Today, I’m recommending the young adult novel, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Listed as one of the New York Times Notable Books of 2005, this first installment in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is a must-read for fans of Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, and The Underland Chronicles.
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson knows he’s different, but when a teacher becomes a deadly monster and his scrawny best friend turns out to be a satyr, he learns just how different he really is. Percy learns he is a demigod—the half human, half immortal—son of the Greek god Poseidon, ruler of the sea, making him one of the most powerful demigods alive.
There’s little time to process this news. Percy is immediately transferred from his boarding school to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods. To top it all off, a cryptic prophecy from the Oracle declaring,
You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.
You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.
You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.
And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.
leads to Percy being sent on his first quest. It is up to Percy, his best friend Grover, and Annabeth (daughter of Athena) to find Zeus’ stolen thunderbolt and return it to Mount Olympus before a war breaks out between the gods.
Check out The Lightning Thief and the rest of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series from the Sioux City Public Library.
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