May Monthly Review

The book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is an easy-read fiction book that is set in present USA. The author tells the story of a young man, Percy Jackson, who prevents the gods from creating a war. He learns he is the son of the sea god, Poseidon. There is a law for one of the Big Three to not have kids anymore because there is a prophecy that one of the Big Three’s children will decide Olympus’ fate. Olympus is the home of the gods, on the 600^th floor of the Empire State Building. Percy Jackson goes on a quest with two friends, Annabeth, and Grover. His quest is to retrieve the Master Bolt, Zeus' weapon used to fight his father, Kronos. Along Percy's quest, he encounters Medusa, the Parthenon, water spirits, countless monsters, and the gods. Eventually, Percy finds Zeus’ Master Bolt, and Hades’ Helm of Darkness which almost triggered the war. It appears out of Percy’s backpack which was given by Ares, in which Ares knows who the lightning thief is. Although the lightning thief is not revealed by Ares, Percy finds out who it is. Luke, son of Hermes is the lightning thief. Luke escapes the Half-Blood Hill Camp with his magic flying shoes. Nobody knows where Luke is, not even the gods. But, it is revealed in The Sea of Monsters, that he is working for Kronos, lord of time,

2) For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

I would recommend this book to almost everybody who likes fantasy books. This book could also be recommended to children with great memory. This book is very easy to read, and I personally really love this book. My dad has actually already read this book; he recommended it to me to read for English class. Now, I love reading about Greek mythology and their gods. Historians who know about the Greek culture should read this book to analyze if everything is correct about the gods. The Greek gods are mentioned many times, and sometimes I get confused with the names. Introducing too many names in a book can be confusing to the reader, just like Bastard out of Carolina. (My monthly review can be found here. Bastard out of Carolina was a difficult book to read and understand at first, but after I remembered everybody’s name, it was a little easier to read.

Greek mythology was not interesting to me at first, but once I started learning about the characters, I began to like learning about it. Some elementary kids may not be able to understand the characters or some parts of the book.

Poor little Percy Jackson wasn't an international criminal after all. He'd caused a commotion on that Greyhound bus in New Jersey trying to get away from his captor...

On the news, it said that Ares kidnapped Percy and his mom, Annabeth, and Grover. Percy was actually fighting him. Ares "shot" a gas pipe that caused an earthquake. This fight ended with Percy wounding Ares, and Ares went away. The story is not as complicated as it seems. If I were in elementary school, I think it would be hard for me to read this book.

7) If you’ve read other books in this same genre, how does this one compare?

One book I've read in the same genre as The Lightning Thief is Eragon. This fantasy book was written by Christopher Paolini. In Eragon, Eragon is a simple farmer, until one day, he finds a mysterious blue egg. The blue egg hatches, and it appears that it was a dragon inside the egg. Eragon names her Saphira. His quest is to become a dragon rider, and defeat Galbatorix. Along the way, he meets Murtagh, Arya, and Brom. Only one of his companions survive, Arya. Brom is killed in an ambush by the Ra'zac, and Murtagh was killed in the next book.

Unlike Eragon, in The Lightning Thief, Percy has only 2 companions, Annabeth and Grover stay with him the whole journey. None of the main characters die in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. Percy Jackson's quest to save Olympus from a war is more interesting than Eragon to me. Eragon just got too boring, too long to read, and the series is still not over. After a point, the author just keeps stretching out the plot, and it is hard to read because he/she tried to extend it.

8) Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two characters.

One character I'm particularly interested in is Grover Underwood. He is Percy's bestfriend, and a character who sticks with Percy until the end. Grover was also the one assigned to transport Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia to the Half-Blood Camp. Grover is not human, he is a satyr. He's half goat, half human. Being half goat, Grover can talk to animals, such as dogs.

Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.

Gladiola, a pink poodle helped Percy and his friends get money enough to buy a train ticket on the Amtrak. Grover proves to be useful instead of using woodland magic all the time.

Grover's quest is to find Pan, the lord of the wild. Many believe he is dead, but satyrs refuse to believe their god is dead. People believe this because somebody shouted that the great Pan was dead, and that there are not many untouched wild places left in the world. Humans are taking over the world, jungles, mountains, etc.

Last, Grover proves to be loyal to Percy. He is willing to go in the Underworld, which no satyr has done before. Only three have escaped from the Underworld, Hercules, Houdini, and Orpheus. Although, Annabeth, Grover, and Percy all escape from the Underworld by crushing three marbles which allow them to go where ever they desire.