Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief 

If you like Greek mythology, God’s and Goddesses of Mt. Olympus, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief is the starter book for you and the title suggests it all to you, yes! They still appear in 21^st century but only in books. However, the title is longer than other novels (e.g. Harry Potter, Fallen, Vampire Diaries etc.) but I think this is more appropriate than making it shorter. There are stories within the story of Greek mythology so let us just settle with that title, when you try to analyse and read the book, it is really a good, informative title cohesive with its content.

It is the first of the five-book series of Percy Jackson and the Olympians written by Rick Riordan released on June 28, 2005.

         I like the story but it would really be cool if you research before reading this book. In a way, it will be a big help understanding the characters of the story. It takes you down to your Greek mythology class for a while. I would be telling my book critic later on, the style, tone, mood, and other aspects will be tackled on the later part of this paper.

First, this is my summary of the story based on what I remembered:

The story is about a demigod (half man, half God), a 12-year-old ADHD and Dyslexia kid named Percy who lives in our time, of course he doesn’t know it (as usual). The story started on a museum trip, with Grover, by far his best friend. His other teacher called his attention and told him to go with him and so they left the bunch of students. The teacher confronted him but it attacks him then after, he would not believe what he saw, the teacher was a monster, fury, exactly. Then before he is torn into pieces, Grover and Mr. D. his true teacher saved him. After the incident, he knew he is a demigod; he is the son of Poseidon, the sea god, and bad forces everywhere looks for him.  He is allegedly the thief of Zeus’ lightning, as what the title suggest. And his journey to Camp Half Blood (permanent camp for half-bloods) started, he also knew that Grover is a satyr, half man, half goat (in appearance) also protects him. His mother also leaves with a stinky man, Gabe, which in return protected him from other elements.

In this part of the story, he met his second monster encounter, a Minotaur. It was the rough part when he had to enter the camp but his mother cannot, Yes! Because she’s human, full human. 12 cabins corresponds the twelve Olympians. For his first night, Percy stays in the Hermes cabin, where demigods who aren’t claimed by their God-parent stays. Poseidon, the sea god, claims Percy as his son during a game of capture-the-flag, this is like a welcome game for him, he saw how powerful he is when the water healed him while battling with Annabeth. Then, he stays in Poseidon’s place, alone.  Percy, being a child of one of the “Big Three”, Zeus, Hades and Poseidon received different reactions from other campers. He also became close to Annabeth, Athena’s daughter.  Percy is accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt. But he will not prolong his agony, he know that he did not steal it so, he, Annabeth, and Grover are given 10 days to return Zeus’ bolt to Mount Olympus , to stop the provoking war between the gods and save his mother, where Percy discovers she has been held hostage in the Underworld.  They encountered monsters like Medusa. When they defeated Medusa, they cut off her head and used it for defense to other monsters because everyone who looks at Medusa’s eyes becomes as hard as rock.

 It is then revealed that Luke, a son of Hermes and Ares, god of war, stole the bolt for Kronos, the villain God who is attempting to rise from Tartarus after Zeus decided to do. The master bolt – the weapon upon which all other lightning bolts are modeled – has been stolen, and Zeus has accused Poseidon of instigating the theft. The Lord of the Sky believes that Poseidon used Percy, a human hero, to steal the bolt in a plot to overthrow Zeus. He and Luke had an encounter before he could surrender the bolt to Mt. Olympus, in which in the present time in Empire State Building. At the end of the book, they safely return to camp and Percy makes a decision to stay home during the year, and only go to camp during the summer although he knew it would be an open world, where bunches of monsters are expected to come.

          Every author has his or her own style – that is, each author uses literary devices, tone, and mood in a particular way that makes his or her writing recognizable. When you read several books by the same author, you become accustomed to the author’s style of writing and sometimes you look for authors with a similar style.

      The author uses words, phrases, and sentences in his book very well. The dialogues and scenes (though this is a book) were really well written in the present time’s tone. The characters were described in like jigsaw puzzle, it is like giving more information as you go along the way, with this it makes a little suspense. While I was reading the book, every chapter gives me excitement, in a way that I already imagine things I want to expect in the next chapters.  For the vocabulary, I read very little unfamiliar words, for me, it made the book more interesting, why would the author write a full book of unfamiliar words than to make it more understandable and suitable for every reader. For the sentences and other components, all the parts were cohesively in a friendly approach, though excitement and expectation arises most of the time, those were met, naman!.

