Ancient Voices

Kidsbookmanager.com Top Ten Books for Young Readers (2004)

Rising from the sea full grown,
I was made of salt foam,
pink shell,
crushed pearl.
I shine more brightly than that marble girl
carved in my image so long ago.
How many years? I don’t know.
Time has little meaning for me;
a goddess, after all, has eternity
to wander in…

Thus, Aphrodite speaks of her imagined rival, the famed Venus de Milo statue, in this innovative and spellbinding collection of poems. From Zeus, the Olympians’ supreme ruler, to his gloomy brother Hades and the ill-fated forest nymph Echo, the voices of the gods of Mount Olympus, the sea, the underworld and forest come alive within these stunningly illustrated pages. Beautifully realized in Kate Hovey’s mesmerizing verse, the characters of ancient Greek and Roman mythology form a rich and vibrant tapestry. These twenty-three poems serve to illuminate their unique and powerful personalities while highlighting the humor and pathos of their stories.

But wait, there’s more!

Arachne Speaks

Voices of the Trojan War

Arachne Speaks

Voices of the Trojan War

Praise for Ancient Voices

“Kate Hovey’s verse is an excellent storytelling medium—clear, pictorial, full of action, and capable furthermore of modulating into comedy and lyricism…the poems use a great variety of perspectives and let us in on the very human feelings of the immortals.”

Richard Wilbur

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former poet laureate of the United States

“The overall style is cohesive, powerful and striking…Detailed endnotes will satisfy readers’ curiosity while pointing the way for further exploration. Kimber’s stylish charcoal and acrylic paintings match the predominantly dark themes Hovey’s accomplished poems explore”

Publishers Weekly

“These lyrical poems and dramatic picture-book-size illustrations humanize the Greek myths with flashes of contemporary realism…far from the usual casual prose-poem narratives, the poetry here is both intense and accessible, with unobtrusive rhyme that adds to the music of the lines. “

Booklist

“Hovey follows up Arachne Speaks (2001) with nearly two dozen equally strong, expressionistic poems…readers already familiar with the Greek and Roman pantheons will be in the best position to by moved, amused, and captivated by this gallery of powerful figures expressing powerful, but also very human, feelings. “