American Girl of the Year: Lanie

2010's Girl of the Year was Lanie, who is all about becoming a scientist and exploring nature.

Lanie's big problem in the first book is that her family all have "inside genes" while she has "outdoor genes." She's fascinated by nature and loves being outside, while her family prefers indoor activities. Her older sister is a cellist and spends hours practicing. Her younger sister is afraid of bugs and dislikes dirt. Her mother is an architect, although you can see where Lanie gets some of her out of the box ideas from, because her mom is definitely not your typical architect. And her father is a philosophy professor, but all he really does in her books is cook. I like her family, though the little sister can be annoying, but they're just kinda there. Except one: Aunt Hannah is an ornithology student and she lives in a camper and basically has Lanie's dream life. She's pretty cool.

Lanie's best friend Dakota is off in Indonesia, while her parents study the rainforest there. Dakota's getting to work with orangutans a lot and Lanie is ENVIOUS.

Lanie and Aunt Hannah decide to turn the backyard into a monarch habitat, vegetable and herb garden, and local wildflower garden. This is frowned upon by their new snooty neighbor, who thinks everything has to look just right for her properly values blah blah blah. She also has a cat that worries Lanie and Emily, the little sister who's slowly getting interested in outdoor things.

Aunt Hannah gets Lanie into birdcalls and bird-watching and then leaves for Costa Rica on a surprise trip to fill in for an injured researcher. Lanie is devastated, but spends the rest of the book trying to finish the gardens, learn more about birds, get over being envious of Dakota, enjoy her own accomplishments, get her sister outdoors more, and make peace with the bitchy neighbor.

Lanie's second book takes place during summer and opens with the family going camping, which Lanie's been bugging them to do. Aunt Hannah has returned from Costa Rica and Dakota should be coming home pretty soon.

Lanie and Aunt Hannah dig up the front yard and plan to increase the monarch habitat, but bitchy neighbor complains. She gives Lanie some time to figure out how to make it look nice again or she's going to officially complain.

Lanie's taking a gardening class and meets Nicholas there, who becomes a new friend. He's filled with nature facts, too, and specializes in ladybugs.

At this class, Lanie learns about natural pest deterrents for plants and begins a crusade to help bitchy neighbor not spray pesticides where they might blow onto her family's food or kill the monarchs. She eventually learns aphids are eaten by ladybugs, so she collects a bunch to put on the neighbor's precious roses, and at the end, they finally make peace when they learn about decoy plants that attract aphids to keep them away from the roses. Lanie's going to plant those in her front yard.

Dakota returns home and becomes involved in Lanie's garden festival. I wish she was in the book more. She seems like one of the cooler best friends, but most of her appearances are via emails.

I like Lanie's books. They're really not like any of the past girls' stories. Lanie has the same sort of zest for life and big ideas that Lindsey does, but that's about the closest comparison I can make. I like anything that shows girls being involved in scientific and educational pursuits, not just sports sports sports over and over. The main flaw is what I've already mentioned: that Lanie carries the books mostly by herself with minor help from Aunt Hannah and often faraway Dakota. She doesn't have a strong supporting cast at all. But despite that, these are still an enjoyable read.

American Girl of the Year: Chrissa

Chrissa is 2009's Girl of the Year. She's the anti-bullying one. Chrissa was a bit different in that her doll was released alongside two best friend dolls, something that's never been done since.

I really wish we'd gotten some of the other girls' friends. I don't mind Sonali and Gwen, but I would have loved Sarita from Jess's book, for example.

Chrissa has just moved in with her grandmother, who claimed her house was too big for just her after her husband's death. So here come Chrissa, her older brother Tyler, their doctor mom and potter dad.

Chrissa immediately has to deal with bullying in school. It happens directly to her when her valentines are stolen and it happens to Gwen in front of Chrissa.

Things only get worse and even take on a physical form. Chrissa is stabbed in the back by someone's mechanical pencil and she has to push the lead out of her skin in the girls' room. Gwen has her bangs chopped off by Tara, the queen bully.

Throughout the book, Chrissa is afraid to tell anyone what's happening. I understand this lesson, because it can be hard to tell, but at the same time, JUST FUCKING TELL SOMEONE. One of those little bitches friggin' stabbed you with a pencil, for fuck's sake.

Chrissa finally tells the truth, turns bully-lite Sonali into a friend, befriends formerly homeless Gwen, and the three get the bullies separated into different desk "clusters" at school.

Gwen's homelessness is a very minor plotline I wish they'd spent more time on.

I like both of Chrissa's parents and her grandmother, but her brother is not going to win any sibling awards anytime soon. He doesn't listen when Chrissa tells him Tara and Jadyn are mean girls. He even goes along with one of their plots and snaps her goggles on her face, leaving red marks behind. And his apology for that is not nearly sufficient enough. He's a dick.

And he continues to be kind of a dick in the second book. This time Chrissa faces off against him though and even becomes involved in some minor bullying herself, although it culminates in a more major accident.

Set in summer, Chrissa, Gwen and Sonali have become fast friends, but Tara is also showing signs of changing and Chrissa wants to give her a chance. The other two do not and they basically cut Chrissa out of their lives because she's willing to give Tara a chance to change. Dick move, you two. I can understand not wanting to hang with Tara, but don't cut Chrissa out because she's willing to let people change and you're less trusting.

