Time travelers

Joan Holub

Book - 2024

"Athena can't believe it's almost her little sister Hebe's birthday...or that it's been a year since Athena found herself at Mount Olympus Academy. It turns out Athena and her BFFs, the Goddess Girls, remember very different versions of Athena's first day at school. To see what really happened, they use a spell to travel back in time! The girls go back a year earlier but to ancient Rome instead of Greece--where they meet the Roman equivalents of themselves! With time running out for them to get back to Greece--and for Hebe's celebration!--can the Goddess Girls work with their new friends to find their way home?" --

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jFICTION/Holub Joan
0 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
Children's Room jFICTION/Holub Joan Due Oct 17, 2025
Subjects
Genres
Mythological fiction
Time-travel fiction
Published
New York : Aladdin 2024.
Language
English
Main Author
Joan Holub (author)
Other Authors
Suzanne Williams, 1953- (author)
Physical Description
269 pages ; 22 cm
Audience
Ages 8-12.
ISBN
9781665917834
9781665917827
Contents unavailable.

Chapter 1: Athena 1 Athena WOODY!" ATHENA EXCLAIMED, FLIPPING HER long brown hair over one shoulder. "So this is where you got to!" She reached into the far bottom back corner of her closet and pulled out the toy wooden horse she'd had since childhood. She'd been searching her dorm room for it for the past fifteen minutes! Woody had accompanied her to Mount Olympus Academy almost exactly one year ago. That was when Zeus had summoned her to attend school here. Turned out he was her dad. He was also the principal of MOA as well as King of the Gods and Ruler of the Heavens! Now, as she sat on the edge of her bed and finger-combed the rope mane at the back of Woody's head, Athena reflected on that summons. Finding out then that Zeus was her dad, which meant that she was a goddess, had been quite a shock. Woody had been a source of comfort when she'd had to leave her home on Earth. A home she'd shared since she was little with her mortal best friend, Pallas, and Pallas's parents. Truthfully, Athena hadn't planned to bring this toy with her to MOA, but Pallas had wisely packed him in her bag. She must've realized Woody would be a welcome reminder of Athena's Earth home. Which he had been. But after a year of school here at the Academy, now it felt like Athena's real home. Not long ago, she'd turned thirteen. She was doing super well at school, had the three best goddessgirl friends ever, and had a crush, too. In short, she was growing up! She didn't truly need Woody anymore. But she knew someone who might enjoy him. Her little half sister, Hebe, who was turning six months old tomorrow. At Athena's urging, her stepmother, Hera, had agreed to throw Hebe a half-year birthday party. It would be tomorrow evening, just for their family of four. It was going to be so fun! Athena pulled back gently on the little horse's red-and-white-striped reins before running a hand across the four wheels attached to Woody's feet. Whirrr! "I'll miss you," she told Woody softly. Her gray-blue eyes blinked away a small tear. "Hebe will love you and play with you every day though, just like I did when I was little. And I'll see you whenever I visit. Promise." Thump! Thump! There was a knock at her door. Athena cradled Woody in one arm and went to open it. It was Artemis, one of her besties. "Aphrodite sent me to get you," Artemis informed her. A bow and quiver of arrows were slung across her back. She rarely went anywhere without them! "Persephone's staying over for the weekend. They've got chips and ambrosia dip. C'mon!" Aphrodite and Persephone were Athena's other besties. They shared Aphrodite's room whenever Persephone slept overnight at the Academy, instead of at home with her mom. "Ooh! Chips and dip sound yummy!" said Athena. It was Friday afternoon, and classes were over. It would be another couple hours before the cafeteria served dinner, so she could really use a snack. Noticing the toy horse nestled in Athena's arm, Artemis grinned and stepped closer to pet him. "Haven't seen Woody in a while." Athena blushed, momentarily embarrassed to be caught holding the toy. "I'm giving him to Hebe for her half birthday tomorrow," she explained. "A half birthday for a half sister. Get it?" "Nice," Artemis said, giving the toy horse a final pat on the head. "Hebe's going to love Woody." A thought struck Athena. "Hey, think Aphrodite might have a cute gift box I could put him in?" Aphrodite was the goddessgirl of love and beauty. Fashion and decoration were right up her alley. "Probably," said Artemis, shrugging. "Sounds like the kind of thing she'd