HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW
Book: Lysis Goes to the Play
Author: Caroline Dale Snedeker
Illustrator: Elizabeth Palmer Clark
Publisher: American Home School Publishing LLC, second printing published in 2005
ISBN-13: 978-0-9667067-4-1
ISBN-10: 0-9667067-4-9
Language level: 1 (nothing objectionable)
Reading level: Grades 5-6
Rating: 5 stars (EXCELLENT)
Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker
For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com
Snedeker, Caroline Dale. Lysis Goes to the Play (published in 1962 by Lothrop Lee and Shepherd; republished in 2003 and again in 2005 by American Home School Publishing LLC, P. O. Box 570, Cameron, MO 64429). Lysis is a thirteen-year-old boy in fifth century B. C. Athens, Greece. His father Democrates, a wealthy businessman, had planned to take Lysis to the annual play performed at the festival of Dionysius for the second time, but one of Democrates’s ships was wrecked at Samos and he had to go take care of it. His wife is away at their country farm with their two youngest children recuperating from a serious illness. Lysis is disappointed because boys are not supposed to be out in public by themselves. His younger sister Callisto also wants to go, but girls are not supposed to be out in public at all.
However, Lysis has an idea. Callisto will go to the play with him dressed as a boy named Calliphon. At the play, they see Sophocles, a playwright whose plays were performed the day before, along with Herodotus the historian, Pericles the ruler, and Phidias the sculptor. They also see Euripedes, the playwright whose play Alcestis is being played that day. It is about a king named Admetus who is condemned to die but his wife Alcestis agrees to die in his place. Callisto becomes so involved in the play that she thinks that it means that their mother has died. When it is over, they meet a good friend of their father’s, Demophon, and his son Menexenus, Lysis’s playmate. Will Lysis and Callisto be found out? When Callisto runs away, can she make it home? And did their mother die?
Lysis Goes to the Play was Snedeker’s last book and was published after her death. The story, exemplifying sibling affection, explores the culture of pagan Athenian society. Daily life in Athens, along with the roles of men and women, boys and girls, children and adults, free-men of other city states, Athenian citizens, and slaves in ancient Greece all come into focus. It is true that the pantheon of Greek gods, goddesses, and heroes is seen from the eyes of Lysis and his sister, but that is simply part of the historical background. There is one note that “most Greeks drank wine instead of water, for their water was not always good,” but it is also pointed out that “they mingled the two together and despised anyone who would drink his wine full strength.” The book is recommended by Veritas Press which says, “A splendid piece of historical fiction that takes you back to ancient Greece through the eyes of a child.” The story provides a very personal and critical means of learning about this important culture.”
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