Guardian of the Dead

Healey, Karen. Guardian of the Dead. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010. Print.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/8574661]

Awards:
ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults (2011)
William C. Morris YA Debut Finalist (2011)

Booktalk:
Ellie can't seem to get control of her life lately. She's let her best friend Kevin "convince" her to drink on school nights and even to let him sleep in her room. She's made a fool of herself in front of the guy of her dreams, Mark (did she somehow mistake her secret fantasy that he actually wanted to interact with her for real life?). She's even starting to get along with Iris, Kevin's other best friend. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, she has a nagging feeling that the Eyelasher killings that have been terrorizing the North Island have something to do with her. This feeling goes way beyond the connection that everyone who's lived on the North Island feels to the murders, and that feeling might have something to do with Mark. Unless that's just her fantasy life invading reality again.

Review:
There is a lot to love about Guardian of the Dead. Here's the shortlist:

• a smart, kind of nerdy heroine
• the freedom/restrictions of boarding school
• use and explanation of Maori myth (by a white author who has the balls to point out in the text the colonial nature, possible inaccuracies, and just plain wrongness of Maori myth written down by white people)
• high school use of a university library, because serious shizz calls for serious research
• patupaiarehe (fairy-type creatures), one of whom is Titiana in Iris's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream -- because I'm not the only one who likes art to imitate life
• casual treatment of varying sexualities*
• a hottie who is half-Maori, half-...well, something else

and I could go on. But do you want to know what I loved the absolute most about this book? The ending. I won't go into detail (or talk about the "action" ending) because I don't want to ruin it for you (cause oh-my-gosh is it cool), but I can still tell you why I love this ending.

Things go crazy, Ellie falls in lurv which may become love in the future, and Ellie and love-interest have to save the world. It's life-changing, obviously, but Ellie doesn't let it derail her life completely. She doesn't possibly blow off her art school application or get married right out of high school or ditch her best friend in the face of tru lurv and harsh circumstances or even, and this is the big one, drop out of school in order to save the world which apparently cuts off the possibility of being a brilliant academic and instead becomes a mostly silent side-character.**

Instead, Ellie keeps going, gets excited about going to college and majoring in Classics, and tells love-interest that she'll visit him when she's on break. She simply takes all that she's learned from these life-changing events with her, because that's what smart girls do.

So, if you want to read an urban fantasy (a little light on the urban grit) or paranormal romance (a little light on the romance) that's headed by a smart girl, this is your book. It's also your book if you want to read the Maori Percy Jackson equivalent, a good boarding school romp, a murder mystery, a different kind of fairy book...


Book source: Philly Free Library


*How often do you see YA books with a teen character who is asexual? Not often. I'm not going to lie and say it's not a big deal at any point, but it is not THE big deal. And it is not a problem ever, except to the people crushing on the character. :)

**Was this anyone else's take-away message from Hermione's whole 1 or 2 lines in that horrible epilogue?!? I know Ginnie's important and everything, especially cause she's the mother of Harry's children, but why does she get all the speaking parts? Since when does Hermione let everyone around her do all the talking?

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The Lost Hero - for Tween Tuesday

Tween Tuesday was started over at Green Bean Teen Queen as away to highlight awesome books for the 9-12 yr olds or Tweens. Any book highlighted on Tween Tuesday also counts for the In the Middle Reading Challenge! This week's book is:

Riordan, Rick. The Lost Hero. New York: Disney - Hyperion Books for Children, 2010. Print. The Heroes of Olympus 1.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/9822197]

Booktalk:
Camp Half-Blood is packed, even in the winter. With the addition of new cabins for all the minor gods' children and everyone being claimed by the time they're 13, there are a ton more Heroes roaming around. But things still aren't going swimmingly. Zeus has closed Olympus and is not allowing the gods to talk to their mortal children. Artemis, even, is cut off from her huntresses. And Percy's missing. No matter where Rachel's predictions send Annabeth looking, she can't find him.

But this story isn't about all that, not really. It's about Piper, Leo and Jason. Three half-bloods with special gifts: Piper can convince anyone to do just about anything, Leo is amazingly good with his hands and can make an engine out of just about anything, and Jason, well, at the moment Jason can't remember anything. They've been hidden away at a school for delinquents, all unclaimed even though they're well beyond 13, but chosen by the gods since birth for what they must do now.

