Last summer, I picked up an ARC of Mary McCoy’s I,Claudia. It looked vaguely Roman and I thought it might work for the seventh grade Humanities teachers, who teach Ancient Rome and might be able to use it for a book club. It sat around in a TBR pile until last week when it became Printz Honor book. Now, I am reading it. I am far enough in to know that it is a little too mature for middle school, but I am really enjoying it.
From the author’s website: Disaffected teen historian Claudia McCarthy never wanted to be in charge of anything at the elite Imperial Day Academy. She never even wanted to be noticed. But when she’s pulled into the tumultuous and high-profile worlds of the school’s Senate and Honor Council, suddenly Claudia is wielding power over her fellow students that she never expected to have and isn’t sure she wants.
Claudia vows to use her power to help the school. But there are forces aligned against her: shocking scandals, tyrants waiting in the wings, and political dilemmas with no easy answers. As Claudia struggles to be a force for good in the universe, she wrestles with the questions: does power inevitably corrupt? Can she rise to power without losing herself in the process?
Based loosely on Robert Graves’s I, Claudius, Mary McCoy’s novel sheds light on the insidious nature of political power through the lens of one very smart and shrewd girl who uses ingenious methods to tell her version of history.
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