{Thoughts On} The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (book #1)

Author: Rick Riordan

Pages: 375

Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books

Published: June 2005 (1st printing)

Source: Library

Summary from Goodreads:

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. 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 and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But 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 betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

With cover art from the major motion picture, this first installment of Rick Riordan's best-selling series is a non-stop thrill-ride and a classic of mythic proportions.

After a Twitter discussion between me, Alexa, Jessica and Katelynn on good MG to start out with, I remembered that I had this one sitting on my shelves. Since they so highly recommended it, I gave it a try and really enjoyed it.

Percy is a 12 year old boy and I liked seeing the world through his eyes. He's been kicked out of every boarding school he has attended and when his class makes a trip to a museum, all the weirdness that is his life begins to click into place. Once this starts to happen, he really begins to see how things have happened to him in the past that are way out of the ordinary.

Once he makes it to the Half Blood's Camp, my enjoyment level went way up. I so loved hearing about the different gods and goddesses and about the training that the kids did. I adored how well the Greek myths were woven into the story. It made me immediately request a book on Greek Myths from the library so I can learn some on my own.

But once their quest began, I was on the edge of my seat and flying through the pages. As much as I enjoyed the action and the mystery, I did get to a point where I was ready for it to all wrap up. At almost 400 pages in length, it was fun but a tiny bit too long.

Grover, his best friend and protector, and Annabeth, Athena's daughter, were so much fun and such lively characters. I enjoyed the banter between the three. They grew into such brave kids and I loved the way their relationship gets more solid as they complete the quest. 

A couple of twists and turns surprised me and I enjoyed that immensely. I look forward to reading the other books in the series soon.

I was able to follow up my reading with watching the movie version and I was a bit surprised at how much was changed. I did learn that I have a new celeb crush. Logan Lerman, who played Percy, wasn't bad on the eyes. I'll forget the fact that he is technically young enough to be my son.  Pish posh...book boyfriends and celeb crushes don't have an age requirement, I say.