Review:
The Lost Hero totally fulfilled all my wishes and desires for it. It's still Camp Half-Blood (even if Chiron is especially cranky and unhelpful in this go-round), but it's not just more of the same. We're not so far into the future that Percy and Annabeth are former legends, nor are we so close to the end of the last Percy book that we have to sit around and watch them make out all the time. They're not even main characters in this story, just cameo characters. The addition of the children of all the minor gods makes everything a bit more hectic and crowded and crazy, but the explanations of the various gods and their traits are still there. Not only do we get Piper, Leo and Jason as new characters, but there are a bunch of new potentially important folks back at camp as well. And (this is a bit spoilery, so highlight to read) San Francisco was never really evil! But that last one is probably only important to me.

I couldn't have asked for more, and I doubt other fans of the Percy Jackson books could either.

The Lost Hero is told from the perspectives of Piper, Leo and Jason. While they all kind of sound alike (see my criticism of the alternative viewpoints in Riordan's The Red Pyramid), I never got them mixed up during the story. This may be more because of what is going on in each of their heads rather than distinction of voice. Even though they're all on the same quest and living through the same adventures/dangers, they're not remotely going through the same things. Each of their lives really has been leading up to this quest and they're just now starting to figure out how. Piper is going through all kinds of internal torment because she has been basically told that she'll double-cross the other two (not to mention that all her memories of Jason, who she thought was her boyfriend, are probably a product of some super-potent Mist). Leo is seeing his former babysitter Tia Callida (who encouraged playing with both fire and knives) and is figuring out connections between her, the weird circumstances surrounding his mother's death, and the prophecy he, Piper and Jason are meant to be fulfilling. And poor Jason. He's just trying to grasp hold of his memories: the ones that allow him to be a top-notch fighter, the ones that bring the gods' Roman rather than Greek names to his lips, and the ones that rumble in the back of his mind with every mention of the Titan War.

It's a bit more complicated, a bit more multi-layered, and a bit longer than the Percy books. But then, the characters (and the original Percy fans) are also a bit older. New readers will fare just fine without having read the Percy books (so far), but I have a feeling that won't be the case for much longer. And Percy fans will love the continuation of the Camp Half-Blood story.


Also of note: Leo is Latino and Piper is of Cherokee descent. Leo (very) occasionally uses Spanish words, especially in his memories. Piper reflects on her grandfather's life on the reservation as opposed to the life she's lived in California (her dad's a famous actor). She also bristles at the term "Half-Blood" upon reaching camp (though there is no examination or explanation of why that term bothers her in the text). Riordan doesn't make a big deal about the ethnicities of any of the characters (at least not the mortal half of their ethnicity...), but he still manages to make it matter.


Book source: Philly Free Library where I started out 27th in line for this title a week before its release. :)

The Red Pyramid - for Tween Tuesday

Tween Tuesday was started over at Green Bean Teen Queen as away to highlight awesome books for the 9-12 yr olds or Tweens. Any book highlighted on Tween Tuesday also counts for the In the Middle Reading Challenge! This week's book is:

Riordan, Rick. The Red Pyramid. New York: Disney - Hyperion Books, 2010. Print. The Kane Chronicles 1.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/9277689]

Booktalk:
Carter and Sadie don't see each other often. When their mother died, their mother's parents were granted custody of Sadie, and Carter went with their father. Everywhere. Dr. Julius Kane, Sadie and Carter's father, is an Egyptologist who travels the world doing research and giving lectures. Living with him, Carter has had experiences other kids can only dream about. He's also missed out on some "normal" kid stuff, like learning that it's not cool, or even okay, to wear loafers. Sadie, on the other hand, has had her fill of normalcy and is dying (her hair at least) for a little excitement. When something goes horribly wrong during Carter and their father's annual visit with Sadie, Carter and Sadie must learn to work together and trust each other, an uncle they never knew they had, and a cat in order to save their father from Set, the Egyptian god of the desert. Oh, and the world. They have to save that too.

