Athena the Brain (Goddess Girls)

by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

I love this series. Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams are amazing at fracturing myths and legends. This is no exception to that. The Goddess Girls series are lighthearted, quirky reads featuring Greek myths and legends. Using the framework of the myths we know and love, Holub and Williams, twist these into tween friendly novels emphasising friendship and family.

In this one, Athena finds out she is the daughter of Zeus and has been invited to attend Mount Olympus Academy - the school where her dad is a principal. Athena leaves behind her mortal foster family and ascends to Mount Olympus where she meets other Goddess girls and boys and learns about her heritage and finds where she belongs. I was amused by the creative elements the authors came up with like the new classes Athena takes (Beauty-ology, Beast-ology, Hero-ology, Spell-ology and Revenge-ology), the history of the mortal inventions (the rake, the ship and the olive) and the reason behind the Trojan Wars (it was a class assignment!). I liked Athena. She was thrown in the deep end of a new family, new friends and a new school but she works hard to keep on top of her schoolwork and to put herself out there and make the best of an unusual situation. It's definitely aimed at middle grade but there's enough there to amuse older readers if not taken too seriously.

My own personal rating would be 3 stars. But for the target audience 4.5