Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

In my quest to one day in my writing career to write books for middle grade, I decided the best I could try and learn what it takes to write a middle grade book was to read them and evaluating what the author does to the books that makes them appealing to kids. The only children's books I have ever enjoyed reading were the Harry Potter series and the Junie B. Jones books by Barbara Parker, and it's mostly because I grew up with the books and saw as each new title was released each year and displayed in the bookstores. I went around asking many for recommendations and I was told the Percy Jackson books. I knew it was a movie but I honestly thought the books were YA not MG and I hadn't read the book or seen the film. So I decided to begin reading this book.





Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.
Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus' stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.




 

The Lightening Thief is book one in the Percy Jackson series. Percy Jackson is a twelve year old boy with learning disabilities. Percy has been rejected by schools and bounced around countless schools due to his abnormal behavior. Percy's math teacher also turns out to be a mythical creature in search of a mythological object. Percy soon discovers that he not like every one else, he's a demigod, the son of one of the Gods of Mount Olympus. 

When I first began reading the book, I had to try very hard to not read it with Harry Potter expectations. This has to be the first children's book I have read since Harry Potter series. I found this to be a new unique idea and plot compared to most of the books in the young adult genre. I think this book inspired the trend of Greek mythology in YA books today. I happened to find this a really good read. It almost reminded me of the Harry Potter books. The reviewers who say it's a rip-off of Harry Potter are reading it with the Harry Potter series in mind, because  they are nothing alike. The writing is what really hooked me from the first page. The world was created so well with such vivid imagination that it keeps the reader engaged into the novel. It has quirky dialogue with action that made me never want to put the book down. This is something many young boys will enjoy reading along with the Harry Potter books. Now I must go buy the DVD of Percy Jackson and read the second book before the next film comes out.