Monster Diaries_Minotaur_chapter 1 extract

READERS LOVE

MONSTER DIARIES!

‘A charming, funny and hugely enjoyable reimagining of Greek mythology. Perfect for fans of Loki.’ Anna James, bestselling author of the Pages & Co. series ‘Fun, fast-paced and hilarious, with fab illustrations.’

Philippa Leathley, bestselling author of the Inkbound series ‘Anarchic . . . propelled by short, cliff-hanger chapters and immersive illustrations. It will win Polyphemus a whole new army of fans.’ The Telegraph ‘Perfect for fans of Horrible Histories or Louie Stowell’s Loki series, it’s monstrously good fun.’ The Week Junior ‘An ideal way to explore Greek stories and myths.’ BookTrust

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First published in the United Kingdom by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2026 HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk HarperCollinsPublishers Macken House, 39/40 Mayor Street Upper Dublin 1, D01 C9W8, Ireland 1 Text copyright © Anne Miller 2026 Illustrations copyright © Sam Caldwell 2026 Cover design copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2026 All rights reserved ISBN 978–0–00–873304–9

Anne Miller and Sam Caldwell assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of the work respectively.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

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Hey there!

HERO

THAT’S ME, THESEUS!

I’m Theseus . That’s right, the VERY FAMOUS and HANDSOME Greek hero Theseus, in the flesh! Delighted to meet you. Would you like to bow to me? People often do.

You would like me to bow back? Oh no, I don’t bow to anyone. I’m VERY IMPORTANT, you see.

It’s SO NICE to meet someone so INTERESTED in my adventures – although most people are! Shall I tell you the tale of my MOST EPIC ADVENTURE – my TERRIFYING encounter with the MONSTROUS MINOTAUR? If you haven’t seen a minotaur before then count

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yourself lucky! I’ve only come across one on my adventures and that was QUITE ENOUGH! He was MONSTROUS! He had the head, hooves and horns of a bull but the body of a man. He was SCARY and HUGE and he had a tremendous

AAAAAR!!!!

OOOOO

RO

The beast was so terrifying that King Minos of Crete trapped it in the labyrinth (a special winding maze!) underneath his palace. We all thought he’d done the world a real solid favour.

BEWARE THE MINOTAUR

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But THEN things changed in a terrible way! Minos is a cruel king and when he fell out with the King of Athens* he organised a horrible punishment. The deal was that each year, Athens would have to send fourteen youths to Crete.

They would be sent into the minotaur’s labyrinth, where they would be gobbled up by the FEROCIOUS beast.

* There were LOTS of kings in ancient Greece.

I myself am a king of Athens – are you sure you don’t want to bow to me?

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As soon as I was old enough, I volunteered to sail to Crete and vowed to enter the labyrinth, except I would not be gobbled up. I would kill the beast myself. What’s that? Oh no, it wasn’t to bring an end to the horrible setup. I just didn’t want one of the others to manage it. I knew there would be huge fame and riches if someone escaped the labyrinth and I wanted that person to be ME!!!

And I did it! Not only did I survive and escape the labyrinth (THE FIRST PERSON EVER TO DO THAT!) but I actually figured out how to KILL the TERRIFYING MINOTAUR (honestly, it was easy!) before I left. AND, as a bonus, I rescued the beautiful, sweet Princess Ariadne as well. I know, I know, I’m a mighty warrior, an observant hero and just SUCH A GREAT GUY!!!

No, I didn’t have any help! Well, Princess Ariadne did give me some red thread to help me through the maze, but that was just a decorative detail. I got back to the palace in time for tea and a GIGANTIC VICTOR’S WELCOME where I told everyone it was just a regular day in the life of

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a GREEK HERO! I didn’t need a big fuss.

Then I set sail on my return voyage to Athens. I did get into a bit of trouble but that was a quick slip of the old memory box – nothing to worry about, although it did have quite disastrous consequences . . .

But don’t you worry about that – instead, remember the skill of Theseus! The one who beat that monstrous old minotaur – what a LEGEND!!!! (Me!!! Not Him!!! 100%!!)

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CHAPTER ONE

THE

S ’ R U A T O N MI STORY

Ha ha HAAAAA! Oh, Theseus, I don’t think so!

Now, unlike Theseus, YOU look pretty smart, so I’ll tell you the REAL story. You’re not a human, are you? I don’t mean to be rude but that is quite a distinctive smell.

You are? Okay, if you could just stand a bit further back, please . . . a little more, a little more, A LITTLE MORE. Okay, good! I just really like my own space. And watch out for my horns – they’re quite spiky.*

* Yes, I have horns. Stop staring! I’ll tell you more about them in a bit.

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bull half

human half

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First things first – I’m a minotaur, but you can call me Tor. Minotaurs look like humans from the waist down but like a bull on the top half. I have hooves for hands and these two huge horns on top of my head. I love my horns – they help carve out my personal space and keep most people far away from me, which is how I like it.

And yes, I used to live in a maze of tunnels underneath King Minos’s palace. My earliest memories are of splashing in the stream and making friends with the bats who live there too. I never saw anyone else down there, so I assumed everyone in the world was just like me until one day some HUMANS arrived in my maze and they were A: mean, and B: oddly shaped. It was so disconcerting it put me off my dinner of cave mushrooms*, so I ate the people instead. * Now that I’m out of the maze and have tried other foods, I can say with 100% confidence that while some mushrooms can be tasty and nice, the ones on the maze walls were TOTALLY GROSS. I just didn’t know it at the time.

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But I’m getting ahead of myself again! Ignore what

Theseus has told you – he is one of the WORST KINDS OF HUMANS and the type I WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND STAYING AWAY FROM. And also, he’s telling everyone he ‘slayed the minotaur’, but I’m sure you’ve noticed that can’t be true, GIVEN THAT I AM TALKING TO YOU RIGHT NOW. See, I knew you were smart!

Would you like to know where else Theseus went wrong? Let me take you back to my time in the maze and show you some of the bits Theseus totally missed.

‘Observant hero’ – ha ha, he wishes!