There are instances of text bullying and cyber-bullying, both of which Gwen and Sonali think Tara is behind. Chrissa points out there's no evidence and they really turn against her. Chrissa turns out to be right though! Jadyn is the culprit, so they both have to suck it up and apologize for jumping to the wrong conclusions.

This book is more about how people can change and move forward in their lives, and how we need to try to give them a chance to make things right. But it's also about how easy it is to become caught up in bullying behavior, whether it's minor or not.

I remember liking these more when they came out, but now a decade later, I wasn't really feeling either. I like the characters okay, but not nearly as much as past GotYs. I actually ended up with the Chrissa doll, but it wasn't long before I sold her.

WTF is up with the illustrations for Sonali, too? She's way lighter in the art than her doll. The darkest she is is right there on the second book cover and that's still way lighter than the doll. SIGH.

So yeah, important message in these two books, but the execution hasn't held up, in my opinion. Kind of wondering why I liked these enough to buy the doll back then. Maybe I liked the movie better...

American Girl of the Year: Mia

2008's Girl of the Year is Mia, a figure skater. I didn't think I'd be into her books initially, but she comes from a hockey-loving family. She has three older brothers that play and both her parents work two jobs to get by. Mia herself helps out at the ice rink to help pay for her lessons and ice time. I can very easily get behind a close-knit family who knows the value of hard work and loves hockey.

Mia grew up playing hockey with her brothers, so they're all confused as to why she wants to do figure skating when she struggles with it, whereas she was a hockey natural. That's the majority of the conflict in the book, as well as Mia struggling against herself to gain confidence before the rink's Winter Show.

Mia's best friend Anya is adorable and for once, there's no best friend weirdness. The mean girl role is played by Vanessa and her sidekick Gemma, both spoiled wealthy girls.

The storyline moves right into the second book. Mia's coach mentions Regionals at the end of the first book and here we are later on when Regionals are almost here. Mia's big concern is that she's outgrown both her skating boots and her one skating dress. At the same time, the furnace has broken down for the last time and her mother has broken her leg, so their income is vastly diminished. The family uses a traditional coin flip to decide if they can send eldest brother Perry to his big hockey tournament or Mia to Regionals. Perry wins and Mia is upset, but recovers quickly.

Not long after, she's given a practically new pair of used boots by a couple of the rink employees, who consider her part of the family. She's also given the materials to make a new skating dress by a local fabric shop owner who Mia accidentally earned a bit of publicity for at the beginning of the book. Mia's coach helps her sew the outfit, while Mia and her mom put the finishing touches on it.

Then it's off to Regionals, where Mia, Anya and their mothers find themselves rooming with snotty Vanessa after there's some mix-up and she has no hotel room reserved. It's easy to see that Vanessa is the way she is because her parents are always too busy for her and they throw their power and money around to get what they want. But she grows a bit as a character before the end of the book.

Mia comes up against a new rival, a superstar skater named Paige, and has a couple clashes with her, but ends up performing her routine well enough to make her very happy. Paige ends up winning, but Anya earns second place, Mia fourth, and Vanessa fifth.

I really like Mia. Of the six girls we've met so far, Jess is the only one I like better and that's really more because of her character design and the setting of her books. Mia's a more well-rounded, well-written character. I love her family, she has no friend drama, and the stories feel very realistic. I almost got this doll a few times because I liked her books so much, but I never actually ended up with her.

American Girl of the Year: Nicki

In 2007, Nicki started a new trend for Girl of the Year books. Instead of just one, there would be two books. This would continue until 2014, when Isabelle would be the first to get three books.

Nicki's story is about her learning her limitations and learning how to say no to others. She doesn't start off well, because she agrees to help her pregnant mother train a service dog, constantly has to do the dishes and help her younger brother with math homework, gets roped into being on the decoration committee at school, and still has to do her ranch chores on top of all that.

I find her inability to say no annoying, but not nearly annoying as her mom. Like seriously, you can be on bed rest and help your son with math. It's not like that takes a lot of exertion. It's fucking second grade math. Yeesh. I also question whether an actual responsible adult would agree to take on a service dog, knowing she's pregnant with twins and would likely be dumping the majority of the work on her already overworked 10-year-old.

So yeah, not the most realistic premise of these books. And it wouldn't kill the dad to do the dishes once in a while either.

And the best friend character, Becca, is a bit needy for a fellow ranch girl who should have a lot of chores, too, but somehow is constantly going skiing.

A lot of the book is rather dull when it's not being annoying. Service dog training is great, but that doesn't make it fascinating to read about.

The second book deals with Nicki and her brother being upset over having to say goodbye to Sprocket the dog as he moves on to advanced training. This topic was as annoying as her inability to say no. Maybe moreso, because you freakin' KNEW going into this that you were only going to have him for a short time. Yes, I imagine it's quite difficult, but yelling at very pregnant mom is not the answer.

Nicki's main drama is actually a fight between her friends. In the first book, she starts to befriend Kris, one of the two rich girls she's working on the decorations with. Over the summer which happened before the second book, Becca has been gone and Nicki has spent a lot of time with Kris. Now that school's starting, Becca is back and she's not happy to learn that Nicki made a new friend. This is always an annoying trope. Learn to share, kid. The world does not revolve around you. they come together for Halloween and have fun, and Nicki ends up naming her new twin sisters after them...sort of: Rebecca and Kristine. Yeah, that won't haunt you years later when you stop being friends with these girls, Nicki. Way to go.

