Adventure

Yet another blast from the past for me: Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne is a sweet, middle grade read.

This historical series makes learning fun and interesting in a fictional way. Don't enjoy non-fiction books but still want to learn? This series can help your middle grade readers! This book does focus on girls and women in Greece and how they weren't allowed many options to learn or participate in events. I think this is an interesting way to bring this up to young readers.

I wouldn't recommend jumping in with this book. It's not the best story out of all of the ones I've read so far but it is good as part of a series.

Overall, this is a good middle grade book!

Two out of five stars. ( )

This book is a great read for elementary aged kids. It has loads of adventure and suspense with black and white illustrations every few pages of each chapter. it starts out with siblings Jack and Annie, residents of Pennsylvania, who wonder to their secret spot-their magic treehouse. In the past series (prologue) they typically go to this special place before sunrise and after their parents are asleep or busy with other tasks. They discovered this treehouse being full of books, and the most important one of all was magic. In this magic book all they would need to do to travel to a foreign world is to say, "I wish I were (place they wished to go)" and it would magically transport them to their destination. This time, it was Ancient Greece. They instantly arrived in Ancient Greece wearing a tunic and sandals, fitting for their new setting. The Olympic games were starting and girls were no place for these such games. There they were introduced to Plato, who befriended them and explained what was going on. After learning girls could not attend the Olympics, Annie had other ideas. She took armor from the theatre and dressed as a soldier in the game. After the crowd realized it was a girl, Annie became in great danger. Thankfully, a white flying horse (Pegasus) rescued Annie and Jack and brought them back to the treehouse where they were safe again. ( )

Jack and Annie are back at it again. This time they are leaving the tree house and going to the Olympic games in Greece. When Annie tells Jack to go ahead and go without her, Jack knows she is up to something, but at this time, Jack does not know what that is. Will Jack and Annie make it to the games, or will they be involved in trouble? ( )

4 copies