Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The Lightning Thief

I picked up this book because it was popping up on lists everywhere. The readers who I have come to be able to trust were ranting and raving about it and when I realized it had a Greek gods in with the story, it was just a draw that was too powerful to resist.*

This is the story of Percy Jackson, a troubled kid who has ADHD, dyslexia, a hot temper and the inability to stay in any school for more than a year. He fails every class, is currently at a boarding school, has a disgusting step-dad, a saint of a mother, no connection with his real father and he keeps encountering what he thought were ancient mythological creatures but they are in his life. Zeus thinks Percy stole his lightning bolt and even though he has no idea why such accusations could be thrown at him, he has to find the lightning bolt and get it to Mt Olympus in ten days or western civilization could be completely destroyed.

I LOVED this book. I loved it so much that I was willing to take a risk and read it out loud to all of my junior English classes. I am reading the whole book four more times, one chapter at a time. The writing is hilarious, the chapter headings make my day, the mythology is accurate. It is kindof like the movie National Treasure in that each validation of the gods influence on our society does have a decent enough premise that you could make a case for it. I laughed out loud several time the first time through, and still laugh, even my fifth time reading a section. It is an absolutely delightful book.

*(I have this thing with the Greek society - I LOVE it! The gods, the philosophers...it is always in my top five of other time periods I would visit if I ever found myself in a time machine)

6 comments:

Erin said...

I'm curious - what would be the other 4 periods in history you would visit?

Tasha said...

England with Queen Elizabeth while Milton was alive; Renaissance in Italy; America with Thoreau, Emerson, Alcott; and Germany when Beethoven was composing and performing - there are a couple others, but those are the ones that come to mind... :)

Harmony said...

I didn't know you were into Greek mythology, but I thought you would like this series, at least for your students, if not for yourself. I like books that appeal to a wide range of ages. Ryan and Adam ate these books up, and Jeff and I have enjoyed them too.

Harmony said...

Here's a review of another book that sounds like it might be up your alley. I haven't read it, so I can't say it's amazing, but the reviewer was a college roommate of mine, a wonderful musician, a beautiful person, and a mother of six.

http://casosfamily.blogspot.com/2009/09/latest-book.html

Anonymous said...

I am just finishing this book and have loved it as well. We seem to be on the same track of stories :)

Erin said...

So I just read that post about poet-you-know-who. HILARIOUS! Spot on!