Review:
Rick Riordan has done it again! He's taken kids who could be normal, personality-wise if not in circumstance this time, linked them up with a deity and set them loose. This time, the kids are not children of gods, but the children of former members of a society (of magicians!) dating back to the time of the Pharaohs that is dedicated to serving/controlling the gods of Egypt. Carter and Sadie are more powerful than most because of their lineage, but there is a Harry Potter-esque it-could-be-anyone thing going on that will open up the rest of the series for a lot of interesting sidekicks. At this point in the series there are only a few kids still training in this society, one of whom is already set up as the girl Carter will embarrassingly and awkwardly crush on for probably the rest of the series, but I'm sure Riordan will bring in a whole cast of interesting kids by the end.

The whole story is told from both Sadie and Carter's points of view in, more or less, alternating chapters. I really liked getting to see the story unfold through both of their eyes. The changing point of view didn't bog down the story, really, since everything was still told in sequence with little to no instances of both characters covering the same event. I did wish, however, that their was a bit more of a difference between their voices. When they're actually talking, there is plenty of difference between proper, nerdy Carter and punky, spunky Sadie, but when they're narrating they're not all that different. Every once in a while Sadie, as narrator, gets riled up about something and it's really clear that she's the one telling the story (the name of the narrator is on every page to help with that as well), but for the most part both of them just sound like Riordan.

Something that is mentioned on multiple occasions but is far from a focal point of the story is that Sadie and Carter's father is black and their mother was white. Both of the kids are biracial, but neither of them looks it. They have that mini-me thing going on with their parents: Sadie looks astonishingly like her mother and Carter looks just like his dad. In the beginning of the book, Sadie talks about how, without her mother there, people question her relationship to Carter and their father because she's so clearly white and they so clearly aren't. She talks about how annoying it is, on the few days a year that they get to spend together, that people question whether or not she belongs in her family. This is, of course, complicated because she doesn't feel like she belongs due to the very limited amount of time they are actually on the same continent. Also near the beginning, Carter expresses his envy of Sadie's normal life with their grandparents. He feels hurt and rejected because his grandparents fought so hard for Sadie and not for him. While I was reading, I wondered about that; why did their grandparents only fight for the grandchild that looks like them? There is a magically influences reason for why they only went to court for custody of Sadie, but I didn't feel like Carter really processed that information when he found out. Maybe because he wasn't thinking about it in the same way that I was, he didn't need the cathartic breakthrough that I was looking for. It was enough, for him, to know that without magical influence his grandparents may have fought just as hard to hold on to their grandson as they did their granddaughter. This is all balanced out by Sadie's feelings of abandonment because she was left with their grandparents rather than being allowed on the road with Carter and their dad, so maybe I'm reading too much into the situation.

Family issues aside (and I'm paying more attention to them here than was paid in the book), I love that Carter and Sadie's race was a non-issue. I do wish that both of them had been presented as biracial characters, or that they even saw themselves that way, rather than one white and one black, but I'm glad that this did not pick up elements of a "problem novel" about a biracial family. It is simply a fantasy book with biracial main characters!


Book source: Philly Free Library

The Splendor Falls

Clement-Moore, Rosemary. The Splendor Falls. New York: Delacorte Press - Random House Children's Books, 2009. Print.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/8463434]

Booktalk:

"It's a test," I said. "If I'm crazy, then the power of suggestion will make me see something when I open this door. If there's nothing there, then I am still in control of my senses."

Unless there really was such a thing as ghosts, in which case, my test proved nothing either way.

Ghosts, Sylvie? Really?

No, not really. But it would explain a lot.

"I could stand here all day at this rate." And sooner or later someone was going to come by and wonder why I was standing with my face to the door, talking to myself.

p.122-3

Sylvie might be depressed, she might have PTSD, she might be going crazy, or she might just be a rich spoiled brat with an active imagination. Whatever is the case, she can't be left alone. While her mother enjoys her honeymoon and their New York City apartment stands empty, Sylvie is left to recover from the serious leg break that ended her ballet career just as it was starting. She's been sent to stay with her late father's cousin, in Alabama, in a mansion that her father never mentioned. A mansion that may or may not be filled with ghosts.