I remember thinking the doll for Nicki was pretty, but her books never would have made me want her. They're some of my least favorites of the entire GotY line.

American Girl of the Year: Jess

Ah, Jess. I really almost caved and got this doll in 2006. I ended up starting my adult AG collecting in 2007, once I moved to NYC and had access to the store, but I just missed Jess. My first doll was Ivy, who shares the same mold, and my second was a Girl of Today that looked almost exactly like Jess (who's still my favorite).

Loving the doll aside, Jess is one of my favorite GotYs, because her parents are archaeologists and her entire book takes place in Belize, some in the jungle and some on a dig site.

Jess is part Japanese and part Scottish/Irish. She wouldn't be the first multiracial Asian AG character. Kanani and Nanea, the Hawaiian American girls, are both part white as well. Ivy and Z are the only fully Asian AG characters. Ivy's a best friend and Z wasn't an official GotY. So as of yet, we have no full Asian Girl of the Year. I'm still waiting, AG.

Jess is a fun character. She's one of those that reacts more to what happens to her than shows a lot of her personal character. Like we know she likes soccer, but she doesn't show us that much of herself when it comes to personal details. We know nothing about her friends, for example. Which is fine, because going along with her on her adventures is great by me. She's certainly in a more interesting setting than California or Chicago, so I like seeing her react to her environment and its experiences. And boy, does she ever have experiences! 

American Girl of the Year: Marisol

2005's Girl of the Year was Marisol Luna, our first dancing GotY.

Marisol is from Chicago and she takes classes in ballet and ballet folklórico. She once took a jazz class, too, and she has interest in all different types.

Marisol's book is slice of life like Lindsey's, but she also faces a large problem, like Kailey. Her parents are moving them from a small apartment in the city to a house in the suburbs and aside from the usual worries about moving and leaving things behind, she worries because there's no dance studio out there.

I find this really annoying because never once do her parents, who seem pretty cool otherwise, acknowledge that Marisol's dancing is something she's Jessi Ramsey-level serious about. Instead it's up to Marisol herself to figure out a solution, which just happens to drop into her lap. Her upstairs neighbor happens to have a daughter who was a dancer and a teacher. So by the end, Marisol has convinced her to move to the same suburb and open a dance studio. Her school teacher, who also happens to be one of the dancer's former students, lives there, so the two will be rooming together. 

There's a brief incident with the cat going missing for a day, but Marisol's got her problems all wrapped up neatly.

She's a likeable character and the book isn't overly DANCE DANCE DANCE. It's much more regular life with a bit of dance terminology here and there. But I don't like how her parents treated her dancing and I don't like that things fell into place so simply. I mean, a happy ending is great and all, but this feels borderline fairytale or Hallmark movie ending.

American Girl of the Year: Kailey

Kailey was the Girl of the Year in 2003. I'd apparently completely forgotten that the earliest ones were not every year! Marisol is next in 2005 and then after that it becomes annual.

Anyway, Kailey is our first sporty GotY, as well as the first activist. Lindsey's book was very slice of life, even if it was a bit overly chaotic a life. Kailey's is about solving one particular problem.

Kailey is a surfer and beach-lover. Her favorite thing are the tide pools in her local cove. Her father paints seascapes and her mother is a marine biologist, so the entire family is on the same page. When a development project threatens to ruin the cove, Kailey is determined to save it, though she has to struggle against rude adults who don't think kids can do anything, people who prefer shopping to sealife, and her best friend, who's not the most likeable person. This is not the first annoying best friend we will meet in the GotY series.

Kailey's book is good, but not nearly as fun as Lindsey's. It certainly never made me want her doll or anything.

American Girl of the Year: Lindsey

2001 marked the beginning of American Girl's Girl of the Year line. Each year, one new character would be introduced and her doll would only be available for a single year. These girls were modern girls, not historical ones.

Lindsey Bergman was the first and she became the first Jewish American Girl character, years before Rebecca debuted.

Lindsey's book is the most wild ride in American Girl history. It was like they took every wacky incident they couldn't put into the historical girls and put them into Lindsey. She is the very definition of "act without thinking" and her book is one instance of crazy after another. I think it may have been too much for the AG people, because the author doesn't seem to have ever written another thing at all and none of the other GotY girls are anything like Lindsey.

I regret not reading this when it came out and I definitely regret not getting her doll. Someday, Lindsey! She's actually one of my favorite GotYs, because of her over the top take on life, her short hair, her love of dachshunds, and her bold-colored outfit.

REREAD REVIEW: Goddess Girls 5

This German cover shows the title "Homework for a Hero," which sums up the action of this book better than the original title of "Athena the Wise." But all the GG titles are that name-"the"-adjective format.

Athena's tasked by her dad to help Heracles, a new student at MOA, with his twelve labors. Turns out the labors were arranged by Zeus because he wanted some inspiration for decoration on his newest temple.

Athena's kind of all over the place in this book. She helps Heracles with some labors, but then takes a break to catch up on her homework and prepare for her weaving contest with rude mortal Arachne. I would have preferred it if she'd been able to help Heracles with more labors, because she really only goes along for Artemis's deer, the hydra, the boar and the stables, then helps with Cerberus and the final labor. Heracles does the lion, birds, bull, horses, cattle and apples by himself. I would have liked to have seen how Atlas ended up holding the sky, when he was actually a MOA student that went along with Heracles, instead of standing there holding up the sky the entire time. 

