A book review: Athena the Wise

            Athena the Wise is part of a series called Goddess Girls by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams.  When a new boy named Heracles is admitted to MOA (aka, Mount Olympus Academy), he has to complete 12 difficult labors or else he’ll be kicked out!  Athena’s dad, Zeus, tells her to watch and help Heracles with the labors.  Three of the labors are to defeat a nine-headed Hydra, which is a mythical creature, capture a Cretan bull, and clean out thousands of stalls full of horse poop (blech).  The last labor he completed was to win a strong goddess’s approval.  Athena gave him her approval by weaving two tapestries of Heracles doing all twelve of his labors.  Therefore he joined MOA and became immortal.