What an emotional roller-coaster! This is the fourth and final installment of the “Who let the Gods out?” series by Maz Evans. Elliot’s epic journey has reached a point where he needs to make the hardest, most devastating decision anyone could bare to make: to save the world, or to save the person he loves most in the world. This would be a great PSHE discussion point about Elliot’s feelings at the time. We learn from earlier books that Elliot’s mum was also ill before she was taken to the underworld, and there is a heart wrenching discussion between Elliot and his mum about whether she actually wants to be brought back to life. Again, this opens up a much needed, but delicate, talking point about dealing with death or even the role of child carers.
Despite the gravity of Elliot’s dilemma, there are lots of humorous anecdotes in the form of the Greek Gods, the Zodiac Council and other mythical creatures. There are quite a lot of characters to keep up with, but they are well identified through their speech and actions. KS2 pupils could use this as an example of how to write characterisation and how a character’s speech could change a reader’s perspective of them.
A full review is available in the UKLA’s 4-11 magazine, along with many other reviews of books for children, along with many interesting and thought-provoking articles – https://ukla.org
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