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The Shadow Thieves

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See that girl, the one with the bright red hair, overstuffed backpack, and aura of grumpiness? That's Charlotte Mielswetzski. And something extra-ordinary is about to happen to her.

Oh, it's not the very cute kitten that appears out of nowhere and demands to go home with her. It's not the sudden arrival of her cousin Zee, who believes he's the cause of a mysterious sickness that has struck his friends back in England. It's not her creepy English teacher Mr. Metos, who takes his mythology lessons just a little too seriously. And it's not the white-faced, yellow-eyed men in tuxedoes, who follow Charlotte everywhere.

What's so extraordinary is not any one of these things....It's all of them. And when Charlotte's friends start to get sick one by one, Charlotte and Zee set out to find a cure. Their quest leads them to a not-so-mythical Underworld, where they face rhyme-loving Harpies, gods with personnel problems, and ghosts with a thirst for blood.

Charlotte and Zee learn that in a world overrun by Nightmares, Pain, and Death, the really dangerous character is a guy named Phil. And then they discover that the fate of every person — living and dead — is in their young hands.

In her dazzling debut for young readers, Anne Ursu weaves a tale of myth and adventure, danger and magic that will keep readers engrossed until the very last secret is revealed.
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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 3, 2006
      Ursu (Spilling Clarence, for adults) tantalizingly tells her tale, the first entry in the Cronus Chronicles, out of order, building suspense and integrating Greek mythology as she goes. In the first section (entitled "We begin in the middle") a sardonic narrator introduces 13-year-old Charlotte. The red-headed misfit begins to experience popularity when her cousin Zee arrives from London, making her cool by association. As part one concludes, students at their school start to get sick at an alarming rate; here the story jumps back six months to tell the tale of Zee, a star athlete whose beloved grandmother prophetically whispers "me-tos" to him on her deathbed. Mr. Metos, it turns out, teaches Charlotte and Zee mythology, and aids the cousins in their mission to go to Hades and stop the strange sickness plaguing the students. Underworld-born Philonecron and his Footmen are stealing children's shadows to mount an army and unseat the Lord of the Dead, and Charlotte and Zee (with his unique birthright) may be the only ones who can stop him. Readers will likely find this entertaining in the most pleasingly frenetic of ways, and the narrator's breezy sense of humor (e.g., "The Ferryman for the Dead is widely considered, in both legend and life, to be rather, well, greedy. But really, if you look at all the facts, you can't blame him. He has a family to feed") keeps the book from cracking under the weight of its Byzantine structure. Ages 8-12.

    • Library Journal

      May 8, 2006
      Ursu (Spilling Clarence, for adults) tantalizingly tells her tale, the first entry in the Cronus Chronicles, out of order, building suspense and integrating Greek mythology as she goes. In the first section (entitled "We begin in the middle") a sardonic narrator introduces 13-year-old Charlotte. The red-headed misfit begins to experience popularity when her cousin Zee arrives from London, making her cool by association. As part one concludes, students at their school start to get sick at an alarming rate; here the story jumps back six months to tell the tale of Zee, a star athlete whose beloved grandmother prophetically whispers "me-tos" to him on her deathbed. Mr. Metos, it turns out, teaches Charlotte and Zee mythology, and aids the cousins in their mission to go to Hades and stop the strange sickness plaguing the students. Underworld-born Philonecron and his Footmen are stealing children's shadows to mount an army and unseat the Lord of the Dead, and Charlotte and Zee (with his unique birthright) may be the only ones who can stop him. Readers will likely find this entertaining in the most pleasingly frenetic of ways, and the narrator's breezy sense of humor (e.g., "The Ferryman for the Dead is widely considered, in both legend and life, to be rather, well, greedy. But really, if you look at all the facts, you can't blame him. He has a family to feed") keeps the book from cracking under the weight of its Byzantine structure. Ages 8-12.

      Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • The Horn Book

      March 1, 2006
      After her cousin Zee arrives from England, thirteen-year-old Charlotte Mielswetzski ("Say it with me: Meals-wet-ski. Got it?...There. You thought your name was bad") investigates a mysterious plague that has left most of her school in a coma-like state. With the help of their English teacher, Mr. Metos, Charlotte and Zee descend into the underworld to stop the plague, caused, they discover, by a half-demon Immortal with a Napoleon complex. Philonecron has been stealing students' shadows and using them to animate an undead army to overthrow Hades, who has been distracted from his empire by Queen Persephone. While delivering a fast-paced action adventure (Philonecron sends ghastly eight-foot-tall skeletonlike creatures after Charlotte and Zee; the two are also attacked by Harpies and the occasional vampire), this Greek-themed frolic is set apart by the voice of its omniscient narrator, who addresses the reader in an irreverently casual tone and establishes a ridiculous exaggeration that pleasantly leavens the danger. The result is particularly attractive to readers at the younger end of the adventure-loving spectrum, for whom the chill of exploring death -- and the thrill of feeling in on the author's jokes -- will be just right.

      (Copyright 2006 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

    • School Library Journal

      April 1, 2006
      Gr 7-9 -With a wit and cynicismthat will enchant most readers, Ursu weaves an extraordinary tale filled with Greek gods, sick and shadowless children, and a plot to overthrow the Lord of the Dead. Charlotte Mielswetzki is in such a bad mood that she doesn't notice a freakish man in a tuxedo following her home from school. But something extraordinary is about to happen. Charlotte's cousin Zee lives in England, where all of his friends are becoming mysteriously and seriously ill. Sent to Charlotte's family in America, he discovers that the same thing is happening to his new friends. It turns out that Philonecron, born in the Underworld, is determined to overthrow Hades and builds an army from children's stolen shadows, getting at them through Zee. The quick-paced novel takes readers on a danger-filled journey from the Midwest to Hades, where Charlotte and Zee make their final stand against the evil threatening to destroy the world of the dead. "The Shadow Thieves" is a great addition to this newly popular Greek-myth genre. Readers of Rick Riordan's -Percy Jackson and the Olympians - series (Hyperion) and Jane Yolen's -Young Heroes - series (HarperCollins) will delight in this new helping of myth-based fiction." -Lisa Marie Williams, Fairfax County Public Library System, Reston, VA"

      Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • The Horn Book

      July 1, 2006
      Charlotte and her cousin investigate a mysterious plague that has hit Charlotte's school and, in the underworld, discover the cause: a half-demon Immortal with a Napoleon complex. This fast-paced, Greek-themed frolic is set apart by the irreverently casual voice of its omniscient narrator and will be attractive to readers at the younger end of the adventure-lovers spectrum.

      (Copyright 2006 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

    • Booklist

      March 1, 2006
      Gr. 5-8. Forget heaven and hell, the Greek underworld isn't a myth! When it's time to leave the corporeal world, everyone makes the journey to Hades' realm, where they spend eternity as a Shade, first waiting in line to cross the river Styx, and thereafter roaming aimlessly. All is status quo until power-hungry Philonecron resolves to reanimate the dead with blood from the living, create an army from the shadows of living children, and usurp Hades' throne. Enter Charlotte Mielswetzski, unwitting accomplice; her cousin Zee, a boy with an unusual bloodline and an unusual shadow; and a kitten named Mew. The cousins come to understand they are at the center of a nefarious underworldly plot, and must protect themselves, foil Philonecron, and reunite the children with their shadows. This story is charmingly silly, but has enough serious moments to carry the plot forward. It unwinds with such unabashed cheerfulness and gusto that readers will find much to enjoy, especially if they can connect with its mythological base.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
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  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:5.1
  • Lexile® Measure:790
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:3-4

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