Bull, written by David Elliott, reviewed by Caroline Rabideau

Summary: Have you heard the Greek take of Asterion the Minotaur, ruler of the stars? Minos seems help from the God, Poseidon. In return, Poseidon asks for the sacrifice of a white bull. Once king, Minos decides he doesn’t need to hold up to his end of the deal, and keeps the bull for his own. Poseidon, as revenge, makes Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, fall in love with the white bull. From this love, she conceives Asterion, half man, half bull. Though he grows up in the castle, loved by his mother, Minos wants to be rid Asterion and is seeking the right opportunity. He enlists a local engineer, Daedalus, to build a maze so challenging that, once Asterion is placed in it, he will never find his way out. When Minos beloved son dies tragically, Minos blames Athens, and tells them they will sacrifice 7 sons and 7 daughters to the crazed minotaur once per year. But when one of those sons volunteers, what will become of Asterion?

Straight Talk for Librarians: I was captivated by this book, from the minute I saw the cover to the very end of the authors notes. I am so blown away at the skill and craft hidden between the pages. For each character in the book, Elliot uses a different type of poem that he felt best fit that character’s personality. His use of alliteration, coupled with words or phrases our students use every day was both fascinating and edgy. The book read at a quick pace, and was gripping from start to finish. Elliot combined just enough crude language and imagery, plus a dose of sexual jokes and innuendos, to give the reader a taboo feeling, like maybe they were too close to these characters, maybe it bordered on too much information. And yet, his writing, style, and language make the story very real, very down to earth and approachable. I think, for any high school teacher who works with Greek literature in their classroom, this would be a great tool! It would be a great opening story to start discussing Greek lit, and would succeed at getting students attention and making them interested to read more. Further, the whole time I was reading this, I wanted to be back in my AP lit class with Mrs. P. She would have made us act this out, and it would have been great. Though Elliot adds passion and emotion to the characters, I often found myself wondering what tone I should be saying sections in. Should I sound angry, jealous, or sympathetic. This would be a great way to begin this conversation with young theatre students. How would they interpret the characters words? How would they add action to the story? Done on a simple stage like a theatre in the round, I think passionate actors could make such an impact using the spirit Elliot has embodied in his characters. Finally, to talk about poetry. Elliot uses less common poetry structures, like ottava rima, and Italian form of poetry, or cywdd, a Welsh form, to lend personality to his characters. This would be a great introduction to discussing forms of poetry, and using structure in student writing to further emphasize the purpose of the work. I will warn teachers, this book is not for the faint of heart. It has many sexual innuendos, and many straight forward details, which even trounce the number of swear words also woven into the text. Though I did think the sexual content might have slightly overpowered the story, I found that it read with the same wit that I find from Shakespeare, just more modernized and much more raw. I often found myself laughing at the situation as if it were comical. There were a number of swear words, but I was so focused on the text, I found they faded away, mixed in with words like “word,” “whatevs,” “pie hole” and “lol.” Then, in true teacher style, Elliot mixes the common slang with words like “odious,” “consonance,” and “asphyxiating,” giving enough detail to understand the meaning of the word, while also giving the book the high-quality, classic feel of a work of art. I would recommend this book to Mrs. P, my high school English teacher, who was fearless in her pursuit of making us love literature. She often gave us scandalous or emotionally-changed works to read, knowing her audience, knowing what caught our attention. This book will captivate your students and could be read completely in one to two class periods. It is slightly uncomfortable and unnerving to read, but I feel there is intention behind that. I’d say, if you’re comfortable with the topics included, go for it.

Check out David Elliott's Pinterest companion page for this book. Click here.