1. Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Percy Jackson and the Olympians     

                                                                                           

The Lighting Thief

I have recently read the book “The Lightning Thief.”  This is the first book of the series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” by Rick Riordan. The book is 375 pages long.  I really enjoyed reading it and have decided to write a blog about it. It is an interesting book with many twists and turns. If you are reading this blog and have currently read this book, please write your comments about it below.  However, if you haven’t read it, than you should consider reading the Percy Jackson series. Hopefully after reading this blog, you will be convinced to do so. It is a wonderful book!

Conflict

Zeus is convinced that Poseidon sent Percy Jackson to steal his master bolt.  Percy must go on a quest to find and retrieve Zeus’s master bolt to prove his innocence.

Summary

This book is about a twelve year old boy named Percy Jackson. He is sent to Camp Half-Blood because strange things begin to happen to him.  Camp Half-Blood is a place where children with fathers or mothers who are gods are sent, making them demi gods.  While at camp, Percy finds out that he is the son of Poseidon and he learns how to use his powers.

Percy Jackson has been falsely accused of stealing Zeus’s master bolt. In order to prove his innocence, he must go on a mission to find the bolt, and return it to Zeus. In addition to that, he must also go to Hades and get back his mother (who had earlier on vanished to the underworld). He, Annabeth, and Grover are all to complete this quest. Percy and his friends face many challenges. They have to fight various mythological creatures, such as: hellhounds, Medusa, Furies, Echidna, a Minotaur, and others.  Will Percy complete his mission successfully? Will his mother return safely? You must read the book to find out!

 

Key Scenes

Field trip gone wrong

Life in CampHalf-Blood

Mrs. Dodds is back!

Medusa’s “stone”garden

Percy’s near death experience in the arch

A mini questfor Ares

Lotus Casino

A meeting with the gods

Genre

This is an action and adventure book.  It’s also quite funny.

 

Heroes

Percy Jackson  (the protagonist)

Annabeth   

Grover

If you’re someone who enjoys Greek mythology, this book is a must read!!! I would definitely recommend this book to anybody. I think it attracts the reader with all of the action and excitement. While some parts are scary or a little bit strange, others were fascinating and adventurous.  When I started this book, I couldn’t put it down. Thanks for checking out my blog!

 

2. Percy Jackson

Percy Jackson

Percy Jackson is a brave and outgoing character.  He is the son of Poseidon, god of the ocean. Percy has both dyslexia and ADHD. He has trouble with reading English, and is much better about reading Greek. Percy has the amazing ability of controlling water; he can command it to do anything he wishes (such as to form huge waves).  He also has the ability to breathe under water, and he uses water to heal his wounds and to cleanse his mind.   

3. Annabeth Chase

Annabeth Chase

 

Annabeth is the daughter of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom; therefore, she is a very wise and pretty girl.  Annabeth is very brave and she is a strong fighter.  She is good at encouraging Percy and helping him on his quest. Annabeth thinks of strategic plans to help them on their mission.

 

 

 

 

   

4. Grover Underwood

Grover Underwood

 

Grover is a satyr, a creature who is half human half goat. He is Percy Jackson’s “protector.”  He eats tin cans and tin foil. Grover is very brave, but not as much as Percy and Annabeth. Grover’s dream is to find a satyr named Pan.  Grover has the ability to talk to animals.

5. Field trip gone wrong

Percy goes on a field trip to a Greek history museum.  While in the museum, his teacher, Mrs. Dodds, turns into a fury.  She almost kills Percy. Luckily Chiron, another one of Percy’s teachers, gives him a pen. When you uncap the pen, it transforms into a sword. Percy fights the fury with all of his power.  Once Percy got back to the outside of the museum and told everyone about Mrs. Dodds, they replied by saying that there was no such teacher.  All the children’s minds were wiped clean of Mrs. Dodds.

6. Life in Camp Half Blood

Percy was on the road with his mother and his friend, Grover, when a Minotaur began to chase them.  Percy, Grover, and Percy’s mother got out of the car in a hurry.  Percy uncapped his pen and began to fight the Minotaur with his sword.  Percy’s mother was being choked by the Minotaur and disappeared in a golden flash. The fight lasted quite a while.  Eventually, Percy was able to grab the Minotaur’s horn and push it up his rib.  Percy was able to kill the Minotaur and rush to Camp Half-Blood; the place where he would be trained to fight. While at Camp Half-Blood, Percy learned that his father was Poseidon.

