The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Copyright: 2005
Publisher: Hyperion
Genre: YA
Pages: 375
New-to-me Author: Yes
Author's Website



Simple Description:
Percy Jackson is at yet another boarding school and is almost at the point of being kicked out of yet another boarding school. He's been diagnosed with adhd and dyslexia. Nothing seems to go right in his life. He loves his Mom and wants to be with her but can't stand her new husband, Smelly Gabe.

While on a school field trip the math teacher tries to kill him and he is able to kill her with a pen that turned into a sward. The pen was thrown to him by his Latin Teacher. However as soon as it's done, everyone acts like nothing happened and there never was a math teacher named Mrs. Dobbs.

Things go from bad to worse when Percy goes home for the summer, knowing he's been kicked out of another boarding school. However his Mom has a surprise for him, they are going to the beach for vacation, without his step-dad. However the first night there they end up being chased by an evil monster that Percy kills after it kills his Mom. Then he finds himself in a summer camp for half-bloods. It appears that Percy's father is a god, you know, one of those that lives on Mount Olympus. Percy learns that WWIII is about the happen because the God's are upset with each other and it's up to him to stop it.

Percy sets out on a quest with a Satyr named Grover, another half-blood named Annabell, and the pen/sword. The goal is to retrieve the stolen item from Zeus and Percy's personal quest is to save his Mother, who he believes is still alive but trapped in the Underworld with Hades.

Now what you really want to know....my thoughts:
I absolutely loved this story! I remember reading all about the Greek Gods in 7th grade. We had to learn all the names and what they were God of. I remember looking forward to the contests in class where we would go up against our class mates to see who knew it better. While I'm a lot older know and dont' remember most of that anymore, it was still a lot of fun to read this book and recognize the names and recognize the Gods and what they did. This is such a fun spin on mythology, it's something I think a lot of kids would enjoy. I really wish this book was around when I was learning it in school, I can only hope that if my teacher is still teaching, she encourages the kids to read this for extra credit or possible as an assignment.

I can't wait to read more in this series. Oh yes..this is Book one in the series. I also can't wait for the movie to be released in February. The movie is actually what prompted me to read the book. I've owned the book for awhile now, but kept putting it off. Then I saw a trailer to the movie and it looked so darn good. I knew I had to read the book first. Just from watching the trailer, I can tell there are differences, but the movie still looks good.

This book is part of my collection and was either bought or given to me.