From the Publisher
Awards and Recognitions
- JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD GOLD STANDARD SELECTION
- AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS SEPT/OCT 2021 KIDS' INDIE NEXT LIST
- 2021 GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS POETRY NOMINEE
- 2022 CYBILS AWARD FINALIST
- 2022 MICHIGAN NOTABLE BOOK
- 2022 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER (IPPY) BOOK AWARDS
- SILVER MEDAL FOR YA FICTION
- GOLD MEDAL FOR AUDIOBOOK FICTION
- 2022 SILVER NAUTILUS AWARD – LYRIC PROSE CATEGORY
- 2022 KID'S BOOK CHOICE FINALIST – BEST STELLAR STORYTELLER
- 2022 MIDWEST BOOK AWARD –– FICTION, YA
(Awards)
A strong debut written with heart and strength. (Kirkus Reviews)
CALL ME ATHENA is a stunning and gorgeous debut from Colby Cedar Smith. Untamed and beautifully wild, this novel in verse careens from the hilltops of France to the olive groves of Greece to the bustling city streets of Detroit. Full of love & images that conjure family, hope, hardship and holding onto our dreams when things fall away from us. With lush, lyrical language, vibrant characters & a storyline that will keep you enthralled from beginning to end, this is a book that stays with you long after the last poem. I love this story.
(Ellen Hagan, co-author of Watch Us Rise and author of Reckless, Glorious Girl)
“Exquisite. A beautiful novel in verse.” (Ruta Sepetys, #1 New York Times bestselling author and Carnegie Medal winner)
“This story of an immigrant girl growing up in Detroit in the 1930s hits every mark. Woven into the story are her parents’ histories and all the love and loss the family has faced. It will tug your heartstrings.”
(American Booksellers Association)
“A compelling story of the tension between children and their immigrant parents and the sometimes conflicting dreams.” (School Library Journal)
Call Me Athena is a kaleidoscope of moments from the past, yet its real strength is the way it takes such different times, places, and stories and shows how commonalities like love, grief, and hope can connect a family over the course of generations. (Booklist)
Highly Recommended Review; “By writing this story as poetry told by the characters, Smith's language is strong, descriptive, and so full of emotion that readers will feel the overwhelming loss of a sibling, the stomach-turning events of the war, the fear of an arranged marriage, the hostility aimed at immigrants, and the political unrest of the times.” (School Library Connection)
“A young adult stunner lands in Detroit” (Hour Detroit)
“A novel in verse, Colby Cedar Smith’s Call Me Athena follows the daughter of immigrants in Detroit, with flashbacks to her parents’ native France and Greece.” (Forbes)
School Library Journal
08/01/2021
Gr 7 Up—Mary, a daughter of a Greek father and French mother, lives in Detroit with her twin sister and younger brothers during the Great Depression. Her dreams of a different life and a crush on an "American Boy" are in conflict with her father's desire for an arranged marriage to help the family financially. The desire to assimilate drives Mary. She wants a life where she can have choices, not expectations. Mary discovers letters written between her parents during World War I. The story moves back and forth between her parents' childhoods, meeting, and their war correspondence, and the life Mary is trying to create for herself. Their youthful goals run parallel to Mary's. A series of losses push Mary and her parents to start moving toward their dreams. Small details of the Great Depression are woven throughout---from Hoovervilles to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The author's note details her grandmother's experiences, on whom the story is based. The back matter also includes black-and-white photos of family members and a list with quotes and historical facts. VERDICT A compelling story of the tension between children and their immigrant parents and the sometimes conflicting dreams. A first purchase for larger libraries.—Tamara Saarinen, Pierce County Lib., WA
Kirkus Reviews
2021-05-27
A multigenerational coming-of-age story centered around an immigrant community during the Great Depression.
The novel begins in 1933 with Mary, 16, living in a small apartment in Detroit, Michigan, with her Greek father and French mother; twin sister, Marguerite; and three younger brothers. Her father, a shop owner struggling now that no one is buying Ford motorcars, wants to arrange her marriage to a fellow immigrant, but Mary longs for modernity, a job, and some fun with dashing, blond Billy. She finds a mysterious pile of unaddressed letters dated 1918, which leads to two other stories—that of Gio, a young Greek fisherman who, through complicated circumstances, ends up enlisted in the U.S. Army, and Jeanne, a wealthy French girl who volunteers with wounded soldiers at a hospital in Brittany. Eventually the strands come together to reveal the identities of Jeanne and Gio. At times, the plot seems too convoluted—Marguerite, Mary’s twin, never feels necessary at all—and the cryptic nature of the letters makes them feel inauthentic. However, the author’s sense of history brings details of the different times and cultures to life as she tells a story inspired by her family’s history. Her blank verse serves the tale well, with lines such as “Death walks the halls / naked, / without pride, asking for his mother,” to convey the youth and despair of injured young men.
A strong debut written with heart and strength. (author’s note, photographs, endnotes) (Verse novel. 12-18)
