Cleopatra's Daughter

by Michelle Moran

I learned a lot from this enjoyable book.  In my way of thinking that's like icing on the cake.  It's obvious that Michelle knows her stuff but she doesn't force feed it to the reader.  Instead she tells an engaging story and the 'heavy' stuff just softly settles around it.

The story is told from Selena's point of view.  She is the daughter of Cleopatra and Marc Antony and twin sister to Alexander Helios.  At the beginning of the book the Roman army is overpowering Alexandria.  Octavian takes Selena, Helios and their younger brother Ptolemy as his prisoners and transports them back to Rome.

The rest of the book tells about the next several years as Selena goes from an 11-yr-old to sixteen, wishing all those years for her return to Egypt with Helios as the ruler.

Read more about Cleopatra's Daughter on Michelle Moran's website.
Watch the cool video trailer.

My daughter is looking forward to reading this one after she finishes a few that are already on her plate.  I think she's going to love it, too.

In addition to a wonderful story, at the beginning of the book Moran has included a Time Line that briefly reviews some major events prior to the book's setting.  There's also a map of  the Roman Empire during the age of Ocatvian (later known as Augustus).  I love maps in books.  There's also a map of Rome.  A much needed resource for me was the list of major characters.  I referred to it often to remind me of who was related to who.  Divorce and mixed families were as common as they are in America today.  A final resources is the glossary.  All these resources may make you think you'll be slogging through this book.  Not so.  The story is very readable and the resources are the additions made by a thorough and thoughtful person.