When Barbara McBride-Smith was first introduced to the ancient Greeks, she didn't quite hear right. When her teacher told her they lived in the cradle of western civilization, young Barbara thought she said Western civilization—as in central Texas, around about Waco, where they seemed to fit right in.
Ol' Man Zeus, after all, was a gun-totin' Big Daddy, sort of the J.R. Ewing of Mount Olympus. And the Metheus brothers, Pro and Epi? High school all-state football heroes who never got over their ....
glory days. You know that sexpot Aphrodite, the school basketball queen, and Pandora the debutante (who got framed by the good ol' boys, by the way). The best guitar picker around was Orpheus—Tom T., Jerry Lee, Willie, and Chet, all rolled up in one. (Last we heard, he'd hit it big down in Austin.) And wasn't it Medusa who started the fashion trend known as Big Hair?
With her incurable Texas drawl, feminist sympathies, and cheerleader's do-right attitude, storyteller Barbara McBride-Smith spins the Greek myths as you've never heard them before.
AWARDS PLA/ALLS Best New Books for New Adult Readers
Storytelling World Award
REVIEWS
Children's Services, Upper Perkiomen Valley Library— Kristin Pedemonti
"An innovative compilation of Greek myths written in a southern Texan style will captivate readers... The modernization of the tales works really well and the humor serves to make the tales accessible to all levels of reading ability. An excellent addition to any folktale collection! 4.5 stars."
The Second Story Review
"Hold on pardner. You're about to meet the Olympians as you've never dreamed of them. Fresh from the imagination of good ol' girl Barbara McBride Smith...comes 14 wild and wacky retellings of some of the best known Greek myths. ...Dysfunctional? Nah. Just freelance fruitloops with bizarre passions."
Anchorage School District Book Review
"The usual stories but in a very "today" " hip" conversational style. It would be fun for people who know the Greek myths to hear them in such incongruous settings and language."
