Beasts of Olympus - Beast Keeper (Beasts of Olympus, 1) - Softcover

Coats, Lucy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0448461935 ISBN 13: 9780448461939

Verlag: Penguin US, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

Beasts of Olympus is a series of 144-page illustrated chapter books set in a magical Ancient Greece where strange things still walk the Earth. Beast Keeper tells the story of Pandemonius (a.k.a. "Demon," the half-god son of Pan) who, on his tenth birthday, is called upon to look after all the mythical creatures that belong to the stables of Olympus.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Lucy Coats studied English and Ancient History at Edinburgh University, then worked in children's publishing and now writes full time. She is a gifted children's poet and has also written several picture book texts. She is widely respected for her lively retellings of myths. Her 12-book series, Greek Beasts and Heroes, was published by Orion in the U.K. Beasts of Olympus will be her first U.S. publication. Lucy's website is at www.lucycoats.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @lucycoats.

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Chapter 1

Demon was chatting to the chickens about eggs when his dad arrived. He d never met his dad before, but he knew it was him all right. His dad had:

Thick, hairy, goaty legs.

Big curly horns.

Yellow eyes with black, slitted pupils.

No clothes to speak of.

And a set of silver reed pipes.

Demon s dad was a god.

Foxgodfoxgodfoxgodrunrunrunsquawwwwkkkk! The chickens scattered across the yard, gabbling and squawking in terror. Demon kneeled in the dirt and bowed his head. He wasn t too sure if that s what you did with a dad, but it was certainly what you did with a god. Especially if that god was Pan, ruler of forests and all wild creatures. A god who could call up a pack of hungry bears that could rip you to bits in an instant.

Pandemonius, my boy! said his dad. Pan s voice was like mossy bark on ancient trees. It was deep and velvety with a hint of crumbly roughness at the edges.

Even though it was Demon s real name, no one ever called him Pandemonius. Even the mountain wolves called him Demon and they tended to be rather formal in their speech. Demon was about to tell his dad how silly his full name sounded, when he felt a pair of huge hands under his armpits. He was lifted up into a god hug that smelled of pungent green things like goaty musk and old, stale blood.

Good to meet you at last, my son. C mon, let s find your dear mother, Carys, and get your things together. Haven t seen her in far too long. Not since you arrived in the world, in fact. By Zeus s beard, how time flies.

About two minutes later, a confused Demon found himself in the corner of the hut he shared with his mother. As he packed his few possessions into a bundle, he could see his dad whispering in his mom s ear. When she d seen Demon and his father walk in together, she dropped her best herb-chopping knife on the hard dirt floor. It nearly cut off her big toe. Now she kept saying, But, but, but, in a high-pitched voice. She sounded like Demon s little black lamb, Barley, did when he wanted milk. She might as well have kept quiet. Pan stomped over her buts like a charging centaur.

Pandemonius is coming with me, he said at last. And that s final. You don t want to offend the gods by refusing to let him go, now, do you?

There was nothing much his mom could say to that, really. Mortals who offended gods usually ended up as little piles of scorched ash, or trees, or rocks. In the end, Pan dragged Demon forcibly out the door without more than a quick good-bye kiss and hug. A weeping Carys was left behind them waving a damp hankie.

Demon felt like crying, too. His mom was his whole family. He felt a fat, bumpy lump swelling bigger and bigger in his throat until he nearly couldn t breathe. He didn t dare ask where he was being taken, or what for. Even if he had dared, he didn t know what to call his father, anyway. Your Godness? Your Holiness? Your Dadness? Until a few minutes ago, he d been an ordinary eleven-year-old boy, living with his mom near an ordinary village in the middle of Arcadia. He spent his days looking after the goats and sheep and chickens, and hoeing the vegetables.

Although the fact that he could talk to animals was out of the ordinary. Everyone around his home knew he was the child of a god, and things like that happened to half-god kids. No one took much notice, really, except for the local farmers calling him in when their beasts were sick. Demon could find out what was wrong so his mom could say what herbs to prescribe for them. All the farmers got us

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Penguin US
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0448461935
• ISBN 13: 9780448461939
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 144
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar