The Lion's Slave by: Terry Deary

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Picture Window Books

Copyright Date: 2007

Number of Pages: 63

Reading Level: 7-11

Summary:

Lydia is a servant who works for Archimedes (the lion of Syracuse) the famous Greek inventor/mathematician. She doesn't really like working for Archimedes because he always calls her stupid and useless. She doesn't like this treatment but believes that in comparison to Archimedes she is stupid and useless. One day the Romans came to attack Greece. Archimedes knew that his life would be over and Lydia worried that hers would be too but he told her she is too stupid to be killed she would be taken as a slave. She begged him to invent something that would stop the Romans from attacking. She suggested they throw rocks at them. He laughed at her. But she showed him how she and her brothers used to do it as kids. She grabbed a plank of wood and put a rock underneath it in the middle. She put the rock to be thrown on one end and then jumped on the other launching it into the air. This gave Archimedes and idea, and then the catapult was invented. She showed him two more childish games they used to play that led to him inventing something else. including, a giant crane, and a giant mirror that could reflect the sun's light and burn down the ships. All these inventions worked. But then the Romans came to attack on land. One soldier arrived at Archimedes house demanding to know who lived there. Lydia told him, and the soldier said that he was told not to harm him. In response, Lydia said, "that's nice of you seeing all that Archimedes did to you." She went on to explain that He was the one who invented the catapult, the claw, and the mirror that destroyed their ships. The soldier was so mad, he killed Archimedes. Lydia did in fact become a Roman slave, but she liked it better.

Who would benefit from reading this book/Who would I recommend this book to?

This is a good book for teachers to have when talking about ancient Greece. It has vocab words in the beginning that they should learn. Then at the back it talks about the true elements of the story and those that are fictional.

What problems/conflicts could this book potentially cause?

None that I know of.

My reaction:

I thought this book was great! It was a cute story that showed who Archimedes was and what he did in a way that kids could understand. I thought it was really well written.