have." She pushed back a lock of curly black hair that had escaped the gold band atop her head and turned to go. Taking Woody with her, Athena followed Artemis into the hall. If Aphrodite did have a box, she'd need to check that Woody fit inside it. She glanced up to see the strands of shiny silver snowflakes crisscrossing the ceiling overhead as she followed her friend down the hall. These were leftover decorations from MOA's Winter Ball in the Hall celebration, which had taken place about two weeks ago. So pretty! "Oh, look. It's Woody!" Aphrodite exclaimed when Athena and Artemis entered her room. Her blue eyes sparkled. "Wow! Remember when he fell out of your bag and rolled across the floor in Mr. Cyclops's Hero-ology class?" "That was on your very first day here, right?" asked Persephone. Athena cringed a little. "Yeah. Not my favorite memory, though. The whole class laughed." "Not the whole class," Aphrodite protested. "Pretty sure I didn't." Her long golden hair swayed as she cocked her head. "But if I did, I'm sorry." "No worries," Athena told her, waving a hand to brush the memory away. "That was a long time ago. And as I recall, you welcomed me to MOA from the start." She smiled at her three BFFs. "You all did," she added. "Which is something I'll be forever thankful for." Quickly, she told Aphrodite and Persephone how she planned to give Woody to Hebe as a gift for her half sister's half birthday. "But I need a box to put him in," she said. She looked at Aphrodite. "Would you happen to have--" But before she could finish asking, Aphrodite said, "Oh! I have just the thing!" She went right to one of her two closets, swung open its doors, and pulled a large colorful box off the top shelf. There were other boxes nested inside it, Athena saw. As Aphrodite pulled them apart to find the one she was searching for, Athena sat down on the edge of the spare bed that Persephone slept in whenever she stayed the night. " Mmm , thanks." Athena set Woody beside her when Persephone passed her a large bowl of chips and dip. Crunching on a chip, she was careful not to spill crumbs on the plush red velvet comforter. It was identical to the one that covered Aphrodite's bed--both stitched with a pattern of little white hearts. All the dorm rooms at MOA--girls' on the fourth floor and boys' on the fifth--were basically the same. There was a bed, a desk, and a closet on both sides of each room. Aphrodite's room was the cutest, though. She'd even created a canopy of sparkly red fabric above her bed and painted pink and red hearts all over the walls. "Sure, you're welcome." Persephone moved a puffy pink heart-shaped pillow from the end of the spare bed to sit beside Athena. Her long curly red hair fell forward as she picked up Woody and opened the little door in one side of the toy horse's belly. There was a secret compartment behind the door. During Athena's very first week at Mount Olympus Academy, Woody had helped her team win a war against the Trojans in Hero-ology class. She'd hidden three-inch-tall statues of the real-life Greek hero Odysseus and some of his men in the compartment. Then she'd placed Woody at the gates of Troy on the classroom's tabletop game board. That game board was actually a three-dimensional map of Greece, with roads, valleys, mountain, seas, and more. Everything students did on the board caused actual events to happen on Earth. So, down on Earth, Woody and the Greek and Trojan heroes were all the size of real-life men, and Woody was enormous! Thinking Woody was a gift, the Trojans took him inside their city. Big mistake. Once inside the gates of Troy, Odysseus and his men staged a sneak attack to win the war! Crunch! As Athena munched another chip, Persephone peeked inside Woody's secret compartment. "You could put some candy or little toys in here," she said. "Something fun for Hebe to find." "Ooh! Good idea," said Athena. "But I'd better wait till she's older. Hebe puts everything in her mouth right now. Hera says we have to keep small things away from her. She might choke if she tried to swallow them." Athena had learned a lot about babies since Hebe was born. Persephone wrinkled her nose. "Good point. I hadn't thought of that." After grabbing a handful of chips, Artemis sat down cross-legged on Aphrodite's bed, opposite Athena and Persephone. "Small stuff can be dangerous for dogs, too," she said, while crunching and munching. She should know, Athena figured. After all, Artemis had three dogs: a bloodhound named Suez (Zeus spelled backward), a beagle named Amby, and a greyhound named Nectar. "Yes! This should work," Aphrodite announced just then. She held up a box that was decorated with a pattern of colorful balloons. But before she