Amber and Clay (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781536201222)

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.

Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
ISBN-10: 1536201227
ISBN-13: 9781536201222
Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
Language: English
Published: 03/09/2021
Pages: 544
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.81lbs
Size: 8.60h x 6.00w x 1.80d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5
Point Value: 13
Interest Level: Middle Grade Plus
Quiz #/Name: 511953 / Amber & Clay


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2021
Publishers Weekly 02/01/2021
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 03/01/2021
Booklist 03/01/2021 pg. 54
Horn Book Magazine 03/01/2021 pg. 99
Shelf Awareness 03/09/2021
School Library Journal 03/19/2021 pg. 1
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2021 - Outstanding, Noteworthy In Style