Percy Jackson & The Olympians , The Lightning Thief

When it comes to YA literature, a common storyline is that the child is orphaned or has some sort of circumstance that makes them different, and forced to live outsides the line of normality. Percy Jackson & the Olympians, The Lightning Thief, is a book that could be read by both children and young adults (and adults, because I picked this one up on my own!). Percy Jackson is very similar to these orphaned young people in similar books, except for one thing...He has his mother and his stepfather, but his real father...well, he's a god, the Greek god of the Sea, Poseidon. Gods don't exactly get along, and between being shipped of between boarding school for behavior problems and running into weirs circumstances (with water AND monsters!), Percy begins to understand how different he is. This journey brings him to a camp of children who are the same as he is, half god half human. But when he learns he's the son of Poseidon, he also learns he must go on a journey to find a thunderbolt that will stop his Father and Zeus from fighting. This little trip leads him to the underworld, and with the help of his two friends Grover and Annabeth he defeats god after god to stop the pending war of the Gods. But with the completion of this journey, he realizes that there are many more to be had.

Besides the fact that this book is really well written, this would also be a great book to entice some reluctant readers. This book also has a male lead character which may be something that appeals to boy readers. I would compare this book to both the Hunger Game series and the Graceling series, not because of the level it is written at, but more so of its interest level...like those series this book is an absolute page turner.

Percy's diagnosis of ADHD is explained because of his half god half human status. It was hard for him to read, because he was meant to read Greek, and he couldn't sit still because he was so sensitive to detail. I really like that Riordan does this, because it's a great way to incorporate something that is very common (even if a child doesn't have this diagnosis, the indeed know what it is).

I would recommend this book for grade 5-6 and above, depending on their reading level.

I give this book a 5 out of 5!

Riordan, Rick. (2006). Percy Jackson & The Olympians. Hypherion Books, NY: New York.

Genre: Fantasy