The lightning thief book series#

He goes from the worst kid in a school for delinquents with the worst - and smelliest - stepdad ever to full-fledged hero in less than 400 pages, and readers will be rooting for him the whole way. Percy Jackson's origin story and first quest as a hero combine in The Lightning Thief.

The lightning thief book series#

This high-adventure series start imagines Greek mythology in the modern world through the eyes of a sardonically funny 12-year-old who many kids know and love. And right now the gods are warring and Percy's very existence may be partly to blame. That's when Percy learns his father was a Greek god, and Greek gods still exist and hold sway in the world. It's where kids like him can train and be safe from monsters. Percy wakes up much later in the strangest place he's ever been: Camp Half-Blood. A Minotaur attacks and tries to tear the car and Percy to shreds. His mom drives them to a camp she knows, one Percy's absent father told her about, but not fast enough. A terrible storm kicks up in the night and his friend Grover appears, banging on the door, telling Percy he has to flee. When Percy heads home to Manhattan for the summer holidays, he and his mom decide to take a trip to the coast. Then he overhears his best friend Grover talking to his favorite teacher about the danger he's in and how they need to protect him. His boarding school teacher turns into a monster, attacks him on a field trip, then disappears, and no one remembers she was ever there. In THE LIGHTNING THIEF, strange things keep happening around Percy Jackson. They will also have regular references to products, especially Coke and Oreos. Kids will learn a lot about the Greek idea of the Underworld. Percy's mom goes to the Underworld and is heavily mourned. There's other action violence as well, especially car accidents and exploding vehicles, and talk of animal abuse and spousal abuse. Usually the monsters turn to dust (though one is beheaded as a trophy) and the demigods get magically healed. There's a lot of mythology to keep straight and some tense monster fights. He's resilient, resourceful, and brave in the face of danger. On a quest, his more heroic qualities come through.

In The Lightning Thief he finds out his absent father is a Greek god (Greek gods still inhabit the modern world and have affairs with mortals) and that he has powers of his own as a demigod. He's a sardonically funny 12-year-old with dyslexia and ADHD who is not so great with authority. That's when most kids are ready for a main character like Percy Jackson. The best time for kids to get rolling is fourth or fifth grade. Once kids get started with The Lightning Thief, they often blow through all three series. Parents need to know that The Lightning Thief is the first book by Rick Riordan in a long-running saga that includes five books in the main series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, five books in a spinoff series, The Heroes of Olympus, and five books in another spinoff series, The Trials of Apollo.