HEROES IN TRAINING Series

I finished a reread of the Heroes in Training series yesterday, then went on to finally read for the first time books 11-14. I'd had 11 since December 2015 and it just sat there unread. I'm not sure why I didn't pick it up. Then I finally got 12 when it was really on sale this past March. Almost a year after it was released in April 2016! I picked it up right before 13 came out in April 2017. Yes, there was actually a year-long lag with the series. Readers thought it had gotten cancelled and ended early, but a new writer came in for 13 and now 14, which just released this past Tuesday.

Heroes in Training is for a younger set than Goddess Girls. It's grades 1-4/ages 6-9 rather than grades 3-7/ages 8-12. So the books are a lot shorter and less detailed.

Remember how the first rule of Goddess Girls is "Do not expect accurate Greek mythology?" Yeah, that goes tenfold for this. Because all 14 Olympians are ten years old at the same time. Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia, Hades and Demeter all know they're children of Cronus and Rhea, but there's never any mention of parents for the others. Except Aphrodite, who's born from the bubbles. Apollo and Artemis are still twins, but no parents mentioned.

Unlike Goddess Girls, there are very few retellings of actual myths in these pages. They did tackle Eris's golden apple though. Spoiler: Helen's a puppy they're fighting over.

The main plot is Zeus trekking around with his Olympian crew, trying to locate all the Olympians and each one's magic object or weapon while battling the army of Cronus (known as the Cronies), various Titans and monsters called Creatures of Chaos.

It's a pretty fun series with a lot of lighthearted bantering, fighting bad guys, etc. Definitely aimed more at the boys than the girls, because you never see a female Olympian get a title on these books. A Titan will get the title over a female, which is kind of sucky, because they play huge roles, especially Hera and later on, Athena.

The only thing that really drove me nuts happened in the 13th book with the new writer. She calls Bellerophon "Bellephoron" so she can shorten his name to Ron. I'm sorry, but if kids can be reading Poseidon since book 2 and then Hephaestus and Dionysus, they can read Bellerophon. I read his name just fine when I was five.

There appear to be two more books in the series, which should be the final two, as the plot is drawing to a close. All the Olympians have been gathered, all the magical objects have been found or created (there was a nice nod to Hermes making Apollo's lyre), so all that's left is to have the final battle!

I recommend the series for those that really dig Greek myth and don't get too freaked out over a completely inaccurate version of events. Goddess Girls is the far better series, but this one's fun and has really great art to boot.