Praise for The Shadow Thieves

The Chicago Tribune
'First in a series' is an overused publicity tag in post-Harry-Potter publishing. But "The Shadow Thieves," Book 1 in "The Cronus Chronicles," genuinely creates excitement not only about itself but about what might follow. To begin, there's the non-reverential, even flip tone of the narrator about one of the central characters, Charlotte Mielswetzski ("Say it with me: Meals-wet-ski. ... You thought your name was bad?"). There's also the announced choice to start the story in the middle of the action--when Charlotte is adjusting to the arrival of her cousin, Zee, from England--and only later to go to the beginning for explanations. The narrator assumes readers are clever, can follow something other than straight chronology, and have a humorous acquaintance with middle school, parents and teachers. What's distinctive is the next level to which author Anne Ursu takes the story by plunging into the classical Underworld, ruled over by a king, Hades, who'd really rather pursue his somewhat standoffish queen, Persephone, than deal with management issues. This other world is like ours but not, as you might expect from a place approached through a back corridor in a megamall. The plotting is zippy, male and female middle-schoolers are at the center, and the issues of personal responsibility and community that are raised are intriguing.

Star Tribune
Fantasy writers have traditionally been an "outcast bunch," says Leonard Marcus, a children's literature historian....But partly because of "the forest-rattling success" of Harry Potter, yesterday's outcasts may just be today's belles of the ball. While the current popularity of this once-maligned genre has fostered its share of J.K. Rowling imitators, it also has opened the door for authors with fresh and enticing visions to share with young readers.

Among them, Hopkins author Anne Ursu playfully imagines a modern-day version of Greek mythology's underworld that can be accessed via a local megamall in her debut young-adult fantasy, "The Shadow Thieves" (Atheneum, 424 pages, $16.95, ages 10-14), the first volume in a planned trilogy. While equating the mall with hell isn't a new concept for many of us, who would have thought an actual entrance to Hades lay at the end of a "nondescript corridor that lurked somewhere between the store devoted to foot sculptures and the store that sold cheese"?

Two teenage cousins -- sullen, antisocial Charlotte and popular, British-born Zachary, aka Zee -- must pass through this door into the world of the dead to confront a scheming Underworld bureaucrat named Philonecron (Phil for short) who has been stealing their classmates' shadows to start his own army.

Our young heroes' adventures are captivating and suspenseful but much less scary than they might have been, thanks to Ursu's witty, casual tone. Her King Hades has gone from the formidable ruler of ancient days to a distracted figurehead whose minions -- because as Hades realizes, "you can't manage a burgeoning nether realm on your own" -- operate beyond his control. To thwart Phil, Charlotte and Zee have to deal with pesky mythological beasts such as harpies ("mean and very, very stinky") and griffins ("not very nice") before heading back to the relatively safe world of mall walkers and jumbo pretzels.

Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books
Zachary, known as Zee, has accidentally drawn the attention of Philonecron, a disgruntled denizen of the Underworld, who has noticed that children are only loosely connected to their shadows. Using Zee's blood as a lure, a tracking mechanism, and a means of communication and control, Philonecron sends out minions to collect the shadows, which he plans to replicate, animate, and enchant into a vast army that will overthrow a bureaucratic and lovesick Hades. With the help of their English teacher, a descendant of Prometheus, a reluctant Zee and his cousin Charlotte head down to the land of the dead to see what they can do to reclaim the shadows that have been stolen from their peers. The various elements of this well-paced, humorous, and slightly creepy adventure (the first in the Cronus Chronicles) offer, perhaps deliberately, wide reader appeal-a mixed-race, popular, sporty but emotionally sensitive British boy shares the spotlight with his bookish but not overly commonsensical white American girl cousin who tends toward sulky and whose main claim to talent is her ability to craft quick, sincere, and inventive lies. Add in a loving and mildly psychic grandmother, a preternaturally wise kitten, and a deliciously evil villain, and you have a slew of familiar elements that make a contemporary take on the mythic hero quest work. Ursu is especially adept at charting the insecurities and misrecognitions of her young teen characters as they tease out the way they feel inside and the way they want to be from the way they appear to those around them. Occasional intrusions of the narrator keep readers attentive to the comic incongruity that results when the mundane and the fantastic get muddled, but the narration is at its best when Charlotte is the focalizer-her wry wit shines as she musters the bravado necessary to face down underworld nasties while trying to remain true to her deliberately unformed self. Readers will anxiously await the promised sequels.