Review:

Stacked on top of each other, The Splendor Falls and War and Peace (which is finally picking up now that I'm only skimming the War parts...) look about the same size. This kept me from reading The Splendor Falls for quite a little while, even though I knew I would probably love it. It's a paranormal romance about a ballerina in the Deep South! What's not to love? 500+ pages, I always told myself. Do not make the same mistake I did! The Splendor Falls is a wonderful and gripping story that you will fly right through. I read it in two days.

Sylvie is sent to Alabama to deal with the aftermath of a fall that has left her limping, unable to ever dance again. The way that she has to learn to physically, mentally and emotionally deal with this is masterfully woven into the ghost story that is the thrust of this book. For example, she tries to run from what she thinks is a ghost, but has to slowly go down a spiral staircase in reverse, slowing up her escape. The way that she relives the fall seemed painfully realistic to me, and I was glad that the author kept this reminder throughout the story. It's obviously not a common experience, but it kind of kept the whole story grounded in the real world. This had the dual effect of pulling me out of scary moments sometimes and making things that much scarier at others. Sylvie has actual problems that she is dealing with and she is mostly rational, but she still sees ghosts, hears screaming by the river, smells lavender where there is none, etc. Creepy.

Also, there is no shortage of swoon-worthy gentlemen in this story. I was worried for a bit that Sylvie would fall for her new step-brother. Luckily an older British guy, complete with an endearingly bumbling father, and a Southern teenager, who the whole town would love to see paired up with Sylvie because of some old superstition involving both their families, arrive on the scene. They nicely relegate the step-bro into friend territory. The romance part of this paranormal romance is a lot of getting hit on by one guy while lusting after the other, but both guys in this equation take on mythical significance when the real paranormal activity starts in.

That's right. There's a lot more going on here than ghosts.

I don't want to get too spoiler-y and tell you what's going on here (neither does Clement-Moore, for that matter. The more-than-ghosts stuff doesn't make an appearance until the last third of the book at the earliest), just believe me when I say that there is some real magical payout by the end. It is totally worth the wait.


Also, this is a stand-alone book, and I don't mean the start of a series or the suddenly popular trilogy that just happens to stand alone. There is just this one book. No cliffhanger. No waiting to find out what happens. You only need to commit to reading (500+ pages of) a single book to get the whole story. Bliss, I tell you. Bliss.

Book source: Philly Free Library

Radiant Darkness

Whitman, Emily. Radiant Darkness: A Novel. New York: Greenwillow Books-HarperCollins Publishers, 2009. Print.

[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/7838736]

Booktalk:

"Hideous Hades ripped her away

From her mother's arms that fateful day

When all she wanted to do was stay

Safe in her mother's arms, oh!"

p.247

This is how we've all come to know Persephone: as a victim, torn away from her mother, Demeter, by the evil Hades. But that is not at all how this story really happened. Persephone, knowing that her mother would not approve, declined to tell anyone that she was leaving her home to marry her boyfriend, so her mother, of course, thinks she was kidnapped, ravaged, and now has Stockholm syndrome. It sounds like a plot line from Law and Order: SVU, right? Except that none of the parents on SVU are gods or goddesses, so their fear for their children or anger at each other doesn't almost kill everyone on the planet.

Review:

In the original Persephone myth, a lot of things happen to her. She doesn't really do anything. She doesn't even seem to have a personality. She's just Demeter's daughter and/or Hades' wife. The Persephone that Whitman introduces to us, however, is full of personality and takes control of her life both before and after she goes (note that I didn't say "is taken") to the Underworld. She's also really smitten with Hades. It's her mother's inability to let Persephone grow up and her whole "no males anywhere near anyone remotly associated with me" policy that causes problems.

Since this is a retelling of the myth of Persephone, other readers have complained that this book becomes predictable; we all (theoretically) know how the story is going to end. As I've said before, I know very little about Greek mythology, so I did not have this complaint while reading. I think even readers who already know a lot about Persephone, her mother Demeter, or Hades can still enjoy Radiant Darkness. There is enough that is different from the original myth (I looked it up after reading this book, and the author also gives a pretty good summary of the original in her note at the end) to keep readers interested, if they're the type of reader that isn't looking for suspense.

