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Leonidas of Sparta: A Boy of the Agoge

Helena P. Schrader
Wheatmark (2010)
ISBN 9781604944747
Reviewed by Charline Ratcliff for RebeccasReads (10/10)


While I enjoyed reading “Leonidas of Sparta: A Boy of the Agoge” by author Helena P.  Schrader, I’m going to be honest and admit that it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I thought I was going to be reading a fictional story about the legendary Leonidas. I did count on historical facts being woven throughout the book but I figured they would only be used to provide that “realistic” feel. What I got was a book that seemed to focus on education, culture, laws and the Spartan way of life. Leonidas was present, but at times he seemed almost an afterthought… Superfluous as his mother would say…

When I finished, and being slightly dissatisfied, I decided to look at this book from a different point of view. “Leonidas of Sparta: A Boy of the Agoge” is the first book in a trilogy about Leonidas. Hmmm… Maybe the author really intended to focus more on Leonidas’s surroundings as a child rather than Leonidas himself. After all, one can hypothesize that ultimately Leonidas’s childhood is what shaped him into the man he became.

Unfortunately I wasn’t completely thrilled with the writing style either. While I did find “Leonidas of Sparta: A Boy of the Agoge” to be a decent book I definitely was not sitting on the edge of my seat as I read it. It flowed like a non-fiction book. It seemed to be mainly facts and figures with hardly any suspense, drama or humor. Every now and again there was a glimmer of something but then it vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared. At this point I remembered reading that Schrader had previously published four non-fiction books. I realized that this would help explain the writing style.

As far as a rating, I give “Leonidas of Sparta: A Boy of the Agoge” three stars. It is a solid book and I would classify it as an interesting read. Schrader does have a good writing style – it’s just a bit on the dry side. She is also descriptive but, because of her writing style, her words tend to come across as if they belong in a college textbook or the “Journal of Ancient Spartan and Greek History.”

I am however looking forward to reading the final two books in this series. My only hope is that Leonidas plays a more exciting and interesting role in them…