Wendy Orr

Leira's family flee to the island of Crete just before a huge volcanic eruption destroys their island and sends a tsunami to where they thought they had found safety. Another thrilling adventure by acclaimed author Wendy Orr.

Swallow's Dance

Sarah Sammis

The long bits of verse did me in.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2019/comm...

Story Eater

The author of Nim’s Island brings readers another island adventure tale about a young girl on an island in the Mediterranean who shares her tale with readers of growing, love, loss, and grief as only the very young can say it. The narrative deftly shifts from prose to poetry and back in a long story-dirge that reminds the world of an island lost to ash and fire long ago. 

Perhaps one of the most beautiful middle grade/young adult novels I have ever read, Swallow’s Dance is a book I will require my students to read while they study Ancient Greece and the civilizations around the Mediterranean. This book will supplement any history curriculum and will make a fine leisure read as well. Young readers will not walk away from this book with only a story-the triumph of Leira will linger on their hearts well into adulthood, as many of the great books we adult readers read as children stick with us even in our older age. 

Wendy Orr also expands the literary style of the typical middle grade novel to encompass more than just prose writing. Lyrical writing and poetic narrative are becoming more popular, as some recently published novels, such as  Inside Out and Back Again are written entirely in verse and tell a story, akin to the epic poetry of old. Though the writing style of narrative verse is not for everyone, it could be if it were introduced in the middle grade reading years, as much of the literature of history is written in verse ( The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Beowulf, etc.). This is a read children should definitely not miss.

Kelly Macquire

This was a beautiful book about overcoming adversity, dealing with hardships and figuring who you are after everything you know is taken away. When the 'goddess' of Leira's home destroys her town she must flee with her mother and nurse to survive. Set during the volcanic eruption of thera in the Bronze Age Aegean, this novel incorporates both an ancient past and familiar burdens and issues of identity and being displaced from your home. Leira was beginning her Learnings to become a woman, and suddenly everything she knows has changed, how will she ever become a woman? 

This book, a mixture of verse and prose, is a wonderful testament to the strength of women, and the ability to survive even under the harshest of landscapes. Leira grapples with her issues of identity throughout the whole novel, and by the end, you are uplifted with hope of a new life. Wendy Orr has done a brilliant job weaving what we do know about the people on Akrotiri and was has been inferred from the frescoes and artefacts preserved into a vivid and believable tale- rooted in history.

Swallow's Dance

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