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    Persephone the Phony
    Persephone the Phony
    Persephone the Phony
    Ebook87 pages1 hour

    Persephone the Phony

    By Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Persephone learns that it’s ok to stand up for herself in the second book in the Goddess Girls series!

    Persephone usually goes along with whatever everyone else wants instead of doing what makes her happy. So when she meets Mount Olympus Academy bad-boy Hades, she finally feels like she has found someone with whom she can be herself. But her mom (Ceres) and her friends don’t exactly approve. If Hades can make her feel so special, is he really that bad, or just misunderstood?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAladdin
    Release dateApr 6, 2010
    ISBN9781416999133
    Author

    Joan Holub

    Joan Holub has authored and/or illustrated over 140 children’s books, including the Goddess Girls series, the Heroes in Training series, the New York Times bestselling picture book Mighty Dads (illustrated by James Dean), and Little Red Writing (illustrated by Melissa Sweet). She lives in North Carolina and is online at JoanHolub.com.

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    Reviews for Persephone the Phony

    4.5/5

    26 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      nice light reading
    • 5/5
      i am reading the real book and it is AWSOME!!?????????
    • 3/5
      Persephone always goes along with the crowd. Her mother is very overprotective and brought her up not to make waves. This book was extremely loosly based on the Persephone/Hades myth. In the beginning I couldn't get into it, but as Persephone learned the importance of being on her own two feet, I started to appreciate it more and more. I also really liked Hades. Who is not a misunderstood bad boy, but just misunderstood. He's not a bad guy and I really appreciated that. This was a much looser interpretation of the previous Goddessgirl tale, which kind of disappointed me a little bit, but I guess that would have been to serious for a 4-6th grader.
    • 4/5
      I am almost 20 years old and I enjoyed it. You can tell that it's a children's book. I liked how this was trying to teach kids Greek Mythology as well as a lesson. I found it amusing. And oh the middle school drama
    • 4/5
      Persephone the Phony by Joan Holub is freakin' adorable. I truly love this series. I'm a huge mythology buff and the myth of Hades and Persephone has always been a favorite of mine.I don't like how many modern interpretations show Hades as being cruel and heartless (the Percy Jackson series, Disney's Hercules, etc). There's little evidence in ancient mythology that Hades was a "mean" god (in fact he seems the most fair and least selfish of his family) and this book did a really good job of portraying how misunderstood Hades is.Persephone seemed dead-on with her overpowering, controlling mother and her own insecurity. I love that the story shows that, what a lot of children's books portray as "negative" feelings, are completely OK; it's alright to be upset, it's alright not to agree with your friends (the only time children's books show this is if the friends are doing something a-moral).All-in-all it was really cute. My one nitpick is that at the beginning of the school week, they are on day 23 of school, at the end of the week they are on day 65...the Greek calendar must have been REALLY interesting.
    • 4/5
      Second in the Goddess Girls series. Was it as good as the first? Yes. Was it better? Can't say really. It was really good in it's own way. Because it did change main character to Persephone. She was interesting. They also introduced Hades. Loved him. The story was pretty good. School drama, got to love it.
    • 5/5
      This is the second book int he Goddess Girls series. I love the messages in these books. They are written very good, and follow really close to all the God and Goddess stories. In this story Persephone is trying to make everyone else happy and not doing what she wants until she meets Hades in a graveyard on Earth and likes him, then she has trouble with her mom and her friends because he is from the Underworld .... in the end all is well and her mom gives her more leeway and her friends understand and meet Hades and seem to like him also.

    Book preview

    Persephone the Phony - Joan Holub

    1

    The Immortal Marketplace

    A LYREBELL PINGED, SIGNALING THE end of another Monday at Mount Olympus Academy. Persephone crammed the textscroll she’d been reading into her scrollbag and got up to leave the library. As she joined the throng of godboys and goddessgirls streaming into the hallway, a herald appeared on the balcony above them. The twenty-third day of the school year is now at an end, he announced in a loud, important voice. Then he struck his lyrebell again with a little hammer.

    A brown-haired goddessgirl carrying so many scrolls she could barely see over the top of them fell into step beside Persephone. Ye gods. That means one hundred seventeen days to go!

    Hi, Athena. Persephone pointed to the pile of scrolls. Some light reading? she joked.

