THE MYTH OF MONSTERS: MEDUSA

The first in a new middle grade fantasy series, MEDUSA and the subsequent books are smart, page-turning feminist revisions of Greek mythology, the perfect counterpoint and complement to the Percy Jackson series.

This is the story of a sixth grade American girl named Ava Baldwin who is unexpectedly sent by her parents to a boarding school in Venice, Italy. Ava is soon shocked to learn that the school is for children who are descended from the monsters of mythology.

Once she figures out who she really is, she realizes the school is hiding something even bigger, and she and her new friends go on a mission to find the truth. The adventure that ensues takes the kids to the island where Medusa is imprisoned, to the underworld, and to Mount Olympus where Ava finds out the real story of her "monster" ancestor and the true purpose behind the school.

Further books in the series (there are currently two under contract) will spin out adventures centered around Ava's friends at the school and the real origin stories of the so-called monsters they're descended from. The books will question how we define heroes and monsters and in doing so question the patriarchal nature of both the myths and our own world today. Without the defeat of these so-called monsters, most of whom are female, is a hero really a hero? Ava and her friends' origin detective work chips away at the patriarchy by continually raising this question, and doing so in a fun, entertaining, unputdownable package.

Katherine Marsh is the Edgar Award-winning author of The Night Tourist, Nowhere Boy, The Twilight Prisoner, Jepp, Who Defied the Stars, The Doors By the Staircase, and The Lost Year. Katherine grew up in New York and now lives in Washington, DC with her husband, two children and and an astonishing array of pets.