Shelly's Book Blog

The Shadow Thieves, by Anne Ursu, is book 1 of The Cronus Chronicles. Book 2 is The Siren Song. I came across this title when I was creating a Percy Jackson read-alike list.
I really enjoyed this story, and I think it's an excellent book to recommend to kids, both boys and girls, who are Percy Jackson fans looking for more of the same. The two main characters are cousins Charlotte Mielswetzski (pronounced meals-wet-ski) and Zachary Miller (Zee). Zee is sent from London to live with his cousin and her family in America because there seems to be some sort of epidemic in London. It's just kids who are getting sick, though. Charlotte and Zee discover the reason for all the illness is that Philonecron, an evil genius from the Underworld, is stealing the kids' shadows. He plans to animate the shadows to create an army and then overthrow Hades and become King of the Dead. Charlotte and Zee end up having to visit the underworld in order to put a stop to Philonecron's plan and save their friends. Plenty of both adventure and Greek mythology here.

I also really like how Ursu uses language. I found her writing clever and funny. For example, Charlotte's family serves Chicken Cacciatore for dinner the first night after Zee comes to stay with them. Here is part of the description of that evening: "Two hours later the cake was decorated, the dining room cleaned, the tablecloth laid, the table set, the chicken cacciatored, and the Mielswetzski family car was pulling into the garage" (p. 38). Ursu made me laugh by making a verb out of the name of the main course. This is a small nuance, but it's a good example of the author's subtle humor.