    Research, said Athena. She was the brainiest of Persephone’s friends, and also the youngest, though they were all in the same grade.

    The two goddessgirls continued past a golden fountain. Persephone’s eyes flickered over a painting on the wall beyond it, showing Helios, the sun god, mounting to the sky in his horse-drawn carriage. The academy was filled with paintings celebrating the exploits of the gods and goddesses. They were so inspiring!

    Hey, you guys, wait up! called a goddessgirl in a pale blue chiton—the flowing gown that was all the rage among goddesses and mortal Greek women right now. Aphrodite, the most gorgeous of Persephone’s friends, raced toward the two girls across gleaming marble tiles. Her long golden hair, held in place by seashell clips, streamed behind her as she dodged past a godboy who was part goat. He bleated, but when he saw who it was, he stared after her with an admiring, doe-eyed look.

    I’m going to the Immortal Marketplace this afternoon, Aphrodite said breathlessly. Artemis was supposed to go with me, but she’s got archery practice. Want to come?

    Athena sagged under her load of scrolls. I don’t know, she said. I’ve got so much work to do.

    It can wait, said Aphrodite. Don’t you want to go shopping?

    Well, said Athena, "I could use some new knitting supplies." Athena was always knitting something. Her last project was a striped woolen cap. She’d made it for Mr. Cyclops, the Hero-ology teacher, to cover his bald head.

    You’ll come too, right, Persephone? Aphrodite asked.

    Persephone hesitated. She didn’t really want to go to the mall, but she was afraid of hurting Aphrodite’s feelings. Too bad she didn’t have a good excuse like Artemis. But except for cheering with the Goddess Squad, Persephone wasn’t much into sports. "I . . . uh . . . I’d love to go, she said at last. Her mom would have been proud. She was always telling Persephone to be polite and go along to get along."

    Let’s stop by my room first, said Aphrodite. I need to change. Aphrodite was obsessed with clothes and had a different outfit for almost every activity, often changing five or six times a day.

    The student dorms were upstairs: girls on the fourth floor and boys on the fifth. Taking the steps two at a time, the goddessgirls were soon at the entrance to the fourth floor. I’ll drop these scrolls in my room and be right there, said Athena.

    Aphrodite and Persephone continued down the hall nine more doors. After flinging her bag onto Aphrodite’s bed, Persephone perched on the edge of it. I’ll just be a minute, Aphrodite said as she opened her closet.

    Persephone glanced around the room. It was small, but intended for two, with an identical bed, desk, and closet on each side. Aphrodite and Artemis were supposed to have been roommates, but Aphrodite had objected to sharing space with Artemis’s three smelly dogs, so Artemis had moved into the room next door. Persephone would’ve loved to live in the dorm, but her mom insisted that she live at home instead.

    Within minutes Aphrodite had wriggled into a fresh chiton—a lavender one this time—and Athena had returned. Back at the entrance to the hall again, the three goddessgirls shucked off their shoes and grabbed winged sandals from a communal basket.

    As soon as they slipped them on, the sandals’ straps twined around their ankles, and silver wings at their heels began to flap. In a blur of speed, they raced down the marble staircase to the main floor of the academy. Then, with their feet barely touching the ground, they zipped out the heavy bronze doors and sped across the courtyard. The wind whistled in their ears as they whipped past boulders and trees while descending Mount Olympus.

    The Immortal Marketplace stood halfway between the heavens and Earth, below the cloud line. The goddessgirls reached it in minutes, skidding to a stop at the entrance. Loosening the straps around their ankles, they looped them around the silver wings to hold them in place so they could walk at a normal speed.

    The marketplace was enormous, with a high-ceilinged crystal roof. Rows and rows of columns separated the various shops selling everything from the newest Greek fashions to tridents and thunderbolts. Persephone followed Aphrodite and Athena into a shop that sold makeup.

    There weren’t any clerks, so Aphrodite went directly to one of the counters. A sculpted bust of a beautiful goddess sat on its glass top, surrounded by bottles and boxes of eye powders and liner, creams, and blushes. Could you make us look like Egyptian princesses? she asked the statue.

    It would be my pleasure to do so. Please be seated, the statue replied in a polite voice.

    Aphrodite perched gracefully on one of the stools and

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