Sonderbooks Book Review of Hippolyta and the Curse of the Amazons

Reviewed September 5, 2002.
HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2002. 248 pages.

Here’s another children’s novel set in ancient Greece. This one is different by being the story of an Amazon girl, one of the fierce female warriors of a legendary city in Greece. The authors took a legendary figure and invented an exciting childhood for her.

When Hippolyta’s mother gives birth to a second son, she is not willing to sacrifice him to the goddess of the city, despite an ancient curse. Instead, she asks Hippolyta to take the baby to his father in Troy. The adventure is exciting, and the character of a fierce warrior girl is an amusing change from the usual tale. All the same, I didn’t feel as involved in this story as I did with Caroline B. Cooney’s Goddess of Yesterday. This is a fun, fairly light book, that girls might enjoy reading to see a strong girl character emerge victorious.

Another book by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris:
Girl in a Cage

Other books by Jane Yolen:
The Wizard's Map
The Pictish Child
The Bagpiper's Ghost

Sword of the Righful King
Sleeping Ugly
Take Joy: A Book for Writers
Mightier Than the Sword: World Folktales for Strong Boys
The Perfect Wizard: Hans Christian Andersen

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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

****Hippolyta and the Curse of the Amazons*

by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris