Starred review from January 21, 2008
Harry Potter meets Edith Hamilton in this cheeky rendition of Pandora's famous faux pas, first in the Mythic Adventures series. Prometheus's daughter, Pandora, sneaks the notorious box of evils out of hiding rather than bring her father's boring old eagle-eaten liver to a student competition at the Athena Maiden Middle School, where she accidentally opens it and releases the plagues of humanity. Sentenced by Zeus to retrieve them, Pandora is aided by secret gifts from some gods and goddesses who, as Hermes tells her, remember their own youthful mistakes: “A little petty thievery, a few unrequited loves, people mistakenly transformed into animals or trees or hideous monsters. Things we're not proud
of, all right?” Pandy, accompanied by two stricken friends, finds her way to the Oracle at Delphi and gets Jealousy back. Aspiring Hellenists will appreciate Hennesy's informed liberties with her topic, and novices will be not only fine but possibly inspired to go further. Debut novelist Hennesy's Hollywood comedian background shows in her witty juxtapositions of modern popular culture and classical Greek legend: her work is rife with mythic creatures (dryads, satyrs, gorgons), magic (a talking diary, winged flying shoes, shape-shifting) and lively dialogue (“ 'Hey, sorry about the light,' Hermes said. 'Standard procedure. Zeus wants everyone to be terribly afraid when I appear whether it's good news or bad; but that kind of thinking is sooooo Bronze Age, right?' ”). Accurate where it counts, this loosely interpreted myth rarely misses a comic twist. Ages 9-12.