And once again, this book should be a hit with paranormal romance fans, though I would never categorize it that way.

Book source: Philly Free Library

Never too busy for a little bit o' Riordan!

This whole working 6 days a week business is really cutting into my blog writing and blog reading time. (The extra commuting, however, is doing great things for my book reading time). That would explain how I missed this little bit of news from MotherReader:

The author of The Lightning Thief gave a book talk (read: hosted a crowded, screaming rally) with people lining up long before he was scheduled to start. (Kate DiCamillo thought they were her fans). There were crowds. There was rain. And after hours of waiting in line, these people were ready for some flippin’ Book Talks! And Rick delivered.

Riordan was brought to the top by the Percy Jackson series. He plans to write a story about the next generation of Half-Blood campers. He’s also gonna milk this “gods” thing as much as he can, because some stories about the Egyptian deities are coming out soon. From the tiny excerpt he read, it’s going to keep the same humorous style and adventure as the Percy books, but with a whole new setting. They both sound like definite must-reads.

I really wish I could have concentrated more, but I had to stand during his talk — which I had already been doing for the past hour — and I was suffocating because of all the breathing people in the tent.

This was written by TeenReader, as you can probably guess from that last paragraph. :)

But more Camp Half-Blood? More Riordan comedy involving other deities? I could not be more excited. A quick search on Amazon shows that the first Egypt book should come out in May of next year. Can I wait that long? Maybe.

And just in case you missed them before, here are my thoughts on the Percy Jackson series by Riordan:
Book 1: The Lightning Thief
Book 2: The Sea of Monsters
Book 3: The Titan's Curse
Book 4: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Book 5: The Last Olympian

The Last Olympian

Riordan, Rick. The Last Olympian. Percy Jackson & the Olympians. 5. New York: Disney/Hyperion Books, 2009.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/6185013]

Booktalk:
Percy's a playa!

Rachel kissed me before I could even react. "Now get going, half-blood. Go kill some monsters for me."
...
"So," Beckendorf said, "I'm guessing you don't want me to mention that little scene to Annabeth."
"Oh, gods," I muttered. "Don't even think about it."

p.10

But why shouldn't Percy keep his options open? He's about to turn sixteen. And when he does, he gets to decide the fate of the world.

Review:
A lot of people die in this one. It is all about the war between the Titons and the Gods so it is to be expected, but a lot of people die. And not just monsters who can reform later; demigods die. And not just people we expect to die (like Luke), but normal demigods who have been present at Camp Half-Blood since book 1. I knew that people I liked would die in this one, but I guess I wasn't expecting so many to die. Not that it felt gratuitous or anything; every death meant something and was for a reason. It was just sad.

That said, this book rocked. It is jam-packed with action. In between all the monster fighting, we learn a lot of back story about Luke, Thalia and Annabeth, we learn the rest of The Prophecy, we learn why the Oracle is a tie-dye wearing mummy, and we learn why all of these things are connected and, oddly enough, what they have to do with Rachel. A lot of things came together in this book from various points of the story thus far in the previous 4 books, and it wasn't all about Percy like I worried it would be! Everyone who was ever important in the previous books has an impact on the outcome in this one. Percy is still a very big hinge-pin, but he is not the be all and end all of Olympus, Camp Half-Blood, or the mortal world. It's a nice difference from the other series about a special/chosen magic young boy you may have read...

This was a very well thought out end to the series. I wish the series were longer as I enjoyed reading it so much, but nothing about this ending left me unsatisfied. I know how things ended and I have a pretty good guess at how they will proceed. Besides, Riordan hints in his acknowledgments that there may be other series about the campers of Camp Half-Blood in the future.(!)


