Shadow Thieves: Cronus Chronicles Book One
by Anne Ursu
Published by Atheneum
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Review by Kathy Perschmann, Chanhassen (MN) Librian
Charlotte Mielswetzki is a red-headed and grumpy 13-year old. One day walking home from school, a kitten just appears in front of her, and when she tries to walk, the kitten keeps blocking her, so she picks it up and takes it home. This makes her a lot less grumpy.
Then her cousin Zachary from England has to come to stay. His grandmother died, and there has been an unusual illness plaguing his school in London, so his parents ship him off to stay with Charlotte's family. Zach (or Zee), proves to be very popular at Charlotte's school, but then students start coming down with the same illness and school is closed.
While walking home from Maddy's house (Charlotte and Zee were delivering some homework assignments since Maddy had missed so much school), they are jumped on by some strange, tall pale men in tuxedos, but they are saved by their English teacher Mr. Metos.
Metos tells them a creepy tale about the illness, shadows, and the Greek underworld--and it all makes sense of what has been happening to Charlotte and Zee and their friends. He tells them he is going down to the Underworld, as he is a descendent of Prometheus and wants to help save mankind. Charlotte and Zee wait for several days, scared stiff--until a large black bird comes, bearing a message: Metos needs their help! They follow the bird to the closed Mega Mall, through a door marked no admittance, and down, down, down, until they come upon the evil and power-hungry Philonecron, who has been scheming to get control of the stolen shadows of the sick children, and needs Zee to animate and control them.
Charlotte and Zee find strengths they never knew they had, and work together to save Metos and the shadows, battling Harpys and the Footmen of Philonecron for a fantastically exciting and fun read.
Armchair Interviews says: Fun read for young adults.