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Childs, Tera Lynn. 2008. Oh. My. Gods.

Oh. My. Gods. is a light and mostly refreshing read. Our heroine, Phoebe, is a soon-to-be senior whose life seems to be going according just to her plans. Until. (There's always an until...) Until her mother returns from a family reunion in Greece engaged. Surprise! Phoebe is going to have a stepfather! Surprise! Phoebe is going to have a stepsister! Surprise! The family is going to live in Greece! Forced into saying goodbye to her friends and her high school, Phoebe goes to Greece only to discover quite another BIG surprise is waiting for her.

While this news wouldn't shock many fiction-fans these days, it shocks her something fierce. The Greek gods are alive and doing well. They're real. And she'll be going to school with their children, their descendants.

The premise of this one is fun in spirit. The characters could use a bit more developing; the premise a bit more working out, but overall it's an enjoyable read.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Still catching up on my holiday surfing....

I saw this piece in the Guardian about the upcoming Paddington book, Paddington Here and Now, which is Michael Bond's first Paddington book in eons, written to commemorate the bear's 50th birthday. Evidently Paddingon gets into trouble with the London Metropolitan Police when they realize that he is in the country, if not illegally, then certainly suspiciously. I kid you not! Bond says that the intent of the book is not to write a "hot-button" story for kids, but to simply highlight for them the isolation one can feel when in a country that is not their own. To that I say look no further than Shaun Tan's outstanding wordless graphic novel The Arrival. But getting back to Paddington. While the thought of Paddington Bear being shipped back to darkest Peru seems comical, it sort of lends itself to the debate about revising books in order to bring them up-to-date with current sensibilities. In fact, it is an excellent example of why it's really not a good idea to revisit and revise the classics (or even the less than classic, but simply beloved.) It's nice to think that there was a time when Paddington could turn up on a train station in a busy capital and trust that someone would have the goodness of heart to see him for his worth and give him a safe and comfortable place to live. I'll have to reserve judgement until I've read the book, but I wish we could be celebrating Paddington's big 5-0 a little less oddly.