But let's be honest. What I'm really happy about is that evil no longer hangs out in San Francisco. Evil congregates in Jersey. Awesome. :)

Book 1: The Lightning Thief
Book 2: The Sea of Monsters
Book 3: The Titan's Curse
Book 4: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Book Source: Philly Free Library

The Battle of the Labyrinth

Riordan, Rick. The Battle of the Labyrinth. Percy Jackson & the Olympians. 4. New York: Hyperion Books for Children; Paperback edition, 2009.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/4264201]

Booktalk:
Percy is nervous enough about going to orientation at the school where Paul Blofis (Mr. Blowfish) is a teacher; running into Rachel Elizabeth Dare is just an added bonus. When things go catastrophically, some might say mythologically, wrong Percy doesn't have time to worry about how his bad luck will affect Paul's career or relationship with Percy's mother. Annabeth has shown up to rush him off to Camp Halfblood where Grover must appear before the Council of Cloven Elders for his lack of progress finding the lost god Pan.

Review:
Our young man is sure growing up. As if we didn't all see it coming, Percy and Annabeth are a bit awkward and crush-y. We don't even make it past page 2 before this awesome exchange:

"Think positive. Tomorrow you're off to camp! After orientation, you've got your date--"
"It's not a date!" I protested. "It's just Annabeth, Mom. Jeez!"

You can feel that "Jeez!" sear the page. It's lovely. Awkwardness like this abounds throughout the book, in and around the more action-packed plot Percy's readers are used to, and it's not just between Percy and Annabeth. It seems like everyone has a love interest all of a sudden, even Grover. I love it!

Aside from embarrassing romantic entanglements, The Battle of the Labyrinth mirrors the form and quality of the three preceding books in the series. There is action! There is a prophecy! There is THE prophecy! There are angry gods who can't seem to take care of themselves! There are Percy, Annabeth and Grover all ready and willing to save the day! I appreciated Annabeth's leadership role and the focus on Grover's quest in this book. I really hope that this more extended treatment of them is not just to make up for a 5th book all about Percy and his 16th birthday.


Book 1: The Lightning Thief
Book 2: The Sea of Monsters
Book 3: The Titan's Curse
Book Source: Philly Free Library

The Titan's Curse

Riordan, Rick. The Titan's Curse. Percy Jackson & the Olympians. 3. New York: Miramax Books/Hyperion Books for Children, 2007.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/2294891]

Awards:
BookSense Top Ten Summer Pick (2007)
An Amazon Best Book (2007)

Booktalk:
In a camp of heroes, Percy is used to being, well, the hero. Now that Thalia's back, however, Percy isn't quite as important as he used to be. When he Thalia, Grover and Annabeth go on a mission to retrieve two half-bloods from a militry school, Percy ignores Thalia's instructions and tries to save the day himself. Luckily Artemis and her hunters come to the rescue when Percy's lack of plan goes horribly wrong. Unfortunately, they can't rescue everyone and Annabeth disintegrates with the monster the hunters attack. Artemis follows the monster's scent while Percy, Thalia, Grover, the two new kids and all of Artemis' hunters head back to camp and, they hope, a quest to save their friend.

Review:
Riordan is really starting to get into obscure mythology here, or at least I, who haven't had anything to do with mythology since the 9th grade, think so. As the Titans continue to gain power, helped by Luke of course, characters come forward that have been around since before the gods. Luckily, Riordan is great at doling out the information you need to know. I feel like things would make more sense if you know what was going on from the beginning, but I managed to LOVE this book, without picking up any of the clues that I should have (Spoiler: Nico gets mad and the ground opens up and eats some soldiers=he's a son of Hades? So didn't make that jump). It's like a mystery/adventure novel.

My only complaint: How can Riordan make San Francisco a bad place? I was offended/sad, although I do have to admit that the ever present fog (mist) was very convenient for his plot. He better make it a happy place by the end of the 5th book.


Book 1: The Lightning Thief
Book 2: The Sea of Monsters
Book Source: College library

The Sea of Monsters

Riordan, Rick. The Sea of Monsters. Percy Jackson & the Olympians. 2. New York: Miramax Books/Hyperion Books for Children, 2006.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/1491561]

Awards:
BookSense Top Ten Summer Pick (2006)
Child Magazine Best Book (2006)
Kirkus Reviews Best Fantasy Sequel (2006)
Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice Award (2007)
Mark Twain Award (2009)

Booktalk:
Percy almost makes it through the seventh grade without incident. Then he's attacked by man-eating giants on his last day of school. Luckily Annabeth shows up to help, and Tyson, Percy's new and only friend at school, is really good at fighting giants. Another year, another odd friend who Percy doesn't realize is mythical until he does something magical. Same old, same old, right? It would be if it weren't for Percy's persistent dreams of Grover in a wedding dress, scared out of his mind, and some serious security issues at Camp Half-Blood. All of this adds up to another quest for Percy and company, hopefully to save both Grover and the camp.