could bring it over to check that Woody would fit inside, loud shouts came from somewhere outside her open window. Athena exchanged a look with the others, saying, "I wonder what's going on." Before anyone else could move, Aphrodite hurried to the window to stare down into the courtyard below. "It's just some godboys playing a game of morra," she reported back to the others. This was a game where players kneeled in a circle and each extended a hand at the same time to show zero (a clenched fist) or up to five outstretched fingers. Before having time to actually count all the fingers, each player had to call out a guess as to the total number of fingers displayed by all players. Players who guessed the correct sum earned one point. The first player to guess correctly three times won three points--the whole game! "I think we played morra your first day at MOA, didn't we?" Artemis said to Athena as Aphrodite turned from the window. Athena shook her head. "Hmm? I don't think so. I don't remember that, anyway." "And wasn't that the same day Atlas and some other godboys stole Mr. Cyclops's sandals and tossed them into the River Styx?" Persephone asked. She handed Woody to Aphrodite, who placed him in the box she'd found. He fit perfectly! "Thanks," said Athena as Aphrodite gave her the box. Reaching inside, she gave Woody a pat before setting the box beside herself on the bed. But then she frowned. "The incident with Mr. Cyclops's sandals happened at least three weeks after I came here. I'm sure of it." Aphrodite nodded. "Yeah, I think maybe you're right. But we got you to try out for cheer team that first day. You were such a natural you sprouted wings the very first time you tried to shapeshift, remember?" Huh? Athena thought the Goddessgirl Squad tryouts had taken place on her second day at the Academy. And though she'd gotten good at shapeshifting fairly fast, she'd had to try at least three times to succeed. She supposed it was only natural that her friends wouldn't remember that first day as well as she did. MOA had been completely new to her, so everything about that day had been seared into her memory... hadn't it? Doubt crept into her thoughts. It was true that memories could get hazy over time. She kept a diary but didn't write in it every day. And she hadn't started it till after she'd been at the school for several weeks. So she couldn't check her memory of her first day here against her diary. Suddenly an idea came to her. "Hey!" she blurted. "Why don't we go back in time to my first day at the Academy! It would be fun to relive the day and see what actually happened, right?" Her three BFFs stared at her in openmouthed surprise. "How would we do that?" Artemis asked. "By casting a time travel spell," Athena explained. "I've never done one before, but I'm sure I could come up with one that would work." She shrugged. "I mean, how hard could it be, right?" At the back of her mind, a nagging little voice warned her that she was being overly confident. She ignored it. Because now that she'd latched onto the time travel idea, she was determined not to let it go. Persephone grinned at her. "You're the brainiest goddessgirl I know, Athena. If anyone could pull off a spell like that, it would be you." Then she added, "I'm in." "Okay. Me too," said Aphrodite. "It'll be an adventure!" Artemis seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then she said, "All right, then. Let's do it!" It took Athena only a few minutes to come up with a spell. She wrote it down and showed it to the others. "That should work," said Persephone. Aphrodite and Artemis nodded in agreement. To make the spell as strong as possible, the goddessgirls held hands in a circle and chanted it together: "Winds of time, Hear our rhyme. Take us where we'd like to go. Show us what we want to know About our lives one year ago." As the four of them began to speak the final sentence of Athena's spell, they were startled by more shouts from the godboys playing morra in the courtyard below. For a split second Athena worried that her spell had been ruined by the boys' shouts, and that she and her friends would have to start their chant all over again. But a moment later the walls of Aphrodite's room seemed to fall away. The four goddessgirls were whisked upward in a sparkly, magical tornado-like wind. Around and around they spun, still holding hands. Until finally they touched down with four soft thumps at the top of a small grassy hill. It appeared that her spell had worked after all. But where exactly were they now? The Academy was nowhere in sight! Excerpted from Time Travelers: Super Special #2 by Joan Holub, Suzanne Williams All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.