This exciting, complex adventure story dramatizes ancient Greek history and mythology from a fresh perspective. At six years old, Anaxandra's life becomes violent and harsh when her father sends her as a hostage and tribute to King Nicander of Siphnos to be a playmate to his crippled daughter, Callisto. At 12, as the sole survivor of an attack on Siphnos, Anaxandra assumes the identity of the missing Callisto and is rescued by King Menelaus, who takes her into his household in Sparta. Here she becomes part of the mythic story of the Trojan War. Menelaus' wife, Helen, is suspicious of Callisto's red-haired beauty, and when the Trojan prince Paris spirits Helen away to become Queen of Troy, Helen sees her chance to destroy the young girl. Then the brave Callisto/Anaxandra must find a way to reinvent herself again. This novel will prove a challenge to those who have no knowledge of the myth and history. Yet it is an excellent supplementary curriculum resource and just a plain good read.

A hostage in ancient Greece, Anaxandra relies on her "goddess of yesterday" as she impersonates her foster sister, Princess Callisto, in the court of Menelaus and Helen. When Helen flees with Paris to Troy, Anaxandra is enslaved but saves Menelaus's son. The classical setting is fully and engrossingly evoked; Anaxandra is a courageous heroine, and the fast action resolves in a pleasing ending.

Anaxandra's adventures begin as a small child, when she is taken hostage from her father, the king of a tiny unnamed island in the Aegean Sea. She becomes the companion of the crippled princess Callisto of Siphnos. When that island is sacked, Anaxandra alone is left alive and she pretends to be Callisto in the eyes of Menelaus, who takes her back to Sparta. It is there that the girl, now 12, accomplished with a slingshot, and resourceful in many ways, meets Menelaus's queen, Helen. In Cooney's telling, Helen is an exquisite monster: so beautiful that people die for her; but cold, careless, and utterly self-involved. When the besotted Trojan prince Paris takes Helen off to Troy, Anaxandra assumes another identity, to protect her own life and that of Helen's youngest child. The gods and goddesses are very real to Anaxandra, whose prayers and beseeching are answered only occasionally. The full horrors of war and the brutality of even the noblest of lives in ancient Greece (although the land now known as Greece was many independent principalities then) are related in Anaxandra's perceptive voice, in a heightened language that seems natural for her. Characters from the Iliad , the Odyssey , and much of Greek tragedy make appearances in Anaxandra's tale, one that is as vivid as her red-gold hair. Teen readers will be mesmerized. (afterword) (Fiction. 12+)

At the prelude to the Trojan War, the cherished daughter of the chief of a tiny island is taken hostage. Later she plays a small but crucial role in the first few days of the epic war and makes peace with her stolen identity. In a starred review, <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW said, "Cooney's trademark staccato narrative style gives the proceedings a breathless urgency." Ages 12-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Nov.)

Gr 5-8-Anaxandra is six years old when she is taken as tribute by King Nicander. He is kindly toward her and takes her in to live with his own daughter, Callisto. Anaxandra leaves her former life behind, taking with her little more than her treasured statue of her patron goddess, Medusa. Then tragedy strikes-a band of pirates attacks her new home, and Anaxandra, hiding, is the only survivor. King Menelaus happens by soon after, and takes her to his island, thinking she is the Princess Callisto. His wife, Helen, does not believe this, and tries to prove it, but Anaxandra (now Callisto) becomes friends with Helen's children. When Paris arrives and takes off with Helen, "Callisto" protects her new friend by pretending to be Hermione, Helen's daughter, and is taken to Troy along with Helen's youngest son, Pleisthenes. Of course the ruse is later discovered, but not until they reach Troy, where Callisto determines to save Pleisthenes from certain death at the hands of Paris. Cooney has taken the basic facts of a well-known Greek myth and turned them into a grand adventure with a heroic girl at the center, creating a fictional situation and characters inside the known story. Lesser-known elements fill in her tale; the "Goddess of Yesterday" helps Anaxandra through many tough times, and Medusa in this form is the goddess of female wisdom. The characters, though many and varied, are complete and believable. A fine-tuned adventure that may leave middle-schoolers asking to read Homer.-Angela J. Reynolds, Washington County Cooperative Library Services, Hillsboro, OR Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.