The genre of the book is Fantasy, Fiction, Thriller and Mystery. For the level of complexity in the writing, there was no boring part. The author mostly use compound and complex sentences also which I think is suitable for a suspense type of literary work. The types of writing devices does the author use dialogue and storytelling for some scenes he tries to explain himself at the book. The use of dialogues was also observed.  What about the level of detail for the story of Percy Jackson? The writing was descriptive (in describing characters, settings, actions/events) but it does not become too detailed, too ‘wordy’ or too ‘flowery’.

          The lightning thief explores Greek mythology in a modern setting, but it does so as a humorous work of fantasy, and makes no attempt to subvert or contradict Judeo-Christian teachings. Early in the book, the character Chiron draws a clear distinction between God, capital-G, the creator of the universe, and the Greek gods (lower-case g) explains the author, moreover, Greek mythology itself is thousands of years old. Anyone can write about the gods and monsters. Perhaps yone can come up with your own original spin on that material. “Like Percy, I’m pretty ADHD, and there are simply too many messages right now that distract me from my writing”, says the author during an interview, much has been said, we can say that the author have that “pinanghuhugutan ng istorya” I remember what my former high school teacher says, that the work of an author has always similarity than of that in his real life.

Rick Riordan is also the award-winning, bestselling author and creator of a new series The 39 Clues. Rick Riordan did not knew that the shared bedtime story with his oldest son was just the beginning of his journey into the world of children’s books. janAlready an award-winning author of mysteries for adults, Riordan, a former teacher, was asked by his son Haley to tell him some bedtime stories about the gods and heroes in Greek mythology. “I had taught Greek myths for many years at the middle school level, so I was glad to comply,” says Riordan. “When I ran out of myths, (Haley) was disappointed and asked me if I could make up something new with the same characters.” At the time, Haley had just been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. Greek mythology was one of the only subjects that interested the then second-grader in school. Motivated by Haley’s request, Riordan quickly came up with the character of Percy Jackson and told Haley all about “(Percy’s) quest to recover Zeus’s lightning bolt in modern-day America,” says Riordan. “It took about three nights to tell the whole story, and when I was done, Haley told me I should write it out as a book.”

Rick Riordan (pronounced as Ryer-dan) was an American history teacher when he wrote the Lightning Thief, so he was teaching about Andrew Jackson and Stonewall Jackson. His grandfather’s nickname was Jack. Also, Jackson was the name of his protagonist in the adult mystery series he began writing in 1997, which featured private eye Jackson “Tres” Navarre. Annabeth is a name hemade up. Rick Riordan also said during an interview that “Some names were picked as shout-outs to people I knew. Mrs. Dodds is based (loosely) on a real Mrs. Dodds who taught math at the school where I worked. Mr. Brunner was the Latin teacher there. Connor Stoll, Travis Stoll, and Charles Beckendorf are all former students of mine. I also had students named Miranda and Nico. But like I said, most names I pick because they just work well. I also have to be careful not to have too many names with the same first letter. It would get confusing, for instance, if everyone’s name started with ‘S’ — Sam, Sean, Shaw, Sally, and Susan”.

 The novel provides a high-interest, humorous introduction to the Greek myths. It works well if taught in conjunction with mythology, which is a core component of most English state curriculum frameworks. The novel can also be taught at any time after the introduction of Greek mythology, to draw on students’ prior experience as per standard three of the Standards for English Language Arts of the National Council of Teachers of English. Rick Riordan also has fifteen years experience as an English/language arts teacher at the middle school level. He designed The Lightning Thief to be appropriate reading for ages nine through fourteen.The novel offers an excellent chance for students to explore the Classical heritage of Greece as it applies to modern civilization; to analyze the elements of the hero’s quest rendered in a modern-day story with a first-person narrator to whom students can easily relate; and to discuss such relevant issues as learning disabilities, the nature of family, and themes of loyalty, friendship and faith.

Additional Readings:

http://rickriordan.blogspot.com/

http://www.rickriordan.com

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/rick-riordan