Justine Korman

The myth of Hades and Persephone has always been a favorite of mine. There have been so many tales even now the whole myth is being reimagined even in romance novels. Always made the two of them fall in love, but I always wondered if he did love her in such a way. I could only fathom that his desire to have her had been that his life below had been lonely. All the other gods had their other half beside them. Hades had no one other than Cerberus and Charon, but never a queen. So, I can show more imagine that the moment he had seen her that he decided then and there she was the perfect goddess to take up the role of his queen. Now tales always seem to be uncertain about the number of seeds Persephone consumes. One says three and others say six. It just depends on who you hear the tale from.

This novel follows the format of the myth surrounding Hades and Persephone. He sees her, goes to Zeus for permission, and carries her away from the ground above using the tactic of a beautiful flower to draw her away. In the Underworld, she sees Hades's world through different eyes. Meanwhile, her mother is searching high and low for her missing daughter, even going as far as to cast herself as an old crone looking for help. We do get a glimpse of another myth of Demophoon (another myth for another day). To make this story short, Demeter and Persephone reunite and of course, Persephone must spend a third of the year with her husband.

I had no idea that this graphic novel ever existed until just now. I was surprised to come across and yes, I had to have it. I liked the tale but it always felt underwhelming. The art and style were nice. I think the only thing I have against this was the fact that the whole who got what between Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades drew lots. Zeus did not decide who got what. If one is going by myth, then this should have been a bit of an accurate account. I think that is the only thing I have against this novel. show less

Spotting a wishing star in the sky, Pooh tries to come up with a wish to make this Christmas the best one for all his friends in the Hundred-Acre Wood. Most pages are group shots of his friends doing activities like baking, tree trimming, caroling, and wrapping presents. For some reason, Rabbit gets pushed into the Scrooge role, looking unhappy for one reason or another in most of the pictures. So I was expecting Pooh's wish to be directed toward Rabbit specifically, but Pooh goes in a show more different direction.

Each page is die-cut to allow a glittering star on the last page to show through. Because of its size and placement, the star more often than not looks out of place on the right hand pages where it appears.

For some odd reason, the back cover copy is in verse, but the story inside the book is in prose.

I do wonder if this wishing star is supposed to be the same one from Pooh's Wishing Star by Bruce Talkington (which was adapted from of "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" Season 1, Episode 16: "The Wishing Bear").

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) show less

Hopper O'Hare thinks he has figured out how to duck out on clean-up time in his school classroom, but the teacher and fellow students aren't having it. Finally stuck with cleaning up his own mess, he gets help from Lilac Lapin, who volunteers to show him ways to make tidying time a fun time.

Lilac obviously has an obsessive-compulsive personality -- and I know this because her cleaning philosophy made so much sense to me -- but I find it hard to believe she can pass her love of order onto show more Hopper like a virus even if that's what the book is claiming. Maybe Hopper got an instant crush and is willing to do anything to please Lilac?

It's a fairly bland children's story in writing and art but with a bit of a retro vibe. show less

There was another book the Offspring had in which two witches, cousins I think in it, were going around, possibly also on Halloween, and the good witch was undoing everything the bad witch was doing. It's been a classic set-up for at least a hundred years now. The good witch is always pretty and colorful and smiling and has a lovely name like Glenda or, checks book, Abracadella, and everyone is happy to see her. And the bad witch is ugly and frowns and is drab and dressed all in black and show more has a name like The Wicked Witch of the West or Gloomificent. And, ugh, really, Again?

To be fair the primary attraction here is pulling the tab and seeing the color magically return to the picture which is a very neat trick if you are two and don't have an iPad yet.

I would prefer that children's books did not always equate goodness with prettiness, usually fair and blonde, often with curls. Common: you have to prepare kids to encounter identical twins and figure out which is the evil one without a big flashing sign saying The Good One.

That said, I do love the striped socks and Doc Martens look, and would like to see it used on all of the witches: so much more practical than those tall hats.

And yes, this is a book which has been sitting in various places among the To Read stacks since last August. I was going to use it for Halloween Bingo, but only because I hadn't remembered how very little text was involved.

Personal copy because the kids didn't feel the need to keep it, only I did. show less