Aphrodite & the Dragon's Emerald

Little Goddess Girls #11

by Joan Holub, Suzanne Williams, Yuyi Chen (Illustrator)

Aphrodite and Persephone look for a missing emerald in this eleventh Little Goddess Girls story—part of the Aladdin QUIX line!

Aphrodite and Persephone are on a quest to find another missing jewel from Sparkle City, this one an emerald. On their search, the friends find themselves in a new land where a friendly, flying purple dragon might hold the key to helping the girls find the missing treasure!

Genres: Fantasy

96 pages, Hardcover

Published May 2, 2023

About the author

NY Times bestselling children's book author:
GODDESS GIRLS series + HEROES IN TRAINING series (w Suzanne Williams); THIS LITTLE TRAILBLAZER a Girl Power Primer; ZERO THE HERO; I AM THE SHARK. Lucky to be doing what I love!

Reviews

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aphrodite and Persephone continue the quest to find the missing jewels. This time they are looking for the emerald and their hunt leads them to the Kingdom of Cut-Ups where King Pygmalion makes all the residents out of paper.

The goddess girls have certainly been to some interesting places during this miniseries of quests looking for the jewels. I don't think I've ever seen a kingdom populated by paper cut outs before in fiction, so points for creativity and reimagining the Pygmalion myth into a more kid-friendly format. Just 1 more jewel to go in the quest. (I haven't read the whole series, but I had no problem jumping in at book 9 which is the beginning of this little mini series of quests to find 4 stolen jewels. Kids can also feel free to jump in at that point if the whole series feels intimidating.)

Notes on content:
Language: None
Sexual content: King Pygmalion talks about being in love with one of his creations, nothing beyond talking of crushes on page.
Violence: A dragon blows around some paper people. They are ok.
Ethnic diversity: Greek goddesses/mythological characters and fantasy creatures
LGBTQ+ content: None
Other: Aphrodite loses her crown which helps her control her tongue so she speaks before thinking a few times and is a little mean. She does apologize.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aphrodite and Persephone are on quest to retrieve the emerald that has been stolen in order to help Zeus save Sparkle City. Still young and new to this goddess thing, Aphrodite knows that she's a little goddess (along with her three besties Persephone, Athena, and Artemis) but she doesn't know what her particular power is. When they come to the Land of Cut-Ups, they are given a far from warm reception. Threatened with imprisonment, will the two little goddesses succeed in their quest?

This is easy to read, large font for a lower elementary chapter book.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

These are still cute, but I don't like them as much without the Oz references.