What the kids are (allegedly) reading.

Firstborn child has transformed into an adult (gasp) and leapt from the nest, intent on spreading her wings far from my prying eyes – so I have no idea what she’s reading now, but I’m confident that she IS reading, and it’s probably something heavy.

Middle child,  has been working his way through James Patterson’s Maximum Ride novels, for an excruciatingly long time (imo) but hey, at least there is a book occasionally in his hand instead of a game controller wrapped in a slice of pizza.

Small One (I know she’s not small anymore I’m in denial leave me alone!) is the only person I know that actually enjoys reading on her phone screen (eugh!) and likes dramatic and/or funny web comics.  For school she was reading ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry, which she really enjoyed. She wants to read more to find out what happens to Gabe. Boxed set in her future?? 🙂

School cramped her style a little by then assigning a book she had already read- ages ago! – “The Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan – which is Book One of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. SO has read this entire series, and we had already moved on to his The Heroes of Olympus series, so this going back to the beginning kind of got under her skin. Especially being asked to predict what might happen next. It’s a good story though, so she’s not in a total sulk.

 

What the Little One and I are reading.

Last school year Little One’s teacher read “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief” aloud to the class and then they had a Blue Party to celebrate getting through the entire novel.

As a result Little One has been obsessed with Percy Jackson ever since 🙂 so for her birthday this summer I bought her the Percy Jackson and the Olympians boxed set.

I hoped she would love this gift and enjoy all the other stories in the series. She surprised me by wanting to read the first book again because I hadn’t read it and she wanted to share the fun with me. What a cool kid!

Through the start of the new school year, we read Percy together in 20 minute chunks every day – that’s the required amount of reading homework for her grade – but occasionally we’d manage a little bit more, especially on rainy weekends.

She also had ‘Gregor The Overlander’ to read for her class reading group – which she occasionally read aloud to me. I encouraged this, but honestly it kind of addled my brain to have her reading two different books to me at the same time.

When we finished ‘The Lightning Thief’ I thought Little One would want to take a break. I thought the boxed set might sit and gather dust now, the initial fascination over, joining all those unread Rainbow Fairy books in the crammed bookshelf.

But instead Little One demanded an immediate start to Book Two! So together we read ‘Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters’ and not just in 20 minute bursts. Little One would read to me while I brushed her hair, and when I made her breakfast. She would hand the book to me while she ate, and again when she had to brush her teeth. She asked for my company while she took her bath, so I could continue the story 🙂 and she read to me while I drove her home from school.

She is LOVING these books!

We sped through book two and last night started book three, ‘Percy Jackson and The Titan’s Curse.’

Thank you Rick Riordan, we have a winner!

Little One just noticed that one of the shelves on MY bookcase contains the first three ‘Heroes of Olympus’ novels – I think I’m going to have to share.

A (Brief) Review: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

‘The Mark of Athena’ is the third book in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series, and the third book I have read by Mr. Riordan.

I first picked up ‘The Lost Hero’ because I saw ‘The Lightning Thief’ movie with my kids and thought it was kind of interesting to blend the ancient tales of Greek gods with modern day teens. All of my previous knowledge of Greek mythology was from the old monster movies 😀 (I think they did Medusa better.)

I loved that Percy’s dyslexia was useful in certain circumstances but still tripped him up, and that realizing he was a demigod and discovering his abilities did not suddenly fix all his issues – cool beans.

Having watched ‘The Lightning Thief’ already I decided not to read Riordan’s ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ series, I  moved on to the next set ‘The Heroes of Olympus’ and I got to know all the demigods and friends in both ‘The Lost Hero’ (book one) and ‘The Son of Neptune’ (book two) both fun adventures filled with quests and monsters and some very likeable characters. Reading these books reminded me of the adventure books I used to read when I was about 12 or 13,  books about two brothers who got into all sorts of trouble all over the world. Good memories 🙂

But I almost gave up on the HOO series when I encountered what I thought to be a fatal flaw in the story.

**SPOILER**
Throughout one of the HOO books various characters repeat the rule that in order to kill a giant, you need a God to help fight alongside the demigods. Demigods can’t kill giants by themselves. They need a God or Goddess. All through the book, this point is hammered home. And then two demigod kids team up and kill a giant with no God in sight. Uh… wait a minute… *shakes head and throws book at the floor*
This almost sealed the deal for me, not gonna read any more! But I LIKE the kids from Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter so eventually I had to go back and lo and behold, this happens.

Hmmm.
Okay then.
Nicely done Mr. Riordan.
Moving on.

**END OF SPOILERINESS**

‘The Mark of Athena’ is a fun read. The Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter kids are up to all their usual tricks, there are quests and monsters, unhelpful gods, prophecies to decipher, choices to make, friends to save, and enemies to outwit.
All good clean fun. With some stabbing and beheading on the side.