Theodosia & the Serpents of Chaos [Paperback]

Should I be embarrassed that I am a 50-ish woman who took one little skim of this book and got all the way hooked, snuck it from my son, and read it cover to cover? WOW! I am the kind of person who has 5 or 6 books started all over the house; who reads snippets wherever I sit down. Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos grabbed my imagination and took me on a mystical and suspenseful adventure, full of Ancient Egyptian artifacts, swirling curses and lively heiroglyphs. I met Theodosia's cute but pesky little brother Henry, and a heroic pickpocketing street urchin, Sticky Will, among many others. One of my favorites was Isis, the hapless kitty that became the recepticle for some dark curses Theodosia tried to remove from one of the ancient vases. I could go on and on about how much fun this story was to read, but I'd better not give any more away. I won't tell you that it was on Theodosia's shoulders to save the whole country of England, or that she had to find a way to go to Egypt and visit some tombs for herself. A real feat for an 11 year old girl. I just CAN'T tell you how she managed to get there, or how scary the dark tunnels to the tombs were. You just need to read it for yourself! If there was anything I would change about this book, it would only be to make the story longer. I hope R.L.LaFevers decides to make this only the first of Theodosia's many adventures.

Things That Are Difficult To Do:

1. Eating broken glass

2. Changing a baby's diaper for the first time.

3. Digesting aforementioned broken glass.

4. Selling a boy on a great adventuresome novel with a female heroine.

It's a bit of a stereotype but one with at least a grain of truth to it. Certain boys of a particular literary persuasion will offer an unpleasant amount of resistance to reading a book when its protagonist is of the feminine variety. This is understood. Few quibble the point. As a result, nine times out of ten a hero who discovers a fantastical world in a fantasy novel will sport a name like Harry or Percy or Sebastian (no one said they had to be manly names). This can make it difficult for girls heroes. Either they have to share the spotlight with a boy (and is pictured on the cover with him if the publisher has their way) or their heroine already exists in a world of her own when the action begins. The latter is the case with one Theodosia Throckmorton. If you called her "spunky" to her face she'd probably grind your foot beneath her boot heel. Theodosia isn't cute or plucky or wide-eyed. She's sly and clever with just half a sandwich more intelligence than her fellow man. "Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos" is not a perfect creation, but it has enough originality and sheer verve to make up for those imperfections a reader might find.

When you're living in Edwardian England as the child of easily distracted museum curators, you have to do a lot of growing up on your own. Theodosia Throckmorton , for her part, has done her fair share. While her mother has been scouring Egypt for artifacts to send to the family's Museum of Legends and Antiquities, Theodosia lives in London at the museum in question with her father and cat. What's more, she has a purpose in life. Unlike anyone else she knows, Theodosia can physically sense the horrid curses and black magic seeping from the artifacts on display. Her job? Remove the magic and keep away from her father's meddling curator Clive Fagenbush . And everything would have been perfectly fine had her mother not brought home that wretched Heart of Egypt. Legend says that should this amulet ever leave its native soil it will curse the country that takes it in and topple the kingdom itself. Now WWI is looming, evil forces are conspiring to steal the amulet for their own means, and it's up to Theodosia to foil the bad guys, find herself some allies, and return the Heart of Egypt to its rightful home.

The book lends itself to love. First off, there's the fact that LaFevers has such a flair for names. It's just a pleasure to read someone who can create her own unique characters without sounding like a slightly sickened Dickens novel. So it was that I found myself chortling over monikers like Sticky Will,Dolge, Sweeny, and Wigmere . The very voice of the book was also a pleasure. I'm rather taken with any heroine who mentally labels her brother a "cad" when he threatens her with imminent education. And I liked the shout-outs to other works of children's fiction. E.Nesbit's, The Story of the Treasure Seekers gets a mention, which pleased me to no end. A pity the author is never named.

Best of all, "Theodosia" works on more than one level. It is my personal belief that LaFevers is making a rather slick anti-colonialism statement couched in an otherwise innocuous fantasy. Theodosia's parents are stealing a country's treasures without so much as a drop of guilt. Heck, her mother even alludes to a possible bribery of "local officials" so as to remove the artifacts from the country. And while you'd never accuse Theodosia of being anything other than a patriot (she even goes so far as to say that she would never "betray" her country) that doesn't mean she can't be at odds with what the nation, as well as her very own parents, does.Less effective perhaps is the tie made between pre-war Germany and this "curse" upon England. Says Theodosia, " Germany was using the power of Ancient Egyptian magic to topple its adversaries. Just like Thutmose III and Amenemhab had." Anti-colonialism I'm willing to buy. The Kaiser using magic? I guess it works in the same way that the Nazis in the Indiana Jones films work. It just seems a little clunky for an otherwise nice book.

