Hello! This is Michelle Reid in Dodge City for HPPR’s Radio Readers Book Club Book Bytes. I’m the school librarian at Dodge City High School, and I will mostly be talking about some of the best young adult books I’ve read. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that young adult books are only for teens. YA authors are producing some of the best written, most thoughtful books that are being published right now.
Today I’d like to tell you about the book Amber and Clay, written by Newberry Award-winning author Laura Amy Schultz, and illustrated by Julia Iredale. The book was published in 2021. Although this book is recommended for middle grade children, everyone, children and adults, will enjoy this well-written, complex novel told in combined verse and prose.
Amber and Clay is narrated by Hermes and set in Ancient Greece. Hermes tells us of two characters, the children Melisto and Rhaskos. Melisto, precious as amber to her father, is the wild daughter of a Greek aristocrat, destined to marry and thus be tamed; she rails against this marriage that her mother is forcing upon her. Before marrying, however, she must first spend a dangerous year serving at the temple of Athena. Rhaskos is the son of an enslaved Thracian woman and thus enslaved himself, serving in the stables of his master; his only worth is what he can provide for others. Rhaskos is clay - meant to be used, fragile yet strong, and able to be molded into something more than he seems. Rhaskos’ life changes when he meets and builds a relationship with Socrates. In secret, he begins to explore art and philosophy, at the same time learning that he has worth despite his seemingly insurmountable position in Grecian society.
Although Melisto and Rhaskos never meet, they are bound to each other through Rhaskos’ Thracian mother Thratta, who is sold away from Rhaskos when he is a small child and who becomes Melisto’s nursemaid. We learn very little of Thratta’s life before she was enslaved, but we do know that she was Thracian royalty earlier in her life. One of Rhaskos’ few memories of her is when she purposely scars his body, marking him as Thracian royalty, in the hopes that he will someday escape slavery and return to Thrace. When Melisto suddenly dies in the service of Athena, Thratta casts a spell on Melisto’s ghost, compelling the ghost to free Rhaskos. Melisto’s ghost cannot rest until she completes this duty.
An unusual but compelling feature of the book is the illustrated and captioned archaeological artifacts that precede each chapter. These artifacts prepare the reader for the chapter, as each one is related to something the character is creating or using in that chapter of the novel. They further the plot and tie the book to the present, helping readers (especially young readers) realize that those items we see in museums have a story - they belonged to a human just like them who used those items and valued them long ago.
Amber and Clay features gods and goddesses, masters and slaves, parents and children, and a philosopher to tell an original, beautiful story of what a mother will do to save her child, how people who seem trapped can sometimes free themselves, and how art transforms lives.
If you enjoy Greek mythology, you don’t want to miss Amber and Clay. It would also be a wonderful book to read aloud with older children.
For HPPR’s Radio Readers Book Club Summer Reading list, I’m Michelle Reid.
