He’s a young artist obsessed with myths. But can he fix his own fate? Acclaimed author Betsy Franco and her talented son collaborate on a ...
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Aug 16, 2010
McKenzie
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Metamorphosis: Junior Year is a combination of drawings, poems, journal entries, and narration. Ovid, drawing inspiration from his namesake, relates his high school experiences to Roman mythology. Each person in his life becomes a mythological character. Through his poems we learn people's deepest secrets, ones that no one else knows. But Ovid's got a dark secret of his own.
Oh. My. Gosh. That's really all I have to say. Metamorphosis completely blew me away! At only 114 pages compris More...
Oh. My. Gosh. That's really all I have to say. Metamorphosis completely blew me away! At only 114 pages compris More...
Feb 03, 2010
Rachel
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Ovid is an observant teenager who likes to express his thoughts about life, death and identity through his drawings and poetry. He has a lot to say recently because his meth-addict sister has runway from home and his parents have been on his back ever since trying to make sure he doesn’t go down the same path. Ovid’s friends are also experiencing some tough issues including a break up, the death of a parent and divorce. Ovid documents these events in his journal using narrative stories, poetry a
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Jan 22, 2010
Yvonne
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What a little gem of a book.
Ovid, named after and inspired by the Roman poet, journals all of his thoughts into a notebook. This teenagers voice is very believable and honest; he holds nothing back putting all his feelings on the line.
Ovid's journal tells of his high school experience, he gives the reader a snapshot of his life, as well as the lives of other high school students in a unique way. Ovid also gives each student a separate identity, connecting each one to a More...
Ovid, named after and inspired by the Roman poet, journals all of his thoughts into a notebook. This teenagers voice is very believable and honest; he holds nothing back putting all his feelings on the line.
Ovid's journal tells of his high school experience, he gives the reader a snapshot of his life, as well as the lives of other high school students in a unique way. Ovid also gives each student a separate identity, connecting each one to a More...
Jan 09, 2010
Jennifer
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Reviewed by McKenzie Tritt for TeensReadToo.com
Ovid, named after and inspired by the Roman poet, journals all of his thoughts into a notebook, adding his expressive drawings throughout. Ovid's journal tells of his high school experience, as well as his family life, from an interesting perspective.
Through narrative, drawings, and emotional poetry, Ovid gives the reader a snapshot of his life, as well as the lives of other high school students. Each new poem reveals a diffe More...
Ovid, named after and inspired by the Roman poet, journals all of his thoughts into a notebook, adding his expressive drawings throughout. Ovid's journal tells of his high school experience, as well as his family life, from an interesting perspective.
Through narrative, drawings, and emotional poetry, Ovid gives the reader a snapshot of his life, as well as the lives of other high school students. Each new poem reveals a diffe More...
Jul 20, 2010
Christi
rated it:
Summary: Ovid pours the details of his tormented life into his journal by drawing pictures and writing poems and prose about himself and his classmates. The problems he’s having with his family and friends overwhelm him. He struggles to find out who he is and what makes him different from his sister who ran away. While struggling to regain the trust of his parents, make amends with his friends, and sorting out the reasons of his sister’s departure, he discovers the artist within and aspires t
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Apr 04, 2011
Raquelle
rated it:
Listening to this was a real treat. It's a short audio book, about 2 hours on 2 CDs. It was a delight listening to Betsy Franco's sons David Franco and James Franco (yes THE James Franco) read their mom's book. This book is heavily influenced by Ovid's Metamorphosis which was one of my favorite books to read in college. My favorite part, funny enough, was the informational part at the end that talked about Ovid's life, work, exile, and death. I'm glad this was included because as fun as it is to
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Jan 11, 2012
LibraryAvenger
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Metamorphosis: Junior Year is a quick read full of free-verse poetry and pen-and-ink drawings from Ovid, a junior high school teen, who has to be perfect to make up for the mistakes made by his meth-head older sister, Thena. If only his parents were as hopeful as they were when they named their kids, Ovid wouldn't have to try so hard to be perfect. He compares his life in high school to Roman mythology, comparing his friends to Icarus, Orpheus, Dalia, Cupid and Callisto among others. An artsy ki
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Jan 31, 2011
Elisquared
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What drew me to this book wasn't a review from a fellow book blogger, or even word of mouth from a friend. Nope, I bought this based on plain old book summary (the one listed above in fact). I have an obsession with Greek/Roman mythology. I've read The Odyssey 20 times, watched each movie made about the myths (super excited for The Eagle to be coming out!), and tried to read as many YA books based on the subject (some of my favorites: Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block, The Lightning Th
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Nov 07, 2011
Sesana
rated it:
This is an interesting take on updating a classic, in this case Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Ovid is artistic and, as his name suggests, his parents once were, too. But now that Ovid's artistic, unconventional older sister has become addicted to meth and run away, his parents are reacting by trying to fix their failures with her. For them, that means pressuring Ovid to be "normal", up to and including abandoning his art. Obviously, a huge source of friction at home. One of his teac More...
