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Joan Holub , Craig Phillips , Suzanne Williams

Cronus and the Threads of Dread (Heroes in Training, 8)

YEAR: 2014

COUNTRY: United States of America

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Title of the work

Cronus and the Threads of Dread (Heroes in Training, 8)

Country of the First Edition

Country/countries of popularity

Worldwide

Original Language

English

First Edition Date

2014

First Edition Details

Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams, Cronus and the Threads of Dread (Heroes in Training, 8). New York: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, Aladdin Press, 2014, 115 pp.

ISBN

9781442488519 (paperback)

Genre

Action and adventure fiction
Alternative histories (Fiction)
Bildungsromans (Coming-of-age fiction)
Humor
Illustrated works
Mythological fiction
Novels

Target Audience

Children (Older children, 8–14 years old)

Cover

Missing cover

We are still trying to obtain permission for posting the original cover.


Author of the Entry:

Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com

Peer-reviewer of the Entry:

Lisa Maurice, Bar-Ilan University, lisa.maurice@biu.ac.il

Daniel A. Nkemleke, University of Yaoundé 1, nkemlekedan@yahoo.com 

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Title of the work

Cronus and the Threads of Dread (Heroes in Training, 8)

Country of the First Edition

Country/countries of popularity

Worldwide

Original Language

English

First Edition Date

2014

First Edition Details

Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams, Cronus and the Threads of Dread (Heroes in Training, 8). New York: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, Aladdin Press, 2014, 115 pp.

ISBN

9781442488519 (paperback)

Genre

Action and adventure fiction
Alternative histories (Fiction)
Bildungsromans (Coming-of-age fiction)
Humor
Illustrated works
Mythological fiction
Novels

Target Audience

Children (Older children, 8–14 years old)

Cover

Missing cover

We are still trying to obtain permission for posting the original cover.


Author of the Entry:

Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com

Peer-reviewer of the Entry:

Lisa Maurice, Bar-Ilan University, lisa.maurice@biu.ac.il

Daniel A. Nkemleke, University of Yaoundé 1, nkemlekedan@yahoo.com 

Photo courtesy of Joan Holub.

Joan Holub (Author)

Joan Holub is a prolific children's author from the USA. Graduated from college in Texas with a fine arts degree. Worked as an art director at Scholastic trade books in New York. She has written and/or illustrated over 150 children's books. She has developed a range of series for teenagers on mythological themes: Goddess Girls, set in Mount Olympus Academy, Grimmtastic Tales series, set in Grimm Academy, Thunder Girls, about Norse gods set in Asgard Academy, and Heroes in Training, in which the male Greek gods, as very young men, set out on a range of adventures. For pre-school children, Jan Holub has written on a range of topics including several works with religious and historical themes. These include: This Little President; This Little Trailblazer, Hooray for St. Patrick’s Day!, and Light the Candles: A Hanukkah Lift-the-Flap Book. Joan Holub trained in fine art and worked as an art director at a graphic design company before becoming a children's illustrator and then author.

 

Sources:

Official website (accessed: July 2, 2018).

Profile at the penguinrandomhouse.com (accessed: July 2, 2018).

Profile at the simonandschuster.com (accessed: July 2, 2018).



Bio prepared by Sonya Nevin, University of Roehampton, sonya.nevin@roehampton.ac.uk and Allison Rosenblum, Bar-Ilan University, allie.rose89@gmail.com and Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com


Male portrait

Craig Phillips (Illustrator)

Phillips is an Australian award winning illustrator who works with various publishers, including Random House, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Egmont, Hardie Grant, and many more. As a child he was inspired by mythology and cartoons, and fantasy novels such as the Hobbit and Conan the Barbarian. He is still fascinated by the cartoons, comics, novels and stories that he enjoyed as a child and tries to capture that feeling in his work. His comics have been serialised in children’s literary magazines and were collected and published as Giants, Trolls, Witches, Beasts: Ten Tales from the Deep, Dark Woods in 2017 by Allen and Unwin. He lives in New Zealand.


Source:

Official website (accessed: October 12, 2018).



Bio prepared by Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com


Courtesy of the Author from her personal website.

Suzanne Williams (Author)

Suzanne Williams is an American prolific children's author and former elementary school librarian. She has written over 60 books for children.

She grew up in Oregon and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s in library science from the University of Oregon. She currently lives in Reno, Washington.


Source: 

Official website (accessed: May 29, 2018).

 


Bio prepared by Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@gmail.com


Summary

This is the eighth book in the Heroes in Training series (see entry about Zeus and the Thunderbolt of Doom (Heroes in Training, 1)). The group is caught in a great battle against a giant spider and then Athena finally regains her cleverness. Then the group continues towards Cronus’ temple in the sky, where Zeus finds out an awful truth about Cronus and himself.

Analysis

The book follows Zeus’ path as the leader as well as developing the theme of team effort.

Zeus again is feeling insecure: “What kind of leader keeps losing everybody?” (p. 11) he asks, after several friends have been captured again by the enemies. At one points he even wonders if his friends would follow Athena because she is smarter (interestingly her cleverness is attached to her magical thread of cleverness and not innate in her character; without it she is quite silly). He questions his destiny as the leader, yet his friends reassure him. A true leader wins the respect of his subjects, and Zeus had earned the love and trust of his friends.

The group acts bravely, but at one point we are reminded of their youth. Athena wonders, “Why is King Cronus worried about a bunch of kids?” (p. 37). Hera soon corrects her that they are Olympians and heroes. Yet they are still children who need to face the horrible truth of being persecuted by none other than their father, Cronus. Since we imagine the Olympians as the great gods, sometimes it is easy to forget that they are just children, with hopes and fears and insecurities, and the books are meant to emphasize exactly that. They may have amazing powers, but in the end, they are children. Nevertheless, the reader learns that if these children work together, they can achieve great things!

Cronus’s temple is high in the sky and he wishes to make it Mt. Titan. The kids think he wishes to look down on everyone. It is interesting that the Olympians would later dwell on the top of a mountain and not directly in the sky. Zeus vows to one day conquer the mountain. It could be argued that this would make the Olympians as arrogant as Cronus since they dwell in the same place, but this line of thought is not examined in the book, and the Olympians are presented as the antithesis of the Titans. The Titans are huge and monstrous; the Olympians are children, with all the innocence that is attached to youth. It could be argued that these books represent a conflict between generations, and indeed this is exactly how the conflict between the Titans and the Olympians was presented in the ancient tradition. Here this generation gap is illustrated and emphasised by portraying the gods as children, which, of course, also makes them more accessible to their readers. The role of the parent in the narrative is not entirely disregarded however; the mother figure is still important, with the Pythia directing and guarding them, and even their real mother, Rhea, saving them; it is only Cronus, the father, who is evil and whose rule needs to be broken. 


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