Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Lightning Thief

No, The Lightning Thief is not a Newbery winner, but it was so good that I felt it deserved a review here anyway. This book is now my new favorite read-aloud book. It has action designed to hook you right from the start, engaging characters, hilarious dialogue, and a brilliant irreverence for the characters of Greek mythology.

The brief plot summary is that Percy Jackson, the hero of the series, discovers that he's a half-blood: half human, half god. First he has to find out what that really means and who his father is. Then he gets tapped to go on a quest to clear his name of stealing Zeus' thunderbolt and somehow avert WW3. Along the way he meets all kinds of characters out of the Greek myths and does clearly unbelievable things like battling gods, even if you do buy the premise that he's a demigod. The author makes it pretty easy to suspend disbelief, though.

Since it turns out that this is the first book of a series of five, I'll have to read on to see if the rest live up to the standard Riordan has set with this one. I hope so: I love to use a read aloud book to spur kids into reading not just one but a handful of them!


2 comments:

  1. I agree! I loved reading it with you. I also think it is better to read these kinds of books aloud because it gives you and bigger chance of catching the smallest details rather than skimming through the chapters a mile a minute not knowing what the book is even about! To sum it all up, I recommend this book to anyone with a big appetite for a thrilling book like The Lightning Thief! Enjoy!

    P.S.- Dont be dissapointed if you finish the first book and are hungry for more, there are still four more books to read and enjoy the excitement of the Percy Jackson adventures!

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  2. very good book and i am glad i got to read it. it was wondrful and i was always wanting to read more. I love this book and if you like adventures you will love this book.

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