Horn Book
After her cousin Zee arrives from England, thirteen-year-old Charlotte Mielswetzski ("Say it with me: Meals-wet-ski. Got it?...There. You thought your name was bad?") investigates a mysterious plague that has left most of her school in a coma-like state. With the help of their English teacher, Mr. Metos, Charlotte and Zee descend into the underworld to stop the plague, caused, they discover, by a half-demon immortal with a Napoleon complex. Philonecron has been stealing students' shadows and using them to animate an undead army to overthrow Hades, who has been distracted from his empire by Queen Persephone. While delivering a fast-paced action adventure (Philonecron sends ghastly eight-foot-tall skeletonlike creatures after Charlotte and Zee; the two are also attacked by Harpies and the occasional vampire), this Greek-themed frolic is set apart by the voice of its omniscient narrator, who addresses the reader in an irreverently casual tone and establishes a ridiculous exaggeration that pleasantly leavens the danger. The result is particularly attractive to readers at the younger end of the adventure-loving spectrum, for whom the chill of exploring death--and the thrill of feeling in on the author's jokes--will be just right.

Kirkus Spring Preview 35 Eagerly-Awaited, Must-Read Titles
Anne Ursu's flashy debut is a story of youthful heroism in the face of Harpies, ghosts and agitated Greek gods. The author of award-winning adult novels, Ursu introduces 13-year-old Charlotte and Zee. Sharp, charismatic Zee pulls Charlotte out of her ingrained reticence as they endeavor to comprehend, then thwart, a mysterious plague that follows in Zee's wake. Ursu draws her characters with broad, nimble-witted strokes, slides with ease between myth and reality and urges the story forward with one peculiar event or unnerving episode after another...The climax is set in a frightful Hades, but Ursu leaves enough threads dangling to warrant another volume in the Cronus Chronicles series.

Booklist
Forget heaven and hell, the Greek underworld isn't a myth! When it's time to leave the corporeal world, everyone makes the journey to Hades' realm, where they spend eternity as a Shade, first waiting in line to cross the river Styx, and thereafter roaming aimlessly. All is status quo until power-hungry Philonecron resolves to reanimate the dead with blood from the living, create an army from the shadows of living children, and usurp Hades' throne. Enter Charlotte Mielswetski, unwitting accomplice; her cousin Zee, a boy with an unusual bloodline and an unusual shadow; and a kitten named Mew. The cousins come to understand they are at the center of a nefarious underworldly plot, and must protect themselves, foil Philonecron, and reunite the children with their shadows. This story is charmingly silly, but has enough serious moments to carry the plot forward. It unwinds with such unabashed cheerfulness and gusto that readers will find much to enjoy, especially if they can connect with its mythological base.

School Library Journal
With a wit and cynicism that will enchant most readers, Ursu weaves an extraordinary tale filled with Greek gods, sick and shadowless children, and a plot to overthrow the Lord of the Dead. Charlotte Mielswetzki is in such a bad mood that she doesn't notice a freakish man in a tuxedo following her home from school. But something extraordinary is about to happen. Charlotte's cousin Zee lives in England, where all of his friends are becoming mysteriously and seriously ill. Sent to Charlotte's family in America, he discovers that the same thing is happening to his new friends. It turns out that Philonecron, born in the Underworld, is determined to overthrow Hades and builds an army from children's stolen shadows, getting at them through Zee. The quick-paced novel takes readers on a danger-filled journey from the Midwest to Hades, where Charlotte and Zee make their final stand against the evil threatening to destroy the world of the dead. The Shadow Thieves is a great addition to this newly popular Greek-myth genre. Readers of Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series (Hyperion) and Jane Yolen's "Young Heroes" series (HarperCollins) will delight in this new helping of myth-based fiction.

