Goddess Girls – Nyx the Mysterious

Joan Holub's Nyx the Mysterious is a Goddess Girls story for 8 year olds about the shy goddess of the night on a week-long visit to Mount Olympus Academy.

What happens

Nyx is twelve. Every evening she spreads her starry cape across the sky, and every morning she folds it up again, small enough to fit in her pocket. Then she flies home to Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld, and goes to bed.

She loves it there. Her bedroom ceiling has stars that rearrange themselves into constellations! But she doesn't have any friends her own age.

So a letter from Athena and Artemis is a very big deal. They've won an essay prize by calling Nyx an unsung hero, and invited her to MOA for a week. Nyx isn't sure she deserves it (she was only doing her job).

She turns up in black velvet and purple lip gloss, with a birdcage and a bag. Everyone stares. Then Artemis thinks she sees something shadowy whoosh out of that bag...

What makes this one is how real Nyx's nerves feel. She frets about what to say and still gets it wrong. She snaps "I'm not a liar" at the girls who invited her, then worries she's blown it. When she makes a joke by accident, she's thrilled!

Who hasn't felt like that on the first day somewhere new?

There are lots of fun details too. The school office lady has nine heads. Nyx's parakeets are named after the gods of sleep and death. Principal Zeus hasn't been sleeping because of Athena's new baby sister. And when Nyx gets anxious, a dark mist starts swirling around her.

It's gentle and warm, with a little mystery running underneath. If your reader has ever felt a bit different from everyone else, they'll be cheering Nyx on from the first page.

What to read next

Fancy another girl arriving at MOA from somewhere else entirely? Try Medea the Enchantress. Her aunt Circe wants to whisk her off there after a prophecy about a thief coming for her dad's Golden Fleece.