The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) | Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) | Rick Riordan | Greek Mythology Made Fun!

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The Lightning Thie...

	The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) Rick Riordan Thorndike Press, 2006 - 483 pages average customer review:based on 265 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great

The book is great. If you like greek mythology you'll like this. It's all about the sons and daughters of the gods and humans. Percy has his life changed completely. The ending has a real twist that you wont believe and leaves you hanging.

Greek Mythology Made Fun!

The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan is a favorite of most of my 6th grade students. They are so involved in enjoying the realism of the characters that they do not even realize that they are learning about Greek mythology at the same time! I, too, have thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel (and the 3 that follow) as well as using it with my Literature classes.

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My Grandson loves it!

Although I did not read this book myself, I bought it for my Grandson (a bright and curious 9 year old). He loves it!

The good humor and mischievous nature of the book is revealed in chapter headings such as, "I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-algebra Teacher", "Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants", and "A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers."

He enjoyed J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and then Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi's Spiderwick Chronicles, so I though though this would be an appropriate selection for his interests. He is enjoying this series as well.

Not only is he identifying with the protagonist in the story, Percy Jackson, he is also becoming familiar with Greek Mythology. An added bonus is you can download an extensive teachers guide from Rick Riordan's site. The guide is a nice support for Moms who home school their children and is a fun way for all children to explore the characters and mythology found in the book.

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Eh...

What initially attracted me to this book was the whole concept of the ancient Greek gods living in modern day NYC...sorta reminded me of a YA version of Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

But what ultimately turned me off was the fact that it's pretty much a Harry Potter rip-off, right down to the character archetypes. The misunderstood "chosen one" Percy, goofy nerd Grover and smart and straight-laced Annabeth are EXACTLY like Harry, Ron and Hermione respectively, Ares' kids are EXACTLY like the Slytherins, etc. The author is clearly trying to milk the HP cashcow.

Don't get me wrong, it's a well-written book and is full of action, and I appreciated the fact that the author touched upon many topics important to kid's lives these days, such as the loss of a parent, enduring the anguish of having to switch schools and putting up with mentally abusive step-parents. And all those mythology aficionados out there will definitely get a kick out of this series...I however, considered it too much of a rip-off and couldn't finish it. Perhaps I would have liked it better had I not already read American Gods and Harry Potter, the two books this book clearly borrows heavily from. But I have, so I didn't.

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cutesy mashup of "Harry Potter", "American Gods" and Hamilton's "Mythology"

WARNING! SOME MILD SPOILERS BELOW!!

For me, "The Lightning Thief" wasn't too original. Plot wise, it takes many of the components of "Harry Potter" (Percy=Harry, Annabeth=Hermione, Grover=Ron, Chiron=Dumbledore, Clarisse= Draco, Camp Half Blood=Hogwarts, Kronos=Voldemort, etc), tossed with a bit of Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" (ie, the idea of mythological gods living in America in modern times, their world kind of hidden from mortal eyes). Anyone who has read Hamilton's "Mythology" or has a working knowledge of Greek mythology will recognize some of the characters long before it's revealed (it's pretty obvious who Percy's real dad is, for example). for kids new to Greek mythology, this book is a great introduction to some of these myths (it does a decent job of touching upon some of the lesser known ones, such as the story of Arachne and how Medusa was transformed).

There were some issues/annoyances I had with this book:

-the pace was rushed. I loved it was fast paced, but it was almost to fast paced. Percy seems to only be in camp for a few days; indeed the entire book takes place in the span of less than 2 weeks. I suppose kids like these ultra fast paced books, but it doesn't leave much time to know the other characters and so a lot of them turn out rather flat (Percy is by far the most well rounded character.)

-the know-it-all attitudes of the other campers are starting to aggravate me. They roll their eyes and laugh when Percy asks a question, as if he should somehow know this. This sets up a delayed explanation that is then delivered by Annabeth. it's evident in the next book as well and quite irritating after a while

-the actions of the characters are really silly, even for a YA fantasy book. the main trio fall into ridiculous, obvious traps, the villains are mostly inept, and in the end, a character basically commits murder (and this is handled in a nonchalant way).

-as an adult, I like reading young adult and children's books, but this is a book that just didn't appeal to me on an adult level. it was a bit too "cute" and simple. I can't really explain why I feel this way, but I've read other YA fantasy books that felt more adult than this book, more gritty and believable.

overall, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to a child since it is a great way of introducing them to mythology, but I just don't feel like this book lives up to other YA series like "Chronicles of Narnia". "His Dark Materials", and of course "Harry Potter". the premise is interesting, and Percy is a fantastic and funny character/narrator, but that alone doesn't make up for the fairly weak plot, which is basically just a revolving door of characters from mythology (I'll be interested to see how this is kept out through a 4+ book series)

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