In conventional retellings of the story of the Minotaur, the Greek hero Theseus is at the center, but Orgel has chosen to turn the spotlight on Ariadne, and the result is a romantic tale that traces the development of a headstrong, preadolescent girl into a determined young woman. Moser's luminous watercolors capture the essence of Ariadne's longing in this attractive introduction to Greek mythology. From HORN BOOK 1994, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Gr. 5 and up. Ariadne is the young princess who helps Theseus defeat the Minotaur; it's her thread that guides him back through the twists and treachery of the labyrinth. The myth has always focused on Theseus as hero; in fact (except for those familiar with Strauss' opera Ariadne aux Naxos), most of us can't remember who Ariadne is. Now Orgel puts Ariadne center stage and lets her tell the story from the beginning. Always a rebel, she hates her cruel father, King Minos of Crete, who keeps the Minotaur imprisoned in the labyrinth and feeds him on human flesh. Then Theseus arrives, one of the 14 Athenians who are the required annual tribute to the monster. Dazzled by Theseus' beauty, power, and attention, Ariadne loves him and helps him; she leaves home and sails away with him--and then wakes up to find that he has abandoned her on an island. Ariadne tells her story with simple drama, and the book design is spacious and beautiful. Moser's watercolors, however, are sunlit and idyllic, with little sense of the darkness and terror that are also part of the story. His full-front view of the Minotaur is a mistake, maybe because it jars our own images; it's not nearly as compelling as his woodcuts for Frankenstein (1984), which kept the monster mysterious and distanced. What is heartrending is the view of Ariadne on the shore, searching the horizon for a sail, waiting for Theseus to return. This version of the story shakes you up. Theseus is undoubtedly a hero who sacrifices himself for others; does he deliberately mislead Ariadne? The treachery is a shock, but just as astonishing is the way that Ariadne recovers from her pain and finds love and joy with the god Dionysus. Orgel shows that the young woman's perilous journey is also a personal one of leaving home and transforming herself. ~--Hazel Rochman

A novella-length adaptation of the myth in a large, handsome format that's much enhanced by the arresting perspectives and pellucid Grecian light in Moser's elegantly crafted watercolor portraits. Ariadne describes her role in vanquishing the Minotaur, Theseus's abandoning her on Naxos, and her union with Dionysus. Orgel selects details skillfully, shaping the narrative to a dignity appropriate to the myth. She also gives it emotional coherence by providing Ariadne with compelling reasons to betray her father and her half-brother the Minotaur, and by suggesting that Theseus's inconstancy--which he tells Ariadne is because ``the gods are jealous of our love''--also has to do with an Athenian girl. On the other hand, though she details the remarkable means by which the Minotaur was conceived, Orgel evades some of the implications of Ariadne's ``wedding.'' She's neither priestess nor debauchee here; she and Dionysus simply have ``many children together [and teach] people the arts of cultivating grapes and making wine.'' A note exploring sources and the author's philosophy in creating her version would have been a real plus. Still, a dramatic introduction to a fascinating myth. (Fiction. 9+)

Gr 6-9-A prologue sets the stage for readers: King Minos angered the god Poseidon and as punishment saw his wife enamoured of a bull. She died at the birth of the product of that union: the Minotaur, now immured and fed an annual sacrifice of Athenian youth. This fictionalized, first-person narrative begins with 10-year-old Ariadne as she tries to approach her monstrous half-brother, only to learn a brutal lesson about his-and her father's-nature. The core story begins five years later, as Ariadne watches the Greek prince Theseus arrive to be sacrificed- and instantly falls in love with him. In quick order she helps him escape, is abandoned on Naxos, and is rescued from despair by a satyr who introduces her to Dionysus (who in turn introduces her to wine). The god marries her on the spot, just after spelling out the lesson of the tale: ``Even love that ends in pain and grief is precious as a stop along the way toward greater love.'' Who could quarrel with this consoling moral, even if Ariadne's rebound is rather precipitous? The prolific Moser gets better and better, though his bull-headed Minotaur is more pathetic than terrifying. Minos looks like a Viking, but Theseus and Dionysus clearly represent opposing male types. Ariadne, with her button-nose and straggling red locks, doesn't look much like a Cretan or a princess, but perhaps the idea is that the young teenage target audience will identify with the face above the flowing robes. The emotional heroine, and the romantic and sexual themes, may make this myth material more than palatable to middle-school readers.-Patricia Dooley, formerly at University of Washington, Seattle (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.