G342 Book Review of Curses and Smoke by Vicky Alvear Shecter
Name of Book: Curses and Smoke Author: Vicky Alvear Shecter ISBN: 9780545509930 Publisher: Scholastic Type of book: Pompeii, slavery, gladiators, class distinctions, history, Herculaneum, Rome, Vesuvius, 79 ME, autumn, forbidden love, family relationships, master/slave relationship, medicine, daily life, portents Year it was published: 2014 Summary: When your world blows apart, what will you hold onto? TAG is a medical slave, doomed to spend his life healing his master's injured gladiators. But his warrior's heart yearns to fight in the gladiator ring himself and earn enough money to win his freedom. LUCIA is the daughter of Tag's owner, doomed by her father's greed to marry a much older Roman man. But she loves studying the natural world around her home in Pompeii, and lately she's been noticing some odd occurrences in the landscape: small lakes disappearing; a sulfurous smell in the air. . . . When the two childhood friends reconnect, eac...