Enjoyable Read, Slightly Misleading Title


Sophomore Year is Greek to Me is a novel by Meredith Zeitlin about high school student, Zona Lowell.

Sophomore Year is Greek to Me is a novel by Meredith Zeitlin about high school student, Zona Lowell. Zona is in her sophomore year of high school when her dad gives her news that will change her world forever. They will be uprooting their life and going to Greece for six months. Zona’s dad is a journalist and he wants to write a book about the economical situation in Greece, and since her mother died when she was young, Zona is forced to go with him, therefore leaving her best friends, Hilary and Matty, and all life as she knows it in New York City. What makes the trip even worse is that she will have to see her mother’s family, the people that completely cut off contact when Zona’s mother fell in love with an American and went off to America. They didn’t even reach out to Zona and her dad when her mom died. Zona tries to convince her dad to let her stay in NYC but to no avail. They head off to Greece where Zona starts halfway into the year at her new school, the Greek International School in Athens and meets her cousin Yiota and friends at her new school, Lilena, Betony, Ashley, and Nicos. While spending her six months in Greece, Zona gets to know her new friends pretty well, along with the new guy she likes and that likes her, Alex. She meets her mother’s family with a few surprises and goes through many challenges that will test her friendships, her courage, and the only family she knew before she came to Greece.

Sophomore Year is Greek to Me was a fairly easy read. I would recommend this book to ages twelve and up, more for the middle school age group. There is next to no adult language and nothing that would be inappropriate for the age group. The only thing that could get this book below five stars is the fact that it goes all over the place. From the title you would expect a story about high school and while it does do this, it strays from the topic. It goes into family and relationships and while this was part of what made the book so good, it didn’t have a flowing plotline. Only about twenty five percent of the book was actually what the title makes it out to be. Otherwise, this story was very well spoken and a relatable story for the middle school age group.