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Summary
Summary
Three unusual companions---one fantastic journey!Lucian is on the run from a pair of murderous soothsayers. Joy-in-the-Dance knows magic and marvels, and is on a quest. Fronto is a poet-turned-donkey who wants to break the spell that turned him into an animal. The three of them join forces and set out through Arkadia---on an amazing trip that will change their lives.
Author Notes
Lloyd Alexander, January 30, 1924 - May 17, 2007 Born Lloyd Chudley Alexander on January 30, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Allan Audley and Edna Chudley Alexander, Lloyd knew from a young age that he wanted to write. He was reading by the time he was 3, and though he did poorly in school, at the age of fifteen, he announced that he wanted to become a writer. At the age of 19 in 1942, Alexander dropped out of the West Chester State Teachers College in Pennsylvania after only one term. In 1943, he attended Lafayette College in Easton, PA, before dropping out again and joining the United States Army during World War II. Alexander served in the Intelligence Department, stationed in Wales, and then went on to Counter-Intelligence in Paris, where he was promoted to Staff Sergeant. When the war ended in '45, Alexander applied to the Sorbonne, but returned to the States in '46, now married.
Alexander worked as an unpublished writer for seven years, accepting positions such as cartoonist, advertising copywriter, layout artist, and associate editor for a small magazine. Directly after the war, he had translated works for such artists as Jean Paul Sartre. In 1955, "And Let the Credit Go" was published, Alexander's first book which led to 10 years of writing for an adult audience. He wrote his first children's book in 1963, entitled "Time Cat," which led to a long career of writing for children and young adults.
Alexander is best known for his "Prydain Chronicles" which consist of "The Book of Three" in 1964, "The Black Cauldron" in 1965 which was a Newbery Honor Book, as well as an animated motion picture by Disney which appeared in 1985, "The Castle of Llyr" in 1966, "Taran Wanderer" in 1967, a School Library Journal's Best Book of the Year and "The High King" which won the Newberry Award. Many of his other books have also received awards, such as "The Fortune Tellers," which was a Boston Globe Horn Book Award winner. In 1986, Alexander won the Regina Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the Catholic Library Association. His titles have been translated into many languages including, Dutch, Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Serbo-Croation and Swedish.
He died on May 17, 2007.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8An expertly developed cast of characters rounds out this witty epic that's filled with romance and adventure. Lucian, the archetypal hero, knows more than he should about the king's nefarious soothsayers and must escape the palace or be killed. He takes with him Fronto, a poet whose folly has turned him into a donkey. Guided by Joy-in-the-Dance, a pythoness oracle who serves the Lady of Wild Things, they seek the Lady on an Oz-like journey for answers to their problems, joined on the way by Ops, a chief who was cast out of his village. The travelers do not get what they had hoped for from the Lady, but Lucian does learn why her followers and his Bear Clan are enemies. The seekers are then sent on another journey that completes the heroic cycle. On one level, this is a rousing adventure complete with cliffhangers and do-or-die stituations. On another, readers familiar with Greek mythology will find clever hints at the myths' purpose and genesis. The Arkadians have experiences and listen to tales that resemble the stories of Narcissus, the Wooden Horse of Troy, Odysseus, and Theseus and the Minotaur, among others. The women are the wise ones in this novel and play their own heroic roles. On a deeper level, this tale is about love and peace, symbolized by the marriage of Lucian and Joy-in-the-Dance and the subsequent uniting of the Bear Clan and the Followers of the Lady. Thus, Arkadia becomes the mythical Arcadia, which poets lauded as a utopia. The plot has many twists and turns, but is not hard to follow, and Alexander's style is eminently readable.Cheri Estes, Dorchester Road Regional Library, Charleston, SC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lucian flees corrupt palace officials in pre-classical Greece, his flight becoming a quest to discover his role in life. Soon, he's trying to help a second-rate poet turned donkey regain human form. Roaming the land, he also gets caught up in the great conflict between followers of the mother goddess and believers in the Olympian pantheon. Fortunately, he has the help of Joy-in-the-Dance, a young prophetess, in a relationship strikingly similar to that of Taran and Eilonwy in Alexander's five-volume Prydain Chronicles. And like the Prydain novels, this adventure draws heavily on a great body of myths and legends. Perhaps to accommodate the constraints of a single volume, Alexander relays many myths in comic, de-bunked forms-he shows poets transforming a clan of horse-riders into centaurs, a skilled mariner separated from his barmaid love into the epic hero Odysseus. Even with much of the raw material developed only minimally, the result is a good, involving story. Readers already acquainted with Greek literature and legend will enjoy picking out familiar threads. Ages 10-up. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Similar in structure and theme to Alexander's other works, the fantasy boasts a novel cast of characters -- including Lucian, a young man seeking his calling; an oracle named Joy-in-the-Dance; and a poet who has been transformed into a donkey. In a delightful tale laced with humor, their quest leads them across a country torn between the conquering men of the Bear people and those who follow the legendary Lady of the Wild Things. From HORN BOOK 1995, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
When Lucian, a young bean counter in the palace of King Bromios of Arkadia, discovers that the royal soothsayers are fleecing the treasury, he is forced to run for his life. Out in the countryside, he discovers that Bromios, at the advice of the wicked soothsayers, has ordered the destruction of the temples and oracles of the Woman-Who-Talks-to-Snakes, and the hunting down of all the wise women and priestesses. He soon encounters Fronto, a poet turned into a donkey; Joy-in-the-Dance, a mysterious girl with strange powers; and many other strange and wonderful characters, and embarks on a quest to restore Fronto to his human state. Based on a variety of Greek myths and legends, this wild and woolly adventure covers territory both geographical and literary. Master storyteller Alexander (The Fortune-Tellers, 1992, etc.), known for rollicking fantasy and mystery adventures, keeps the action brisk, packs the text with a riveting collection of weird characters, fantastic settings, plot twists, derring-do, heroes, villains, magic, prophesies, humor, shipwrecks, fires--what more could readers ask for? (Fiction/fantasy. 10+)
Booklist Review
Gr. 6-9. Part Greek myth, part Canterbury Tales, part Wizard of Oz, Alexander's latest is also a story with a feminist sheen. Lucian, the castle bean counter who uncovers a scandal, is forced to flee when he mistakenly confides in the wrong people. So begins an extraordinary journey through Arkadia for Lucian and Fronto (once a poet, now a talking jackass) as they try to find the goddess figure who can help them out of their predicament. Along the way, they are joined by a remarkable band of characters, including a village chief turned village scapegoat, a goat boy, a disguised king, and Joy-in-the-Dance, a spirited young wise woman who takes more than a passing interest in Lucian. Done in epic style, the book almost brims over with tales, twists, and trouble. Occasionally, a character gets lost, and readers might wish that more attention be paid to the burgeoning romance between Lucian and Joy-in-the-Dance. But Alexander is as good as anyone when it comes to creating strong women characters, and one of the most interesting things about this book is his focus on the goddess culture and its role in both history and myth. A rousing tale that begins with Trina Schart Hyman's inviting jacket art. --Ilene Cooper