Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaosby R. L. LaFeversIt's the early 1900's and eleven-year old Theodosia has been spending all of her time at the Museum of Legends and Antiquities in London. Her father is the curator there and often forgets to go home when he's wrapped up in research so she sleeps in a sarcophagus in a storage room. Her mother is off in Egypt discovering new artifacts to being home. Living in a museum isn't the only strange thing that Theodosia has going on in her life. She's also the only one who can sense the dark magic which curses most of the artifacts brought back from Egypt and she's the only one who can try to counter the curses. When her mother makes a major discovery and brings home the Heart of Egypt things go from bad to worse.Everyone is after the Heart of Egypt and it is said to curse the land of whomever removes it from King Amenemhab's tomb in Egypt. Theodosia finds herself running from bad guys and recruited by the good guys, The Brotherhood of the Chosen Keepers. It is up to this eleven-year old girl to return the artifact to Egypt all on her own.I have no idea why I picked this book up. Something about it called to me and it somehow ended up on the counter at the check out. The cover art was interesting, but nothing about it really POPPED for me and serpents? Really? I am not known for my love of reptiles. So I don't know what it was that made me buy it, but I did.I don't know if I actually liked the book though. The plot was very interesting and at times funny, but I hated Theodosia with a growing passion so by the end of the book I was shocked when no one ever smacked some bloody sense into her. She is an arrogant, bratty, know-it-all and just goes about doing whatever she wants and she gets away with it - every time! Even when she stowed away on a ship from England to Egypt no one cared. OK, so she was caught and reprimanded very briefly but then her parents and the ship's captain all acted like it was no big thing that an eleven-year old ran away from home and stowed away on a ship leaving the country! Good lord!Another thing I disliked about the book was that Theo's parents - especially her father - were depicted as flighty, absent minded fools. They were so involved in their research they never thought about their two children - to the point that Theo never even went back to her boarding school after a break. When her father remembered to ask her why she was still around she told him she was learning much more in the museum than at school and IT WAS OK! Gah! Like a boarding school in the early 1900s would just ignore the fact one of their students never came back from a weekend break? I don't think so.There were many issues like those that cropped up in the book, like the grown-ups who headed the Brotherhood telling an 11-year old that she's the only one that can go back to Egypt and fix the curse. Really. Come on now.I don't think kids would have the same frustrations that I had with the book. They might relate more to it and maybe I'm just being old and crotchety. But I like to think I have a pretty vivid and active imagination and even THIS pushed the limits. I do not like bossy, bratty children whether they be in books or real life. ;)