Poseidon falls in love with a beautiful young woman and creates a shining city on an island paradise for her and their children. However, their descendants don’t live up to their promise of peace and cooperation, and they doom their city to the depths of the sea. Christina Balit draws her inspiration for this children’s parable about the lost city of Atlantis from one of Plato’s philosophical dialogs, the Crito. Her art creates a richly colorful, vividly detailed world for her story. Readers who know their Greek art and archaeology will recognize that she drew her inspiration from Bronze Age Aegean civilizations. I had a good time spotting easter eggs from Minoan art in illustrations, such as the Phaistos disk and the famous city fresco from Thera. If you are going to visit Crete with young kids any time soon, this book is a must. They will enjoy the experience so much more when they get to see the real-life art and architecture that the drawings make familiar.

Balit tells the story as a fantasy, but a short, easy to read historical note by historian Geoffrey Ashe gives some of the various theories about what might have inspired the myth and where people have imagined the city to have been located. I particularly recommend this book to anyone who loves mystery and fantasy that is grounded in ancient legend. Atlantis: The Legend of the Lost City makes reality seem a little more magical. – Krishni Burns