7. Mrs Dodds is back

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover all go on a bus trip for their mission. On the bus in the front row sat three ladies. One of them looked like Mrs. Dodds. They approached the three of them.  All of the humans on the bus couldn’t process the furies coming and going. Mrs. Dodds began fighting Percy. He tried to fight back, but it was very difficult.  As the fight went on, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover grew weaker and weaker.  After a while, the bus got off track.  Percy and all of the other passengers were forced to jump off of the bus.  A short time after that, the bus exploded.

 

8. Medusa's stone garden

Hungry, tired, and alone, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover approached a restaurant that smelled like burgers.  Not seeing anything wrong with the restaurant, they went inside.  When they entered, they saw many stone statues, one of which looked like Grover’s Uncle Ferdinand.  They also noticed a friendly lady with a veil covering her head.  She guided them to the back of the room, which had the food in it.  The lady said that their food would be completely free.  The three were amazed. Once they had finished eating, she asked for them to pose for a picture for her next sculpture. Annabeth was suspecting that something was wrong with her. The lady began to take off her glasses when Annabeth told everyone to close their eyes.  They were in Medusa’s layer!  Medusa was trying to get the three to look into her eyes so she could turn them into stone.  As the three children were running away from Medusa, Percy was able to slice off her head by looking at her through a reflection.  

 

9. Percy's near death experience in the arch

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover were on an arch.  They were about to go in the elevator when they realized that there was not enough room in it, so Percy stayed behind.  A lady approached him with a Chihuahua.  When the lady smiled, Percy saw fangs. She didn’t have skin, but scales.  Before they had a chance to enter the incoming elevator, the lady turned into Echidna, a monstrous snake woman with a human head and snake-like body.  She had a forked tongue, vicious fangs, green scaly skin and the eyes of a reptile.  She started attacking Percy.  They fought for a long time on the arch.  The Chihuahua turned into a Chimera, a vicious creature.  The Chimera poisoned Percy, and although he tried to fight back his blade fell into the river below. Echidna said to Percy that if Percy was really the son Poseidon, he would jump into the water to retrieve his weapon, and that the gods would protect him.  Percy was nervous but did so anyway.  Thankfully he was okay.  When he ascended from the water, he was completely dry.

10. A mini quest for Ares

Percy and his friends all decided to go to a restaurant for a treat.  They saw a strong and muscular man entering the restaurant.  He was Ares, god of war. He sat down with the three of them and said that he would pay for the meal.  As they were talking, Ares gave them a mini quest.  They were to go to a certain destination and find his shield.  When they arrived, they saw many cupids in a circle, and in the middle was a boat with Ares’ shield in it.   When Percy touched the shield, spiders started to crawl out on them and attack.  Annabeth was frightened, for she hated spiders. The cupids shot arrows across from each other to form a net so they couldn’t get out.  Percy was able to control the water and get them back to shore.  Ares accepted the shield, gave them a backpack, and was surprised that they didn’t die.

 

11. Lotus Casino

Percy Jackson, Annabeth, and Grover visited a casino.  The casino was filled with many different types of arcade games.  The casino had game tickets.  Each one of them was provided with many tickets.  They began to play the arcade games.  Percy met a man who said that it was the year 1975.  At that moment, Percy realized that the casino had some kind of spell that kept people there for years.  Percy and his friends thought that they were there for 2 hours, but they were really there for 5 days.

12. A meeting with the gods

In order to get back Percy’s mother, Percy had to travel to the underworld.  After making it past Tartarus and Cerberus the heroes came face to face with Hades.  Hades accused Percy of having the Lightning Bolt in his backpack.  To Percy’s amazement, upon opening the backpack he saw Zeus’s bolt.   Hades wanted to take it from him so Percy had to escape.  Unfortunately, his mother got left behind once again.

Percy’s final destination was to make it back to Mount Olympus to return the bolt to Zeus.  He was impressed by his trip through Olympus, as it was so beautiful.  He came before Zeus and Poseidon who were arguing about the disappearance of the bolt.  Percy returned the bolt to Zeus and was able to restore the peace between Zeus and Poseidon.