Persephone & the Giant Flowers by Holub Joan

Author:Holub, Joan [Holub, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: middle grade mythology
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2019-09-17T07:00:00+00:00

The shell girl looked about the same age as Persephone and Athena—eight years old. She had long golden hair. Her eyes were the color of a bright blue sky. She wore silver sandals and a blue silk dress that matched her eyes.

“Finally!” said the beautiful girl. “Am I glad to be out of that shell at last.” She looked around her at the flowers, the sea, and the palace. “Where am I, anyway?”

“You are in Wunderworld,” explained Persephone.

“Spelled with a u, not an o,” added Athena.

The shell girl shrugged. “Never heard of it. Nice palace, though. Is it yours?” She stretched her arms over her head and bent from side to side.

“No, we’re just visiting. Um, I’m Athena,” said Athena.

“And I’m Persephone.”

“Woof!” said Oliver.

“And that’s my dog, Oliver,” added Athena.

“Uh-huh,” said the shell girl. She touched her toes.

When she said nothing more, Athena finally asked, “So what’s your name?”

“If you must know, it’s Aphrodite.” She pulled one leg up to stretch it out. She really liked to exercise! Probably because she couldn’t while in that shell.

Persephone pointed at it. “How did you get trapped in there?”

Aphrodite sighed. “Well, I was out walking yesterday when I met this girl. She had green snakes for hair, and—”

“Medusa!” Persephone and Aphrodite exclaimed together.

Aphrodite raised an eyebrow. “You know her?”

“She’s bad news,” said Athena.

“So what happened?” asked Persephone.

Aphrodite began to jog in place. “Well, I said something that made her mad. I do that a lot. People tell me I’m hard to like sometimes. Still, she started it.”

“What did you say?” Persephone asked, curious.

Aphrodite’s forehead wrinkled in thought. “The wind had tangled my hair a bit, and she asked if I was having a bad hair day. So I said, ‘No, my hair is always perfect. But I guess every day’s a bad hair day for you, right?’ ”

The girls laughed.

Aphrodite’s smile made her look more friendly. Maybe Aphrodite will become my friend too, thought Persephone. Then I’ll have two non-flower friends.

“I thought it was funny too,” Aphrodite said. “But Medusa didn’t. She yelled that she would eye zap me to stone! Only for some reason her eye zap wasn’t working. So she trapped me in a magic shell instead.”

“How did you get here though?” asked Athena.

“No clue.” That said, Aphrodite began to turn cartwheels.

“Maybe Medusa saw a crack in the ground like we did. Maybe she threw the shell into it,” Persephone whispered to Athena.

“I bet you’re right,” Athena whispered back. “And the shell landed in this sea.”

“Growl. Bark! Roar!”

The three girls jumped in alarm. Uh-oh. Cerberus was back! He came racing from the palace toward them.

Athena quickly grabbed up Oliver. As Cerberus got closer and closer, they could see his sharp, pointy teeth.

“We’re all goners!” Persephone wailed. “Three girls equals one snack for each of that dog’s mouths. And Oliver will be dessert!”

But then Aphrodite stepped up. “Stop that noise, you!”

Looking surprised, Cerberus stopped mid-growl. Then they heard a sharp whistle. The boy ran out of the palace. “Sit!” he called to Cerberus. The dog sat.

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