Twelve year old Percy Jackson struggles at school. He can’t
concentrate he has trouble reading words and is always getting in to fights. He
doesn’t know why this is happening to him. He just wants to be like everyone
else and not get expelled from school. One day he goes on a school field trip
and his world changes forever. He discovers that there is a reason for the way
he is. That reason is that his father happens to be a Greek God. This makes him
tougher and able to do things that normal humans can’t do. He has no time to
digest this though, because he is being accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning
bolt. And you don’t want to upset Zeus. Percy and his friends must find out who
is framing him and get Zeus his bolt back.
Reading the book, you wouldn’t think Percy was only twelve.
I’d put him at somewhere between fourteen and sixteen. He has a lot of fighting
to do that just seems beyond a twelve year old, even if he is half-god. At
other times he does come across as a petulant pre-teen. He did annoy me a fair
bit but I think that’s more my fault as, obviously, this is not aimed at me. I
did enjoy Annabeth as she wasn’t afraid to get stuck in and was battling
monsters right by Percy’s side. Most of the grown-ups in this book weren’t very
nice, apart from Percy’s mum. I think most children wouldn’t notice this as
they aren’t interested in grown-ups anyway. They’re more interested in
connecting with people their own age. For the most part.
The book is set in the present day, except the Greek Gods
are now living in America. This worked nicely as it means that the characters
don’t have to go all the way to Greece to get to Mount Olympus. There was a bit
of travelling as the gods have had to hide in plain sight to a certain extent.
Some buildings are obscured so that humans can’t see them or disguised as
something else. I like the idea of all that going on without you having any
idea that they’re there. Seeing the gods taking advantage of modern technology
is a nice touch too.
The book wasn’t excellently written but it does draw you in.
Although it’s a children’s book it doesn’t talk down to children but the
language isn’t so complex that they wouldn’t understand. It also teaches you
something about the Greek Gods. In order to fight some of the monsters they
come across Percy and his friends need to know who they are in order to know
their weakness. It might have been nice to have a recap of the gods you meet in
the back of the book with pictures as well so you could learn a bit more about
them if you wanted. Each chapter is like a little adventure in itself.
Something happens in each one to keep you reading and to keep you interested.
Anything that will keep young boys reading is good in my book. I can’t really
ask for more character information and Greek history as then it wouldn’t be a
young children’s book anymore.
I found myself enjoying this book; it was a nice quick read.
It quite clearly wasn’t written for me so I forgave it a lot. I didn’t expect
an awful lot from it although there are plenty of people who enjoyed it so I
was expecting it to be a fun book at least. Not having expectations means I
wasn’t disappointed so just let it take me where it wanted to. There was the
mystery of the theft of the bolt that there were clues for in the second half
of the book. I guessed who one of the perpetrators was but there were some
elements I didn’t get which was a nice surprise. I don’t think I’ll bother
seeing the film but I will give the second book a go.
Overall rating 3 out of 5.
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