There are problems here and there. There are no surprises regarding the true villain of the book. You probably won't mind, but LaFevers makes it fairly evident. Another complaint I've heard lodged against this title is that it doesn't effectively take you into Edwardian England. The smells and tastes and sensations aren't there. You can appreciate the plot and pacing, but it's not an evocative novel. I agree with this to some extent. Obviously that wasn't what LaFevers was going for. For the kind of book that it is, you can enjoy the story without feeling you have to have traveled back in time with the author. For all that the author doesn't try to conjure up distinct sensations, she's thought through numerous tricky details. I loved the idea of long-term exposure to curses seeping into a person's soul like radiation into cells. Plus the illustrations by Yoko Tanaka are used sparingly enough to give the book just enough oomph without detracting.

I'm trying to gauge the level of innate kid-appeal in this book, and I'm having a difficult time coming up with anything. What it really feels like is a child-version of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody novels like Crocodile on the Sandbank. Same level-headed heroine. Same magic and vibe. Same exciting Egypt-based fight/flight sequences. You can hardly recommend a book to a kid on the basis of the adult novel it reminded you of. In the end, I'm just going to wait for the child who comes up to me and wants a good adventure story with a bit of fantasy for flair. It won't be a book for every kid out there, true. But when paired with titles like the Enola Holmes books by Nancy Springer, "Theodosia" should prove popular with any kid attracting to the intelligent and the arcane.

Who could resist Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, by R. L. LaFevers? The book is dedicated to "clever girls everywhere who get tired of feeling like no one's listening". Set in the early 1900's, it's the story of young Theodosia Throckmorton, who more or less lives in London's Museum of Legends and Antiquities. Her mother is an archaeologist, frequently away excavating tombs in Egypt. Her father is museum-obsessed, and frequently works through the night. Theodosia, who has managed through her parents' inattention to dodge both boarding school and governesses, has her own little room at the museum, where she sleeps in a sarcophagus. This alone would be interesting, but it gets better.

Theodosia, who is "cleverer than most", has a rare natural gift for sensing ancient curses, and removing them. When her mother brings home a very important, and seriously cursed artifact, the Heart of Egypt, Theodosia finds herself at the heart of a conspiracy. She has to recover the artifact, after it's stolen by evil-doers, and go to great lengths to un-do the damage wrought by the Heart of Egypt. She wrestles with a secret brotherhood, German troublemakers, an appealing young pickpocket, and her pesky younger brother, Henry. Not to mention stowing away on a ship, facing scorpions, and removing a curse from her black cat. Through it all, Theodosia remains strong and smart, considerably more on top of things than her relatively hapless parents and snooty grandmother. She's very cool.

Theodosia has an appealingly snarky voice (the story is told in the first person). Here are a couple of examples:

"I weighed my options: being followed through the streets of London by a menacing stranger or catching a lift with Grandmother Throckmorton. It shouldn't have been such a difficult choice, but then, you don't know my grandmother." (page60)

"We bade Henry goodbye at Charing Cross Station and waited on the platform until his train pulled away. I realized I was going to miss the little beast. Either that or I had a bit of coal dust stuck in my eye." (page 248)

Another thing I like about this book is that LaFevers isn't afraid to use advanced vocabulary. Theodosia is supposed to be extra-clever, after all. For example:

"Henry sniggered and I gave him my best quelling look." (page 195)

Sniggered and quelling in the same sentence. Who wouldn't love that? The writing style is overall quite straightforward, but sentences like this one lift it above the common.

The book also conveys a sense of reverence for ancient artifacts and places. For example:

"I cannot begin to tell you the thrill of finally seeing the necropolis up close, not to mention the tombs of the pharaohs. I have heard about them all my life, dealt daily with their historic finds, and spent hours trying to cipher out their meaning. And now, to finally experience one in its entirety, as it was originally built and conceived, not in crumbled bits and pieces ... it was as if I stood at the pearly gates of heaven itself." (page 304)

Kids who enjoy hearing about mummies, ancient tombs, pyramids, and Egyptian curses will find this book utterly compelling. Fans of historical novels, especially British historical novels, will appreciate the attention to period detail. And conspiracy buffs will enjoy figuring out, along with Theodosia, who to trust, and who not to trust. In short, this book is a welcome addition to the canon of middle grade mystery and suspense novels. I look forward to the future adventures that are sure to follow.

A slightly longer version of this book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on March 22, 2007.

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