Inside Rear Cover Flap:
About the Author: Adéle Geras is a renowned author in England for the ninety plus children and adults novels that she had written, all published by Harcourt. The author writes a variety of fictional genres, and has most recently written My Ballet Dreams. Before pursuing a career in writing in 1976, Geras served as an actress, singer, and French instructor at a girls’ school in Manchester, England. She attended Roedean School in Brighton and studied Spanish and French at Oxford, graduating in 1966. Additionally, Geras has lived in and visited many countries, including Cyprus, Nigeria, the British territory of North Borneo, Gambia, and Tanzania as her parents worked in the Colonial Service, which formerly managed the colonies and territories of the British Empire. These experiences had influenced her writing styles and plots. Currently, Adéle Geras lives with her husband in Manchester and has two daughters and three grandchildren.
Publishing Company: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Place of Publication: 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016
Back Cover:
Title: Troy
Author Adéle Geras
Barcode:
Publishing Company: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Reading Level: 4.9
Awards the book has received: An ALA Best Book for Young Adults, A Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year, A Smithsonian Magazine Notable Book for Children, A Carnegie Medal Finalist, A Whitbread Award Finalist, A Boston Globe- Horn Book Honor Book
Summary: This recreation of Homer’s Iliad provides readers with a Trojan perspective on events that occurred during the last month of the Greek’s sac on Troy. Readers experience and learn significant historical events, inclduding Achilles’s duels with Hector and Paris and the Trojan Horse, through vivid descriptions of the battle scenes. The book provides an alternate explanation that these events were caused by the Greek Gods and Goddesses who grew bored of the war. Similarly, readers can acquire knowledge about Trojan culture as most of the novel describes life in the city during the war. In addition to history information, the novel introduces a different plot that coexists with the siege of Troy. Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, grows bored of the war and decides to manipulate the friendship of two Trojan sisters, Xanthe and Marpessa, by making them both fall in love with a wounded soldier, Alastor.
Quotes:
“A clever usage of mythology to explain the cause of significant events in Greek history.” – Tarun Suresh
“An excellent preliminary to understanding both Greek mythology and history intertwined with glimpses of the brutality of the war.” -Stephen King, author of It
“ A spectacular retelling of Homer’s The Iliad from a predominantly Trojan perspective. The novel serves as a prerequisite and supplement to reading Homer’s epic.” – New York Times Book Review
Inside Front Cover Flap:
Interesting Summary: The Greeks’ siege of Troy has persisted for approximately a decade. The drastic effects of the war are more evident on the Trojans as the viewpoints and ordeals faced by the two orphan sisters Xanthe and Marpessa, who serve the Royal Family as a nurse and Helen’s assistant respectively, and their friends are predominantly shown. The city suffers immense casualties and provisions are extremely limited. The Greek Gods and Goddesses spectate the battles and life of both sides and eventually grow bored of the fighting. The mythical characters appear in human or animal forms, only visible to some, and offer the outcomes and prophecies of battles and the fates of characters, such as the duel between Hector, the prince of Troy, and Achilles and the Trojan horse, in means of consolation. Furthermore, Aphrodite decides to manipulate the friendship of the two sisters by making them both fall in love with a wounded soldier, Alastor, for her personal pleasure. Will the deity’s manipulation and horrific war events undermine the sisters’ relationship?