Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. A-4

Name: Camilo Vasquez
Class Period: A-4
Book Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The lightning Thief
Author: Rick Riordan
Pages: 375
Rating: *****

Recommendation: Personally, I would recommend this book series to everyone. All of the books in this series are amazing, to tell you that this is now one of my favorite books! This book not only was filled with fantasy, fighting, "magic", and monsters, but it is also filled with mythological people. I had not known as much about Greek Gods before as I do now.

Summary: This book is about a kid named Percy Jackson. He has ADHD and is dyslexic, but does not now why. Also, he has never known his father. One day he and his mom go to the beach, and while they are there his friend grove, who he finds out is a satyr, comes to warn him that he is in danger. Percy finds out he is a demigod, and loses his mother on the way to half-blood camp, where they train demigods (children of the gods). The problem is, the only way to find out who your parent could be is if they claim you, and to many people's surprise, Percy turned out to be a son of Poseidon, the god of the sea. The thing is, though, that Zeus lost his master bolt, his ultimate weapon, and thinks that the person responsible is Percy. In order to clear his name, and also save his mom, Percy decides to go on a quest to the Underworld because he suspects that Hades, the god of the underworld, took Zeus' bolt. As he goes through his adventure he meets with Ares, God of war, and Ares "helps" Percy out by giving him a backpack full of things that he might need for his trip. But it was all a trap, inside of the backpack was Zeus' master bolt, Ares had set him up. Percy fights Ares, returns the bolt to Zeus, and returns to camp. When he is in camp, he talks to one of his friends, Luke, and finds out that he was the person who had stolen the master bolt, Luke had betrayed the Gods. But the scariest part is not that his friend was a traitor, but that his friend is being controlled by a bigger threat, a Titan who is extremely powerful, Kronos, The father of the Gods, and this is where one of the biggest wars in the history of the world begins.

Explanation of Rating: This book is so intense. It is literally impossible to put down once you started to read it. The book is written in such a way that you are always wondering what will happen next. It also has very detailed way of describing things, so that the story fells life-like. You get sucked into the book. The stories are creative, and in all the books in the series, there are unexpected twists, which makes it all the more exciting, because things do not turn out the way that you expect them to, adding to the mystery.

Favorite Passage: "You shall go west, and face the god who has turned...You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned...You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend...And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end."

The reason why I like this passage a lot is because is is the prophesy that the Oracle tells Percy when he leaves for his quest. i love the prophesies because they seem pretty clear, but they turn out much different then what you expect. It is pretty crazy, and it leaves you wondering what it is that it is really trying to say.