The ninth labor is the one they tweaked for the story. In the myth, it's getting the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. Athena could totally have helped with that and we could have met the Amazons. But instead they changed it to "win the favor of a strong girl." Heracles' strong girl is Athena, so they turned it into that to pair the two up. They're an odd couple, but they kinda work for the series. Not my fave couple, but far from the worst one, too.

Far more interesting to me is the small sideplot of Arachne. She's a total bitch to Athena, who gets angry and agrees to the weaving contest, then worries about it for several chapters, fearing she's overreacted. During the contest, Arachne picks an incredibly insulting theme for her weaving, which Athena destroys before turning Arachne into a spider. Then she worries again that she overreacted, which is annoying. Arachne deserved it. Like a lot. It raises an interesting question though, because Athena consults her Revenge-ology scroll on what to do and there's a chapter dealing with disrespect from mortals. Now does this apply to all mortals? Because Medusa is said to ace Revenge-ology every year, yet that doesn't stop her from being bitchy to immortals. Hmm! Ah, we'll see more of her in a few more books.

I've got one last international cover to share, another German one, so I'll be back with one more of these reread reviews. Then we'll see where I go from there. If I have additional comments on the books, I'll post more, but I know I wrote longer reviews the more I did them, so I may not have anything to add.

Books of Bayern 1: The Goose Girl

I read this series through once, having gotten it from the library, but I don't remember too much of it.

The Goose Girl introduces us to the world of Bayern, which is your basic fairy tale setting with kingdoms and princesses and giant gaps between the nobles and the commonfolk.

Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee is the firstborn daughter of Kildenree, a smaller kingdom separated from the much larger Bayern by mountains.

Ani is raised by her aunt, who teaches her how to speak to birds and other creatures. The aunt says there are three types of speakers: people-speakers (basically charismatic manipulators), animal-speakers and nature-speakers (very rare, these can speak with the elements). 

Ani forms a bond with her horse Falada and they can communicate telepathically. Her odd ways separate her from the rest of her family and draw negative attention from her mother. After her father's untimely death, Ani learns it's her younger brother that will be groomed to rule Kildenree, not her. She's being shipped off to Bayern, to marry their firstborn son in an alliance move. The Bayern have cut a pass through the mountains and a marriage alliance will help ensure Kildenree's safety.

On the long journey to Bayern, the elements of the original fairy tale unfold. Ani loses her mother's handkerchief with its three drops of blood and quickly realizes it was a simple token with no magical powers of protection. She is supplanted by her lady-in-waiting, the vicious, scheming Selia, who is a master people-speaker. Most of her guards side with Selia, except a few, who are killed, and Ani flees without Falada. 

She eventually finds her way to a house, where she's given rest and clothing by a woman and her son. The son takes her into the city on marketday and she approaches the king and is given a position as a goose girl. Her plan to reveal the plot against her is thwarted by the presence of Selia at the supplicant hearings and Ani's main goal is to find Falada, so she figures working for the palace will be a good start. Being skilled with languages, Ani has mastered the Bayern accent and she completes her disguise by hiding her blonde hair and dyeing her eyebrows with root juice. The Kildenreans are all fair, while the Bayern and surrounding folk are dark.

Ani slowly learns to be an excellent goose girl, while trying to learn more about her new surroundings. She finds Falada, only to see he's gone mad. She befriends Enna, a Forest girl who will star in the second book in the series. She also meets Geric, one of the prince's guards who comes to her field to see her day after day.

Her cover is eventually blown and the traitorous Kildenreans know she's in the city. Falada is killed and Ani pays for him to be given a decent burial, only to learn that in Bayern that means taxidermy. So she has to look at his head mounted near her fields every day. During her visits to Falada, Ani realizes she also is a nature-speaker and her connection is with the wind.

After enduring two attacks by the traitors, Ani is gravely wounded and finds her way back to the Forest home of the woman and her son. There she learns that the main guard that had been on her side, Talone, survived and is living nearby. Reunited with him, they plot to reveal her identity and stop Bayern from attacking Kildenree. This plan has been set into motion by Selia, who's going to destroy Kildenree in order to hide her treachery.

Ani, Talone and Finn, the son of the Forest woman, return to the city and recruit more help from Enna and the other Forest-born workers. They approach the palace and learn that the wedding is taking place a few days' ride to the north. This separation was a bit odd. There wasn't really any reason for it. I felt they could have gone right into the action rather than stretch it out for no reason. So Ani gets horses thanks to a note from the old prime minister and steals one of her dresses from Selia's room. She poses as her own younger sister, there to attend the wedding. Of course, nothing goes smoothly. Geric is revealed not to be the prince's guard, but the eldest prince himself. Selia uses her people-speaking powers to thwart Ani's every explanation. And all of Ani's aid are forced to wait outside while she has to try to do this on her own. The king and Geric leave her with the traitors, who naturally reveal their plans out loud as all good villains do. Then the king and Geric burst out from behind the throne, where there was a secret space. A battle ensues and all the traitors are killed except Selia, who was asked earlier what the punishment for treason in Kildenree was. Ani knew it was banishment, but the wicked Selia amped it up, stating it was to be thrown naked into a spiked barrel that would be pulled by four white horses. Little did she know she'd be naming her own death.

Ani and Geric love each other, no one of note on the good side is killed, Ani single-handedly stops the war on Kildenree, and she points out several injustices in Bayern. So all is well that ends well.

