Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school . . . again. No matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to stay out of trouble. But can he really be expected to stand by and watch while a bully picks on his scrawny best friend? Or not defend himself against his pre-algebra teacher when she turns into a monster and tries to kill him? Of course, no one believes Percy about the monster incident; he's not even sure he believes himself.
Until the Minotaur chases him to summer camp.
Suddenly, mythical creatures seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. The gods of Mount Olympus, he's coming to realize, are very much alive in the twenty-first century. And worse, he's angered a few of them: Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.
Now Percy has just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property, and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. On a daring road trip from their summer camp in New York to the gates of the Underworld in Los Angeles, Percy and his friends–one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena–will face a host of enemies determined to stop them. To succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of failure and betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.
WOW. What an absolute treasure this book is! I LOVED reading this book for the first time in my 30s! If this book been around when I was in middle school, Little Kaleena would have devoured it as well. But alas, I was 21 when the book first came out and I was out of the target demographic.
Do you love mythology, especially those from Ancient Greece? Do you like Chosen One stories that also center on friendship and not being able to do Heroic Things on your own? Do you like humor and a fast-paced narrative that grips you from the first chapter title? Then you need to read this series, regardless of your age!
Audiobook notes: Jesse Bernstein's narration is nothing short of incredible. He captures the essence of a 12 year old Percy so well, not to mention the other character voices. I typically have an attention span struggle when reading audiobooks alone, but this not only kept my interest but motivated me to do chores around my apartment so I could keep reading. 15/10 would recommend!
