Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief Review

This is what “like new” book at Thriftbooks.com looks like. My first purchase there of this series.

Synopsis from Disney Books:

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can’t seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper.  And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse-Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him.

When Percy’s mom finds out, she knows it’s time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he’ll be safe.  She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea.

Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends — one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena — Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.

About: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is a young adult mythology written by Rick Riordan. It was originally published on 3/1/2006 by Disney-Hyperion Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, paperback, 375 pages. The genres are young adult, mythology, fantasy, and fiction. This book is intended for readers ages 10 to 14, grades 5 to 9. There are five books to Percy Jackson and the Olympians series: book 1 was The Lightning Thief, book 2 was The Sea of Monsters, book 3 was The Titan’s Curse, book 4 was The Battle of the Labyrinth, and book 5 was The Last Olympian. Please see below for more information about the author and publisher.

My Experience: I started reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief on 2/1/2019 and finished it on 2/12/2019. I started out buddy reading this book with my 7 year old son but he finished it before me and took the Advanced Reading test at school on it and scored 100%. This book is an excellent read! I love that it’s fast paced. It’s so easy to read and Percy is really a likable guy despite his troubles with school. I love his bond with his mom. Percy is brave and he doesn’t leave his friends when they are in trouble. I like the friendship he has with Grover. I’m surprised to read “punk” coming out of Ares and Gabe’s mouth. I haven’t heard of that word in awhile, but then again, this book publishes back in 2006.

This book is told in the first person point of view following Percy Jackson, 12 years old half-blood and a student at Yancy Academy, private school for troubled kids. Percy doesn’t have an easy time growing up. He has to attend boarding school and live away from his mom. At school, trouble seems to find him and so in six years, he has attended six schools. Recently he sees his math teacher turns into a monster that tries to kill him. It scares his friend, Grover and his mom to the point that he is hauled off to summer camp. This camp is specialize for all Half-Bloods or Demigods; in other words, people who are half human and half God. From camp, Percy finds out who his father is and the reason for the bad weather happening currently. He learns that he must go on a quest to find the stolen weapon that Zeus lost and return to him before the war between the Gods break loose.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is very well written and action packed. The problem for me reading this book is watching the movie first. The movie doesn’t do the book justice at all. It ruins my enjoyment for the book much more than I thought it would. I like that the book has the basic explanation on who the Gods are and their family ties, like Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and Kronos. It’s great to read this book to learn about basic Greek mythology. Percy is not a perfect kid with perfect family along with Annabeth, fellow half-blood, and more likely readers can relate to them in some way. I highly recommend everyone to read this book because it’s definitely a book for everyone.

Pro: fast paced, page turner, bravery, friendship, humor, teamwork, challenges, family

Con: none

I rate it 5 stars!

Buy it here for free shipping: Book Depository or Disney Books’ website

About the Author:

Rick Riordan, dubbed “storyteller of the gods” by Publishers Weekly, is the author of five #1 New York Times best-selling middle grade series with millions of copies sold throughout the world: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, and the Trials of Apollo, based on Greek and Roman mythology; the Kane Chronicles, based on Ancient Egyptian mythology; and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, based on Norse mythology. Rick collaborated with illustrator John Rocco on two #1 New York Times best-selling collections of Greek myths for the whole family: Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods and Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes. Rick is also the publisher of an imprint at Disney-Hyperion, Rick Riordan Presents, dedicated to finding other authors of highly entertaining fiction based on world cultures and mythologies. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @camphalfblood (Info obtained from Edelweiss and photo obtained from Google image search).

More Information about Disney Books

Website: https://books.disney.com | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disneybooks | Twitter: https://twitter.com/disneybooks

***Disclaimer: Reading books I own for a change.

xoxo,
Jasmine