This is a nice expansion on the tale of the Goose Girl, which isn't exactly the longest or most complex fairy tale. I don't think the other books in the series have anything to do with any particular tales. I always enjoy Hale's work, though I've only actually reviewed one thing here, so I plan to cover all four of these and then Princess Academy, too.

REREAD REVIEW: Goddess Girls 4

UK cover

Here's the meat of my original review:

"Artemis the Brave is #4 and the first of the longer books, though still shorter than the subsequent offerings. She spends the story dealing with her first crush. I'm not a big fan of "the tomboy gets a crush for the first time and bumbles through it" stories. Especially when said crush is very obviously a complete ass like Orion is. Everyone knows it except Artemis. Everyone tells her so, but she has to learn the hard way. Artemis is my least favorite of the four main girls. She's a slob and as a dog owner, I have to say she lets her dogs run around way too out of control. I'm also rarely interested in the athletic characters. Not my cup of nectar."

My thoughts on this still stand. I don't like that Artemis lets her dogs just be completely out of control and a nuisance to everyone. She's at a school. It's okay to leave them behind sometimes. They'd be perfectly fine in her room during the short school hours. (They only have four classes, after all.)

German cover

What I do like is all the jokes involving Orion. They must have decided that since he's one of the most famous constellations, that they'd turn him into a star somehow. The names of the theater award stars he wears on his belt are the names of the actual stars in his constellation.

This does make the second book in a row with one of the main girls crushing on a guy that's an ass. That's a bit of a tiresome theme, so I'm hoping Athena has better luck in the next book, which introduces Heracles. I can't remember how he acted in the book, but he has been her long-standing crush for the rest of the series.

Speaking of introductions, we did meet Actaeon briefly at the end of this book. He'll reappear in the future.

REREAD REVIEW: Goddess Girls 3

UK cover

Here's what I had to say the first time:

"The third book features Aphrodite having some love problems. A lot of the boys like her, obviously, but she likes Ares most, though she can't really figure out why, because he's kind of a bully. She gives Athena a makeover and Ares pays a ton of attention to her, so Aphrodite gets jealous. She's also dealing with the affections of Hephaestus, who she only likes as a friend. And to top it off, a mortal comes to her for some love advice. So she spends the book trying to help the mortal, trying to figure out how to tell Hephaestus they should just be friends, and patching up her friendship with Athena. Aphrodite realizes that Ares is pretty much an ass by the end of the book, but he, like Medusa, is one of those characters that ends up redeemed(ish) later on. Aphrodite is a fun character because she's an interesting mix of typical beauty and OCD. She likes everything in her room just so, and that's one of the reasons she's so focused on her appearance, too."

German cover

Honestly, I don't have too much to add to that, but I'm committed to doing posts for all these books that I have cool international covers to show off.

You wouldn't think I'd like a book on Aphrodite so much. It really is a mystery why she ever liked Ares, because early Ares is a dick. He's just a bully and even goes around with two other bullies to back him up. Kydoimos we met last time, but now Makhai is introduced as well. The Makhai in myth were actually plural. They're battle demons, children of Eris. Kydoimos is likely a Makhai himself. I wish they'd used Alala (war cry), too, but I guess the gorgons are enough female bullies.

Sadly, the last of the cute Indonesian covers.

I don't think there are any other new named male characters. We do get one new female: Aglaia. In myth, Aglaia is one of the three Graces and wife to Hephaestus. So it makes sense that she appears at the end of the book as a new love interest for Hephaestus.

I really like Hephaestus in this series. He's one of the only...if not actually the only...depictions of the god that isn't like some buff dwarf from a role-playing game. He's a scrawny little thing instead. And one of the sweetest, most thoughtful and caring boys in the series.

REREAD REVIEW: Goddess Girls 2

UK cover

My original review for this book was:

"The second book focuses on Persephone, who has two big problems. First, her mother always told her to "go along to get along," so she gets roped into doing things she doesn't want to because she can't say no. Second, Demeter is extremely overprotective. She meets Hades early on and likes him a lot, but struggles when both her mother and her friends disapprove. He's got a bit of a bad rep in school, which Persephone eventually gets to the bottom of. She spends the book finding herself and realizes she's a cute balance of light and dark things, as she should be. Hades and Persephone are the only couple I really "'ship" from this series. They're adorable. I really love Persephone. She's my favorite of the main four, though unfortunately, she's the most underused. She doesn't even get a second book until #11."

German cover

Those comments still stand. I like this book a lot, although it doesn't make the other Goddess Girls look very good. They're so quick to jump to conclusions and rumors about Hades that they give him zero chance, which may not be the best look for three of your four series heroines.

Persephone takes the stage and you don't see much of the others. The book opens with a scene at the Immortal Marketplace, which Persephone didn't want to visit, where she buys makeup and yarn she doesn't want, all because her mother told her to "go along to get along," which Persephone takes as meaning to do what others want with no regard to your own feelings.

Adorable Indonesian cover!

I like Persephone's journey in learning more about herself. She likes darker things that others don't. She's interested in death, cemeteries and the Underworld, where the other MOA students are so afraid of it that they never give Hades a chance. Kinda makes no sense, considering most of them are immortal. How is death a scary thing when it doesn't apply to you?

