The Roman Mysteries
I'm reading a new (to me) series: The Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence. The first book, and the only one I've finished to date, is called The Thieves of Ostia. I found it while looking for children's fiction set in or around ancient Rome, of which there isn't much; and unfortunately this one at least would be too scary for Leo, if not for me. It's set in Ostia, the port of Rome, 79 AD (so far so good), and features four unlikely friends: a sea captain's daughter Flavia, her new neighbor Jonathan, the slave girl Nubia, and the mute beggar boy Lupus. Together they search for whoever is killing the neighborhood dogs. The mystery is good; but the real appeal (again, for me) is the description of Roman life.
The second book in the series is The Secrets of Vesuvius. In this one, the four friends are spending the summer with Flavia's uncle near Pompeii. There they race to solve a riddle that may lead them to great treasure, and then to survive the volcanic eruption that ultimately buries the city. I have some hope that this one will not be too scary to read to Leo; solving a riddle seems much less dangerous than catching a dog-killer. But this is a kid who who won't read the Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osborne (which is fine) because Jack and Annie are always putting themselves in danger, no matter that they obviously come out of it okay: there are 38 books in that series to date! The Roman Mysteries will total 17, of which 14 are already available: I better get reading.
[The Roman Mysteries is also a BBC series (not yet available on DVD). See also the BBC page on Ancient History/Romans for additional information and fun interactive content.]
Anamaria
in Ancient Rome, Mysteries, Series
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4 Comments
Reader Comments (4)
Glad to hear Ian isn't the only kid who won't read Magic Tree House! In Ian's case, they were just kind of boring (I agree--I still can't figure out the appeal they have to most kids), but he also has a low tolerance for characters who put themselves into dangerous situations. We made it through the first Harry Potter together, but the last chapters of Chamber of Secrets were just too scary since Harry was alone facing the huge snake and it looked like Ginny was dead. I'm looking forward to continuing that series with him when he is a little older.
But I'll check out this series for myself! I got hooked on the HBO Rome DVDs so seeing how they translate Roman daily life into kid lit would be cool!
i *get* it! the magic tree house books are touch and go here. fluffy can take some of them, but others? like the titanic? iy yi yi. i would be scared too!
these look like good ones for us in about a year or so. sounds like you guys are doing a block on rome, yes?
Kate, I thought the HBO Rome series was brilliant (Kyra, if you haven't seen it yet, please put it in your Netflix queue right now). I'll let you know if I hear anything about the BBC Roman Mysteries series on DVD, too.
No Harry Potter for us yet, either (maybe next year?). And I don't know about The Secrets of Vesuvius either. Pliny dies! I think we might try Marissa Moss's Galen: My Life in Imperial Rome instead. We're still all about Rome over here! Which is more than fine with me.
Every time I see something about Roman historical fiction, I sigh and mope, "No more Rome [HBO series]." It was bloody and I had to close my eyes for a goodly part of it, but I got sucked in by the stories. Do you think the Roman Mysteries would appeal to someone who generally doesn't like mysteries (i.e. me) but who can overlook the mystery element and rationalize it as "suspense?"