Ovid is artistic and, as his name suggests, his parents once were, too. But now that Ovid's artistic, unconventional older sister has become addicted to meth and run away, his parents are reacting by trying to fix their failures with her. For them, that means pressuring Ovid to be "normal", up to and including abandoning his art. Obviously, a huge source of friction at home. One of his teac More...
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May 17, 2011
Betsy Franco acknowledges a debt to Mary Zimmerman's play based on Ovid's Metamorphoses--and you can definitely sense more of Zimmerman's tone than Ovid's in this novel. Zimmerman's tongue-in-cheek, over-simplified Ovid rubs me the wrong way, and so I was a bit put off by Franco's revisioning of Ovid, too, for the same reason. I also wonder if the high-school language would sound contrived to an actual high-schooler. It definitely did to me--but it's been decades since I was that age.
Mar 12, 2010
E.
rated it:
This book told with prose, poetry, and illustrations is the story of high school student Ovid as he breaks away from the mold his family has created for him. He’s still reeling from the disappearance of his sister, who can’t break from her meth addiction long enough to come home. He has a sketch book where he draws strange things that he doesn’t dare put on his bedroom walls, for fear his parents will ask too many questions. In the sanctity of his art class, though, he is encouraged to explor
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Aug 03, 2009
Summer
rated it:
Simply put, I really liked this book. Two pages in and I'd forgotten that a diminutive mother of three had written it as the voice seems to come from the deep center of a troubled, honest, genuine 16/17-year-old boy. My only complaint...it's too short. I could easily have read more from this kid.
Jan 17, 2010
Lauren
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I thought that this book was really interesting, and would have been good if it were longer, but it was only 114 pages long and didn't seem to have much of a plot. I really liked the writing style and the poems written throughout the book but the ending was very unsatisfying.
Dec 16, 2009
T.
rated it:
I agree with many of the reviews that say that this was a wonderful book but was a bit too short. I enjoyed Ovid's insights and loved how "True to life" this book was. I was also excited to see a new plot point that I've never seen in YA literature (what Ovid does).
Jun 02, 2010
Sandy
rated it:
Meh. I like the premise and parts of this book were actually excellent and interesting on their own. But somehow I'm left feeling kind of indifferent in the end. And I honestly didn't care for the illustrations - but that could just be me.
Jul 06, 2010
Anna
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I can't remember much of the book(not much of a good sign) but what I do recall is the awesome names of the charactors, and the drawings in it were just fantastic.
Aug 14, 2009
Bethany
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This is sort of a not-humorous "Spanking Shakespeare." Instead of a boy who's named after a prolific writer and is plagued by a number of ridiculous encounters and circumstances, we have a boy named after an ancient Roman poet with a junkie sister and friends who are willing to change everything about themselves to change their circumstances.
The hardcore themes are presented very topically, and the allusions to Ovid's "Metamorphoses" are spelled out, so this does More...
The hardcore themes are presented very topically, and the allusions to Ovid's "Metamorphoses" are spelled out, so this does More...
Sep 24, 2011
Marisa
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I wouldn't read it if you are like me and know nothing about Roman mythology - I know I missed all of the references and it was very confusing for me.
Jul 07, 2010
Wendy
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Not much of a plot. More of an "i've finally accepted myself and who cares if everyone else thinks i'm completely screwed up" kinda thing.
Jun 18, 2009
Anna
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I just couldn't find a connection with the main character. That's one of the big things that makes or breaks a book for me.
Dec 02, 2011
Lisa
rated it:
Cool interpretation of Ovid's Metamorphosis as life in a present day high school.
Feb 19, 2011
eXtreme
rated it:
Lovely poems that give Greek myths a reality check. Life isn't always beautiful.
Oct 03, 2010
Mikayla
rated it:
Pretty good book. Not exactly a book that you can keep glued to for hours at a time though.
Dec 31, 2009
Laura
rated it:
This would have been a four-star if it had been a little longer. At 128 pages, you just skim the surface of Ovid's junior year: the pairings, break-ups, crushes, disappointments, friends and his missing runaway meth-addict sister Thena.
I'm the first to blip over poetry when it appears in books, but I did read some of the poems and they were quite good - miss them, and you'll miss the backstory to the action.
I'm the first to blip over poetry when it appears in books, but I did read some of the poems and they were quite good - miss them, and you'll miss the backstory to the action.
Jan 11, 2010
Ever
rated it:
I think I would have appreciated this more if the references to Metamorphoses weren't so overt. Still, it's nice to see Publius Ovidius Naso in the YA stacks.
Feb 12, 2012
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