We do meet some more new characters in this book. The four Goddess Girls are there, as well as Pheme and Pandora, but we also meet more of the boys. Aside from Hades, Ares has the biggest scene. Poseidon and Dionysus are mentioned again. Atlas is introduced with an amusing "Atlas shrugged" line. And Artemis' twin Apollo gets a mention. Thanatos and Hypnos are winged men who work in the Underworld, and of course there's also Charon. The most unknown of the new additions is Ares' friend Kydoimos. It's not clarified who he is, but in myth, he's the personification of battlefield confusion.

My real wish for this one is that it had been longer! The myth of Hades abducting Persephone is a pretty big one. I liked how they made it her choice to run away and he returned her, but I wish we could have spent more time with these characters. Even after all this time, Persephone and Hades are the only couple I really ship for this series.

REREAD REVIEW: Goddess Girls 1

UK cover

I decided to reread the entire Goddess Girls series. Thunder Girls gave me the mythology itch and instead of just reading the two GGs that I was behind on, I decided "Let's redo them all!" There are several where I can't remember what happened, so it seemed like a good idea.

I looked back on my original review for Athena the Brain and was disappointed to see I'd written so little on it. I don't plan on doing these secondary reviews for all the books, but only as necessary.

As always, I need to mention the First Rule of Goddess Girls: DO NOT EXPECT ACCURATE GREEK MYTHOLOGY.

Instead of rehashing the American covers, I thought it would be fun to sprinkle in some of the international versions. Sadly, there aren't many! But what there is are pretty cool.

Hebrew language edition

Athena the Brain is less a solid story on its own and more of a world-building exercise. You meet all the main characters. Athena, Persephone, Aphrodite and Artemis are the four main Goddess Girls. Medusa is set up as the antagonist. Poseidon is there on the boy end of things. Dionysus gets a brief mention, but I don't recall any other boys. You meet Principal Zeus, some of the staff and a couple teachers. You see how the school functions. That's the meat of the story.

Little mythology Easter Eggs are scattered through. The biggest one is that Athena's best friend is named Pallas. Pallas was a daughter of Triton. The girls were raised together (as in the book, though there's no mention of Triton) and Athena accidentally killed Pallas in an athletic competition (thanks to Zeus's intervention). Hence her being called Pallas Athena sometimes. 

German cover

Also amusing is that Athena still is the one who transforms Medusa and gives her her stone powers. All three Gorgon sisters attend the school, but only Stheno and Euryale are immortal. Medusa's mortal. All three have green skin and hair so dark green that it's almost black. Medusa steals an invention of Athena's that should have been called Snarkypoo. It's shampoo that stops bullying. But Athena accidentally spelled it Snakeypoo and...yep, Medusa's hair turned to snakes and she got her stone powers. 

There's one reason I wanted to write this review. I was annoyed at past me for not going into detail on this, but the book's main flaw for me is the handling of the Trojan War. The characters in Hero-ology class are each given a figure representing a human. Then they manipulate their humans, each guiding them in certain ways. After a short time, the Trojan War happens. However, it occurs in the span of two days.

Indonesian cover (I love this one!)

Rather famously, the Trojan War last TEN YEARS. And there's not some sort of wonky time thing going on. It isn't magically ten years passing on Earth while it's two days on Olympus. Because not long after this, Athena wins the invention competition and one of her rewards is her friend Pallas coming for a visit. Pallas, who is definitely not suddenly ten years older.

I don't mind a lot of the changes they make to the original myths, but turning the Trojan War into a class exercise and shrinking it down to only two days is not exactly one of my favorite choices that they made. I can't remember off the top of my head if Cassandra says anything about the length of the war in her book. I'll have to remember to keep an eye out for it once I make it that far. 

So yeah, there you have it. Some new comments on an old fave. I really do love this series, so I'm looking forward to a refresher on all of them.

Thunder Girls 3

Ah, finally more about someone that isn't Freya or Sif. Idun is definitely the star of her own book. The other three aren't in it a whole lot.

I have a nitpick for the mood of the beginning, because in the first two books, Idun is basically the quiet, shy, sweet one. Yet the first thing we really see her doing in her own book is getting grouchy because she didn't speak up about wanting a cloak she found and Freya ended up buying it.

Then it turns out it's a shape-shifting cloak and Idun's even more pissed at herself. When Freya puts it on, she turns into a falcon.

On the return to the school, they run into Loki and Bragi talking with Heimdall. This is our first good look at Bragi, who I like best out of the boys so far. And it's pretty clear he has a thing for Idun, which makes sense because they're married in the myths. Idun, Bragi and Loki are the characters you see most in this book.

Idun develops a plan to help Loki stop being such an ass. She takes him to Midgard, where they plant regular apple seeds. What she doesn't know is that he got into trouble with a giant who likes to take the form of an eagle. To save himself, Loki promised to get Idun to the giant. Idun finds herself kidnapped, Loki's got a few of her apples, but the rest of the gods and goddesses are in trouble. You see, they need to eat or drink from Idun's apples every day to maintain their youth. And Idun has noticed that they don't seem as interested in eating her apples anymore. So when she's kidnapped, it doesn't take but a few hours for the effects of the apples to begin wearing off.

This is the part of the book that I don't get. Literally everyone with god blood begins aging heavily. Like they go immediately into old age, even if they were twelve. Sif loses her hearing. Skade can't see. Etc. Etc. But none of this makes any sense. Characters like Odin, Frigg and Heimdall are all adults, so them aging right into old age works, but a bunch of kids? They don't go through their 20s and 30s or middle age. They still look like kids, only with beards, gray hair and impairments. the kids shouldn't have to worry about staying young. They ARE young. They're friggin' twelve. So I'm wondering how they even age to become adults. The only way this would work would be if they aged every year naturally, but without Idun's apples, they took on the characteristics of the elderly. I guess that's sort of okay, but it's not explained at all. Or if it was, I sure missed it. So the main drama of the book pretty much makes zero sense.

