Sunday 28 January 2024 13:00
In January, the SNFCC Teenagers’ Reading Club continues its meetings, facilitated by comic book artist and translator Thanasis Petrou as facilitator. Books of his include: Giannoulis Halepas. The Myth of Modern Greek Sculpture (on a script by Dimitris Vanellis, Patakis Publishers, 2019); Gra-Grou (on a script by Tassos Zafiriadis and Yannis Palavos, Ikaros Publishers); At the Battle of Marathon (Patakis Publishers, 2015).
The book
According to the tradition of the island, when its inhabitants turn eleven, they must go out to sea, touch a shiny black rock called “Serpent’s Tooth” with their hand and make a wish.
So, Amelia goes out to sea, struggling against the wild waves with her father on his boat. Amelia is a strange child; instead of going to school, she is home-schooled. She has a problem with words. It’s as if they can’t stand still. They keep jumping out of the page. It takes her a hundred hours to read something, and as for writing, forget about it – scrawls and scribbles! But now, for the first time, she has to go to a regular school. Her mom, a well-travelled documentary filmmaker, has left home, because she couldn’t bear the isolation of the island. Amelia doesn’t even know where her mother is. She imagines her filming in the Amazon or in Australia, but she has no communication with her. Will Amelia be able to adapt to the school environment? Will she make friends, or will everyone think she’s just too weird? Where is her mom? Will the two be reunited? And what was Amelia’s wish at the Serpent’s Tooth Rock? It is said that dangerous things happen to those who are so foolish as to make wishes at the Serpent’s Tooth, and Amelia felt a strange warmth when she touched the frozen rock. Is it possible that magic might feel so real?
The author
Amber Lee Dodd was born and raised in Portsmouth, England. She teaches creative writing, has a blue belt in kick boxing, and has lived in a castle in Scotland for a while. Her dream is to go to the Arctic, or cross the Arabian Desert, like the women-explorers of her book. Mostly, however, she spends her time dressed in 1940s clothes and inventing stories. Plays of hers have been staged at the Chichester Festival Theatre, Minerva Theatre, New Theatre Royal, and Edinburgh Fringe. Her first book, We Are Giants (2016), was nominated for ten awards; it won the Calderdale Book of the Year award, and was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award. Her short stories have been published in magazines around the world and have been broadcast on the radio by BBC Radio 4.
A few words about the Reading Club facilitator Thanasis Petrou was born in 1971 in Thessaloniki. He studied French Literature in Thessaloniki and Paris, and holds a postgraduate degree in Sociolinguistics. In 2002, he won the first prize in the comic book competition (“New Talents” category) organized by “9” magazine of Eleftherotypia newspaper in collaboration with the AKTO School of Art & Design. From 2002 to 2005, he studied on a scholarship at the Sketch, Comic Book & Cartoon department of AKTO. He has worked as a French teacher, a translator, an illustrator, a musician. From 2005 to 2011, he worked with "9" magazine of Eleftherotypia newspaper. Since 2012, he has been teaching at AKTO. From 2008 to 2022, 16 comic books of his have been published by various publishers, both on scripts of his own and on scripts by other authors (Dimitris Vanellis, Katerina Servi, Pavlos Methenitis, Tassos Zafiriadis, Yannis Palavos et al.). His latest book is: “1923: Hostile Homeland” (Ikaros Books, 2022).
Sunday 28/1 13.00-14.30
ΖΟΟΜ
For teens aged 12 to 16 Online preregistration required
Preregistration starts on Jan. 3, 12:00 noon
A key prerequisite for participating in the Book Club is to have read the book and wish to share your opinion of it.
Amber Lee Dodd’s Lightning Chase Me Home is available in Greek from Metaichmio Publications.
As part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center’s collaboration with the National Library of Greece (NLG), the book of the month has been chosen by NLG staff.
