olympian gods founded the Accademia to teach the descendants of mythological monsters how to control their emotions and their powers and become functioning, well-adjusted members of society.
But not everything at the Accademia is as it seems. After her friend Fia is almost expelled for challenging a teacher, Ava realizes the school is hiding a dangerous secret. To uncover the truth, Ava and her new friends embark on an adventure that could change the way they view history, mythology—and themselves—forever…or end their lives. ---from the publisher
288 pages 978-0063303744 Ages 8-12
Keywords: fantasy and magic, adventure, friends, mythology, monsters, boarding school, secrets, 8 year old, 9 year old, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old
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Middle school is a tough place especially when you don't really know who you are. Ava faced off with a bully or two at her school until they day she froze a boy. Yes, froze him. How do you explain that to yourself? How much power does each of us hold- especially the girls?
Ava and her brother Jax are about to find themselves enrolled in a whole new school. They have no idea what they're walking into but it doesn't take long for them to get the picture. We all know the gods and goddesses of mythology. But, how much do you know about the monsters and what exactly are you going to do when you find out that your mother is a monster and so are you?
We're not talking about the fear we all have that there is something dark and wrong with us. We're talking legit monster here.
Venice is the home of the Accademmia where Ava and Jax' mother went to school and now she has sent both of them there to follow in her footsteps, It was time.
Ava quickly makes a friend of an outspoken girl named Fia who constantly defies the "norms" of believing that the male gods were the powerful, wise ones and the female goddesses should be easily ignored.
And then it happens... Fia goes too far and her voice is taken from her. Is there any way to restore it? An epic adventure awaits. A band of monsters who are kids is about to dedicate themselves and their emerging powers to fighting back against Zeus and friends to go in search of the story of Medusa to get Fia's voice restored.
I have a book of mythology that I love. It has a page for each god or goddess. That book doesn't touch the knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology that this book throws at you. This lady knows her stuff and weaves it into an adventure that leads the friends to meet Hecate, to descend into Tartarus where no god wants to go and to find tiny Hestia tending the fire that lights the world. Using their brains and their loyalty and their monstrous abilities, they decide to fight for the voice and the rights of women. They decide to fight against something even more powerful than Zeus- fear.
An adventure bathed in loyalty, and hope and the determination to raise the voices of women everywhere and it finds the barriers inside each of us, that hold us back, and offers a new version of the world.
Powerful stuff.
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
