Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (#1) by Rick Riordan

★★★★

This book has a lot to offer its middle school-aged audience. As one might expect, it is significantly better than the movie, which deviates from the book quite a bit.

Young readers who have been diagnosed with a learning disability, and who consequently might feel inadequate or marginalized, might find refuge in Percy Jackson, a protagonist who thinks and feels like them. The book takes his dyslexia and ADHD and turns them on their head, using them to help define Percy Jackson as a demigod. For those who do not have learning disabilities, this book may be a first step in helping them to understand how their friends and classmates might feel. Rick Riordan does a good job of keeping the dyslexia and ADHD relevant to the story; he doesn't just mention them once and let them drop.

I was impressed with the extent of Greek mythology that was interspersed throughout the book. Percy Jackson has many more adventures in the book than in the movie, and he puts his knowledge of Greek mythology to much greater use in the book. Having never taken a course in mythology myself, I cross-referenced every mythological character with Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Interestingly, I found that The Lightning Thief sometimes had more detailed accounts of myths than Hamilton's book! When Hamilton didn't have what I was looking for, the Internet filled in the rest, and always Riordan was true to the the original myth. Even if there is more than one version of a story, Riordan always had a legitimate basis for his interpretation. Granted, sometimes his representation of a god or other character may have been over-simplified, but that can be forgiven, given his target audience. I can easily imagine young readers of Percy Jackson getting excited about mythology and wanting to learn more.

At first I was disappointed in the use of the first person narrative, as I always feel that at this level, in modern fiction, the main character's voice tends to be too informal. I have to admit, though, by the end of the book, it didn't bother me anymore.

There were a few Harry Potter-esque moments, when Percy didn't tell Chiron everything he should have, but somehow Percy didn't come off nearly as annoying as Harry. I'll chalk that up to Riordan's good writing. The chapters were well-defined, and the book progressed at a good pace. Towards the end, I knew to expect a twist, but I didn't know exactly what that twist would be, and it didn't bother me that I didn't know, because I trusted Riordan would tell me in due time.

Overall, good writing, good stories, and I'm looking forward to reading more in the series.