Everyone figures out Loki is behind this, because of fucking course he is. He's Loki. Bragi and Honir find him and everyone gets him to go rescue Idun, because he's the only one that's still youthful. He talks his way into borrowing Freya's cloak to do it. Idun, however, don't need no help. She's already broken out, stolen the giant's recipes and is on her way home when Loki finds her. He brings her home, the giant is driven off, and everyone's youth is restored. And Bragi says he likes Idun and then runs off. Idun even confesses about the cloak, but lets Freya keep it because the damn thing is sentient and attached to Freya now. Freya says she can borrow it whenever she wants though.

On one hand, I liked this one, because it spends time with characters that were barely in the first two books. But as far as plot goes? Eh. Sif's was the best plot so far. I have high hopes for Skade.

Thunder Girls 2

The second installment of Goddess Girls But Norse features Sif.

We actually know very little about the goddess. Her main feature is that she's married to Thor. It's not even known exactly what she was the goddess of, but fertility and the earth both make sense. There is a myth about Loki cutting off Sif's beautiful golden hair and Thor making him get her a replacement, as well as numerous other gifts. Loki has the dwarves craft golden hair for Sif. (The Marvel character has black hair, because they changed the story. Loki couldn't pay the dwarves for gold hair and instead she got hair made from "the blackness of night.")

Thunder Girls' version of Sif is the goddess of the harvest, which grows successfully as long as her hair remains healthy. She is capable of shapeshifting into two things: a swan and a rowan tree. She's also a seer, but differently than Freya. She gets feelings from rune tiles and also has prophetic dreams. Not sure why they gave her the prophecy powers when the actual goddess has none, because they already have a seer in Freya, but it works for Sif, too.

The book opens in Runes class with Sif struggling to read hers. She's dyslexic, though it's never named that. Loki and Thor are also in the class and butt heads. Sif's word is mjollnir while Loki's is klippa (to cut).

After class, Sif returns to her pod and finds Freya there reading. Freya wants to give Sif a new hairstyle. While she's doing this, the girls talk about Sif's day. Freya thinks Sif and Thor are crushing on each other, and that Loki may like her, too, which is why he both teases her and has conflict with Thor. Idun returns home and tells about an eagle that stole one of her apples. Both Freya and Sif think this was Loki. Sif goes in search of Loki to tell him off, but runs into Skade, who bought a new pair of boots at the mall. Skade's got a definite boot obsession! Then Sif hears Thor coming, so she takes her rowan form. He's driving his goat-drawn chariot wildly, because the goats were spooked. Likely by Loki, Sif thinks. Loki soon appears and outs Sif, as he thinks a random rowan growing on Yggdrasil is weird. There are a couple rules of shapeshifting. If someone is touching your shifted form and commands you return to human form, you're forced to. Likewise, if someone is touching you, you cannot shift forms. Loki and Sif face off with Thor helping her out a bit, then Loki flees and Sif and Thor are left to slight awkwardness.

At dinner, Idun says giants have been stealing wheat from Midgard (the human realm). Skade, Idun and Freya decide to try to get the giant students to say whether or not there's a plot or not during Freya's latest party, while Sif goes to the library to research Ragnarok and prophesying. There's a long scene in the library, but the most important part is that she falls asleep reading and when she wakes up, her hair has been cut off. Like down to an inch of stubble cut off. Sif is very upset, not only because she loved her hair, but because its health is connected to the wheat on Midgard and without that wheat, humans may starve and the gods themselves won't have enough wheat either.

After telling Thor and the other Thunder Girls about what Loki did, Sif has a prophetic dream in which she sees that she has to get Loki to go to the dwarves to get gifts, including new hair for her. Thor and the Thunder Girls work together to make Loki promise to get Sif some new hair, plus five other gifts.

Not trusting Loki, Sif and Freya fly off behind him in Freya's kittycart. They watch as he gets Sif's hair, plus a boat and spear from one set of dwarves, then trick another pair into making three more gifts. Only Odin has to judge which set of gifts is the best with the price being Loki's head if Odin picks the second set of dwarf gifts. The second set, which contains a self-reproducing bracelet, a golden boar...and Mjollnir. Upon returning, the gifts are handed out. Odin receives the spear and replicating bracelet. Sif, of course, gets her hair. Freya's brother Frey gets both boat and boar. And naturally, Mjollnir goes to Thor, the only person who can lift it. Odin judges Mjollnir the best gift, thus making Loki's head up for grabs, except Loki counters that he never said the dwarves could have his eyes, throat, mouth, etc. In retaliation, they make him unable to open his mouth for a day.

So Sif's powers are restored, she comes to terms with being a seer, and she makes up with her childhood friend Lofn at the end of the book.