Review:
The Sea of Monsters is the opposite of second book syndrome. Though it is clear that all of these books are leading up to the last book, Percy's 16th birthday, and The Prophecy, so far the books are all compelling on their own. The second book wouldn't quite stand on its own, I don't think, because readers need information from the first book to understand/appreciate The Sea of Monsters, but I didn't feel like this book was filler on the way to 16 while I was reading.

But the best part was this:

"I'll be next door, " Annabeth said. "You guys don't drink or eat anything."
"You think this place is enchanted?"
She frowned. "I don't know. Something isn't right. Just be careful."
We locked our doors.

p. 115

I have felt like I've been going crazy lately. Coraline and, I think, Another Faust have kids going into other-worldly places and sitting for lunch. I thought the cardinal rule of fantasy (cause there is totally such things as cardinal rules of fantasy...) was that you couldn't eat or drink fairie (or mythical monster or Other Mother or Satan's) food and expect to go back to your world like nothing ever happened. It was so nice to see that this cardinal rule was upheld in The Sea of Monsters. That alone would have made reading this book worth it for me right now. Luckily it has a lot to offer to other readers as well.


Sequel to: The Lightning Thief
Book Source: College Library

The Lightning Thief

Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief. Percy Jackson & the Olympians. 1. New York: Miramax Books/Hyperion Books for Children, 2005.
[Book cover credit: librarything.com/work/173670]

Awards:
Child Magazine Best Book (2005)
New York Times Notable Book (2005)
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year (2005)
VOYA Top Shelf Fiction List (2005)
ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2006)
American Library Association Notable Children's Book (2006)
Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice Award (2006)
ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults (2008)
Mark Twain Award (2008)
And at least a dozen regional awards ranging from 2005-2009

Booktalk:
Sixth grade looks like it might just be the magic year for Percy Jackson, the year he gets through without the threat of expulsion. He's on a field trip, chaperoned by his Latin and math teachers, when things start to go incredibly wrong. His math teacher tries to kill him, his Latin teacher throws him a pen with which to defend himself, and afterward, no one else seems to have noticed a thing. This is just the beginning of a string of events that leads him to Camp Half-Blood where he finds out that he is the half-god son of Poseidon, the God of the Sea. Percy also finds out that he's being accused of stealing Zeus's most powerful lightning bolt and that he must accept a quest to find the true thief and clear his name, not to mention save himself from the wrath of Zeus. If only every summer camp were this exciting.

Review:
I somehow managed to miss the entire Percy Jackson phenomenon when it started up a few years ago, but with all the buzz for the last book The Last Olympian, I thought I'd try to catch up.

The Lightning Thief was a quick read, but an engrossing one. I think that's why it's managed to appeal to teens much older than the reading level would indicate. The mythology presented is not your average "Poseidon is in the water, Zeus is in the sky, Hades is underground," although those three facts are very important too. There are minor details of less well-known (or less well-remembered from my junior high days) myths that are REALLY IMPORTANT to Percy and his friends. Luckily, one of his best friends is a daughter of Athena (wisdom) and explains everything along the way. Still, there were some characters and stories referenced that I didn't feel like I understood completely. This did not detract from Percy's story at all. I was perfectly happy to go back and look things up once I'd finished the book. I looked folks up on Wikipedia, but for collection purposes, it would probably be nicer to have a guide to mythology of some sort that is around the same reading level as these books.

This book does do the annoying series thing, where the last line is just a teaser/cliff-hanger for the next book. That's fine with me, for now, since I checked out books 1-3 all at once and book 4 is already being held for me at the library. I'll probably mind a bit more when I finish book 4 and am still on the waiting list at the library for book 5.


Book source: College library (with a great Juvenile collection for edu majors)