Laura Ruby, author of Lily's Ghosts and The Wall and the Wing
What if the Greek gods were real? With myth as her inspiration and the Underworld as her playground, author Anne Ursu has created a wildly inventive and laugh-out-loud twist on the traditional fantasy epic. Alternately harrowing and hilarious, The Shadow Thieves introduces readers to the cheeky Charlotte and her charming cousin Zee as they are pitted against disgruntled demi-gods and menacing minions making a bid for control of the universe. Fans of Harry Potter and the Bartimaeus Trilogy will wonder what in the name of Zeus hit them, and all will come begging for more.


The Shadow Thieves is a Borders Original Voices selection for March and a selection of Scholastic Book Clubs and Fairs.


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Praise for The Siren Song

Booklist
After a harrowing trip to the Underworld to thwart Philonecron's plot to overthrow Hades at the expense of living children (The Shadow Thieves, 2007) Charlotte is grounded. The eighth-grader chafes at her punishment and doesn't trust that her again-ordinary life will remain that way for long. She's right. It so happens Philonecron is related to Poseidon, who takes great offense at his kin's comeuppance and plans to make Charlotte pay. Not to be outdone, the defeated Philonecron makes nefarious plans regarding Charlotte's cousin and comrade, Zee. Readers will delight in the cousins' continuing mythological adventures, told here with the same imagination, wit, and rambunctiousness as its predecessor.

Star Tribune
Here's a series in which the magic originates closer to home than Hogwarts -- specifically in a famous Minnesota megamall, down an overlooked corridor that just happens to double as an entrance to Hades. Thirteen-year-old Charlotte and her cousin Zachary, nicknamed Zee, ventured into this corridor in "The Shadow Thieves," Minneapolis author Ursu's first book for young readers, to thwart Greek demigod Philonecron's evil plans. It turns out Phil doesn't handle defeat all that well. In this second, equally entertaining volume, Grandpa Poseidon helps him exact revenge during a U.S. history-themed ocean cruise that Charlotte's parents assume will be educational. Instead of learning about butter churning in Colonial Williamsburg, however, Charlotte gets a harrowing crash course in Greek mythology -- again.

Horn Book
Charlotte Mielswetzski is your typical teenager, fighting with her parents and grounded, like, for life. But unlike your typical teenager, Charlotte is grounded because she snuck out to do battle with Greek demigod Philonecron and Hades himself. Now, Philonecron's grandfather Poseidon, angry that Charlotte humiliated his offspring, is out to exact revenge. To top it off, Charlotte's cousin Zee, who went with her to the Underworld and back, has a new girlfriend and isn't speaking to Charlotte. An ill-timed cruise with her parents plunges Charlotte back into the struggles of mortals against the gods, as Poseidon sends a Siren lounge singer to mesmerize the ship and the sea monster Ketos to destroy it. Lacking Zee's help (he's been secretly kidnapped by Philonecron again), Charlotte falls back on the aid of the cute new boy, Jason. With irreverent, teenager-friendly narration, this story mixes the wry with the dramatic, winding up to a pitched battle at sea with Zee rescued and mighty Poseidon's trident itself as the prize. Close beneath the surface of Charlotte's sulky teen exterior is a brave and resolute hero who soldiers on even when the day seems lost and takes on a greater mission yet as the book draws to a close. Charlotte and Zee make a great team; look forward to seeing more of them as the Cronus Chronicles continue.

Kirkus Reviews
Sulky and easily damaged Charlotte is not a typical heroine, but that only adds to her appeal; she doesn't fight because she is a world saver, but because she's the only person who can, and she knows somebody needs to....witty, well-paced, and fun.


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