I have just discovered, along with my almost 12 year old daughter a new series. It is called "Percy Jackson & The Olympians" The first book is called, "The Lightning Thief" and it has been made into a movie which will be out this February 12th. I went to the website of the film company that made the move to watch the long trailer. The movie looks phenomenal!! (go here to watch the long trailer.)
Here is a synopsis of the first book...
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school . . . again. No matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to stay out of trouble. But can he really be expected to stand by and watch while a bully picks on his scrawny best friend? Or not defend himself against his pre-algebra teacher when she turns into a monster and tries to kill him? Of course, no one believes Percy about the monster incident; he's not even sure he believes himself.
Until the Minotaur chases him to summer camp.
Suddenly, mythical creatures seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. The gods of Mount Olympus, he's coming to realize, are very much alive in the twenty-first century. And worse, he's angered a few of them: Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.
Now Percy has just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property, and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. On a daring road trip from their summer camp in New York to the gates of the Underworld in Los Angeles, Percy and his friends–one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena–will face a host of enemies determined to stop them. To succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of failure and betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.
The first book in the series first came out in 2005. The good thing is that book 5 was released last Spring so if you pick up the series now, you won't have to wait for more of the books to come out to finish the series.
The appeal of these books is Greek Mythology. My daughter has been fascinated with Greek Mythology for quite some time now. For Christmas, a friend gave her a great book that she
loves called, " Mythology" a part of the "ology" books for example, "Dragonology, Monsterology, Pirateology etc. We love these books at our house.
Getting back to the main subject,( I hate when I interrupt myself) my daughter was looking for new books to read and she found The Lightning Thief. She read this book so fast! This series will appeal to readers ages 9-16...or adults like me that love a good YA fantasy.
Many people have compared this series to Harry Potter; they both are about "half-blood" kids that go to a special school and find out that they have special powers. From there, it is different to me and you have a very fast-paced, action filled adventure starting with chapter one. If you have a reluctant reader, especially a boy, you must get these books for him. Like I said, these books do not only appeal to boys, because my daughter and her friends also love them.
If you plan on reading the book before you see the movie, get moving and reading. Move over Harry Potter, there is a new kid in town...Percy Jackson!
I LOVE this series! I have all the books and am sad it's over. I can always read them again though.:)
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