I enjoyed this one, but felt it could have improved in a few places. I don't like how handsy Loki is. I'm not sure that's the best message in a modern kids' book. He grabs Sif's arm when she's in tree form and he cuts her hair, yet his only comeuppance is...to not open his mouth for a day. I also thought Freya was in it a bit too much. She just had her own book, but she's the Thunder Girl with the secondmost screentime in this one, too. I want to spend more time with Idun and especially Skade. I guess Freya made sense to go off with Sif to spy on Loki, since she has transportation, but still. I'm definitely looking forward to starting Idun's book soon. I do like Sif as a character. She's the down to earth, no frills, practical one, which contrasts heavily to Freya's love and beauty and jewelry and hairstyles. Idun is the shy, quiet one and Skade is the loud, athletic, bold one. I was glad to see more screentime with the four girls bonding, too. All in all, another good entry into the series and I'll be tackling Idun's book next.

Little Mermaid: The Haunted Palace

In this book, the sisters and Triton are visiting Duchess Dagmer of the Arctic Ocean to celebrate her 100th birthday. Dagmer lives in an ancient, giant ice castle which is supposed to be haunted.

Shortly after their arrival, the girls are escorted to their quarters by the duchess's great-grandsons, who they met once before and babysat for when the boys visited Triton's palace with their parents.

Some of the girls, like Alana, are afraid of the ghost of Morven, but others, like Attina and Andrina, are not afraid at all. Of course, the boys have conveniently put the girls in the wing that includes the room where Morven died. And it's Ariel who has to occupy that room.

Naturally, ghostly hijinks begin and the perpetrators are obvious from the start. It's the boys, getting revenge for an old prank the girls played on them when they were babysitting. The boys make use of the castle's secret passages to orchestrating their "haunting."

After one sighting, Ariel finds the entrance to the secret passage connected to her room, and she and Andrina lead the others down it. They find the boys and learn that they're behind all this. Then the girls concoct their own plot and get every single person in the castle in on it. At the duchess's big birthday party, Andrina will fake sick, dress up as Morven and come scare the boys, while everyone else pretends not to see him. This all goes swimmingly...or so everyone thinks. Shortly after Morven chases the boys out of the room and wishes the duchess a happy birthday, Andrina comes rushing in, saying she had been trapped in her room the entire time. Looks like the real Morven loves a good joke, too!

No sister facts from this one, unless you count Alana being a bit of a scaredy-cat, though she really hasn't been before.

Little Mermaid: King Triton, Beware!

Another simple, but a bit crazy, plot. The circus is in town and Ariel leads her sisters over to check it out while they're setting up. The meet the merseer, or actually her replacement, who predicts a couple minor things, then says the crown of King Triton will be toppled.

Naturally, there's a debate among the sisters over whether to believe in the merseer or not, but on the way home, both of her minor predictions come true.

So just to be safe, all the mermaids keep an eye on the circus and what better way to do so than to join it? They start training to take part in the act as a surprise for Triton.

Chaos ensues during the show and the king's crown is indeed toppled...as in bumped off his head briefly.

My favorite part is seeing intelligent, well-read Attina be skeptical. After her not so bright showing in Ariel the Spy, she needed to look smarter.

Also, the roles each mermaid plays in the circus are fun. Ariel is a daredevil who gets shot out of a whale's blowhole. Arista works with sea horses, Alana with dogfish, and Aquata with sharks. Athletic Andrina goes with the acrobats. Attina becomes the magician's assistant and poor Adella is a clown, which she hates.

Little Mermaid: Ariel the Spy

And we're back to Ariel being the main character again, but this time she's doing something stupid, so it's not as bad as the earlier books, where she always had to be the one to solve the problem or save the day.

Ariel's reading a book on Mata Herring for school and she gets carried away with the theme. When a substitute teacher turns up instead of her favorite, she concocts this ludicrous plot that this sub has kidnapped her favorite, because they're both in the running for Teacher of the Year. She drags her friend Coral into it, as well as Adella and Attina. Of course she turns out to be very wrong and has to apologize to everyone in front of her father.

No new sister facts in this one. The high point of the book is meeting Coral, who's Ariel's first friend that isn't a fish or a bird. Not that she gets a ton of characterization, but at least she exists. The low point for me was that the author didn't seem to grasp either Adella or Attina. Attina's the bookworm, but she never read the Mata Herring book herself and she seems like one of the smarter characters, so I can't see her really being this silly. And Adella is tasked with talking to the substitute, because she thinks he's handsome, and she bombs it completely and looks like a total airhead. Definitely the worst of the first six books.

Little Mermaid: Arista's New Boyfriend

                

This one is quite simple. The princesses and their father are off to their brand new summer palace for the season. Arista doesn't want to go, because she'd rather spend the summer working with her sea horses than meeting titled merpeople. 

Once there, the other girls are all excited about meeting boys and dancing and parties (and reading, if you're Attina), but Arista goes to check out the new stables. 

And there she meets Dylan, the stableboy, son of the groundskeepers. He's the most handsome merboy she's ever seen and the best rider. 

So begins Arista sneaking out of parties to ride sea horses with Dylan, who becomes her riding instructor, friend and boyfriend. 

However, she keeps him a secret from her family, because she's afraid of her father's reaction to her hanging with a commoner. Ariel of course is the one to find out and then the one put in danger when Arista abandons an important earl's son at a party. Arista and Dylan use their riding skills to drive off the devilfish that's after Ariel and save the day, earning the respect of the titled merpeople and Triton. Although he is sure to admonish Arista for not telling him about Dylan. Dylan finds himself a part of summer social circle and presumably he and Arista can openly see each other for the rest of the summer. 

No sister facts this time. Arista gets the most character development of any sister aside from Ariel so far, so that's something. This is when I started to like her after her poor showing in Nefazia's book.