Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 03/01/2021 *Starred Review* At the start of Newbery Medalist Schlitz’s latest ambitious offering, Greek god Hermes tells, in irreverent verse, a legend in which every person was once two people stuck together. The story to come, he says, is about a boy and girl who “weren’t alike, but they fit together.” In ancient Thessaly, watchful Rhaskos is born into slavery, to a Thracian woman taken from her home. When Rhaskos is still a child, his mother is sold to a wealthy man in Athens, whose headstrong daughter, Melisto, needs a firm hand. As Melisto’s wildness catches the attention of the goddess Artemis and leads to a series of fateful choices, Rhaskos suffers a mercurial master and becomes enamored with horses and learning to replicate their form in clay. Though they aren’t destined to meet—at least not while they’re both alive—Rhaskos and Melisto are inextricably bound together by fate. Schlitz anchors this astonishing work of historical fiction in Greek tradition: ancient gods and philosophers narrate (Sokrates appears throughout); she makes use of epic verse and literary devices from Greek plays (described in the extensive back matter); references to Homer are threaded through the text. She offers context for modern readers, elaborating on ancient Greece as a slave society, while Iredale’s black-and-white illustrations offer glimpses of artifacts. Like its two central figures, this luminous creation is far more than the sum of its parts. - Copyright 2021 Booklist.