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Title details for Amber and Clay by Laura Amy Schlitz - Available

Amber and Clay

by Laura Amy Schlitz
Rachel Botchan
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
The Newbery Medal–winning author of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! gives readers a virtuoso performance in verse in this profoundly original epic pitched just right for fans of poetry, history, mythology, and fantasy.
Welcome to ancient Greece as only genius storyteller Laura Amy Schlitz can conjure it. In a warlike land of wind and sunlight, "ringed by a restless sea," live Rhaskos and Melisto, spiritual twins with little in common beyond the violent and mysterious forces that dictate their lives. A Thracian slave in a Greek household, Rhaskos is as common as clay, a stable boy worth less than a donkey, much less a horse. Wrenched from his mother at a tender age, he nurtures in secret, aided by Socrates, his passions for art and philosophy. Melisto is a spoiled aristocrat, a girl as precious as amber but willful and wild. She'll marry and be tamed—the curse of all highborn girls—but risk her life for a season first to serve Artemis, goddess of the hunt.
Bound by destiny, Melisto and Rhaskos—Amber and Clay—never meet in the flesh. By the time they do, one of them is a ghost. But the thin line between life and death is just one boundary their unlikely friendship crosses. It takes an army of snarky gods and fearsome goddesses, slaves and masters, mothers and philosophers to help shape their story into a gorgeously distilled, symphonic tour de force.
Blending verse, prose, and illustrated archaeological "artifacts," this is a tale that vividly transcends time, an indelible reminder of the power of language to illuminate the over—and underworlds of human history.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 9, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781501949272
      • File size: 313441 KB
      • Duration: 10:53:00

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this creative pastiche of mystery, history, mythology, philosophy, and magic, listeners follow the entwined fates of two children in ancient Greece. The "amber" is Melisto, an impetuous, aristocratic Athenian girl. Rachel Botchan narrates her story using crisp enunciation and slightly strident tones that accentuate Melisto's tempestuous character. The "clay" is Rhaskos, an introspective, artistic Thracian slave boy. Tom Picasso voices his first-person narrative in verse, subtly capturing Rhaskos's sensitivity and curiosity. Both narrators skillfully characterize an ensemble of gods and mortals in verse or alternating dialogues. Picasso's characterizations of a delightfully charming Hermes and a gentle, mischievous Socrates are particularly engaging. Listeners can appreciate the finely crafted visual structure of the text with the book in hand. S.A.A. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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