Alex has a serious problem. His classmate, Troy, accidentally called the Greek god Zeus to visit Alex’s cardboard model of a Greek temple, and Zeus showed up. Now Alex has to keep the god happy and stop him from causing trouble. It’s already tough to get Zeus a morning sacrifice of roast meat when Alex isn’t allowed to use the stove, but things go from bad to worse when Zeus decides it’s time for another Trojan War. 

This is a first-person story narrated by Alex, with occasional hand drawn illustrations in the style of Roald Dahl’s illustrator, Quentin Blake. The book’s overall style is similar to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but Alex has more can-do spirit than Greg Heffley. In fact, Alex and his friends handle each new challenge with patience and good humor. Zeus is grumpy and impulsive, but he’s also willing to cut his eight-year-old high priest some slack. It’s fun to watch them all problem-solve together. Young readers will find this book easy to read, and its funny, fast-paced story will keep them turning pages. Not only that, but they’ll also learn quite a bit about the ancient Greek gods along the way. Hard copies are hard to find in the Americas, but electronic versions are readily available at all online bookstores. – Krishni Burns

* For further information on the Our Mythical Childhood Survey, please refer to the website of the project “Our Mythical Childhood” [link: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/], led by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales,” University of Warsaw, Poland, with the participation of Bar Ilan University, University of New England, University of Roehampton, University of Yaoundé 1, and other affiliated scholars, within the funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement No 681202).