I just read The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book One) by Rick Riordan. Its a book about a boy named Percy Jackson, who lives in New York, and one day finds out that he is actually the son of Poseidon, and that the Greek Gods are real. And that Mount Olympus is on the top of the Empire State Building.
Someone has stolen Zeus’s big lightning Bolt, and if he doesn’t get it back, the Gods will go to war. Percy has to go on a quest with his friends to go and return Zeus’s master Bolt. He meets up with lots of monsters, including the minotaur that killed Percy’s mother. At least, that’s what Percy thinks he did. Percy really wants to get his mother back.
The three friends cross the country and make their way to the underworld (in Los Angeles), because they think that Hades has the Bolt, and Percy sees his mother there. Hades’s helm of darkness is stolen (it turns him into a shadow), so the only way to get back his mother is to find Hades’s helm too.
Ares, the God of war, actually stole the helm and tricked Percy by giving him a backpack with the Bolt in it. When Percy sees the Bolt, he runs from the underworld, leaving his mother behind for now.
Percy has a fight with Ares, gets the helm back, and sends it back to Hades, who returns his mother to the living. Then he goes to Mount Olympus and gives Zeus his Bolt.
Percy and his friends go back to their special summer camp for half-bloods and enjoy the rest of the season. Until one of Percy’s friends admits he was the one who stole the Bolt and then tries to kill Percy. The friends all go their separate ways in the fall, but will get back together for the next adventure.
I just studied Greek and Roman history and myths in school, so this was really interesting to me, and a little bit familiar. I knew about Medusa, the minotaur, and the 12 Gods on Olympus. And this week, we saw the movie made out of this book, but it wasn’t very good at all. I’ll definitely keep reading the rest of these books, but no more movies for me.
Cannonball Read V 
Both of my daughters have really enjoyed this book series. My youngest, who is 10, has read some other mythology books that you might like too. There are quite a few in the Goddess Girls series by Joan Holub. The first one is called Athena the Brain. They are in the Juvenile section in our library. Another one was a graphic novel version of the Odyssey by Gareth Hinds. http://www.garethhinds.com/odyssey.php . This one is in the YA section in our library, and some of it is a little gross to see drawn out. Some of the Odyssey is really violent. There’s also a children’s version of The Odyssey that is in the Juvenile section of our library. It’s the same as the graphic novel but without any illustrations.
Rick Riordan has another series that starts with the book, The Red Pyramid, which is about Egyptian gods. Both of my girls liked that too. Enjoy and keep writing your reviews – you do a great job!!
Bunnybean, thank you for this great review! I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while and you’ve inspired me to go check it out from the library. I think I’ll stay away from the movie, though. 🙂