Summer

25 April 2010

THE LIGHTNING THIEF: Percy Jackson & The Olympians Book One - Rick Riordan, narr Jesse Bernstein

From the back of the BOCD: An Edgar Award-winning author of adult mysteries, Rick Riordan begins a gripping series for young adults. Perseus (Percy) Jackson is the son of Poeseidon and a mortal woman. Labeled just another difficult youth, he has been in six schools in as many years. But trouble is brewing between the gods. Soon Percy, aided by a satyr and a daughter of Athena, sets out to find a missing thunderbolt that started all the roble. Sparkling with references to mythology and spiked with plenty of adventure, this series promises to keep every young listener thoroughly entertained.
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Well, this young listener was enthralled with the book just like I was with the movie when I saw it at the show last month with Lady K. We'll be getting it on DVD when it comes out 22 Jun.
On with the book...which was better than the movie and the movie was really good. Okay, back to the book. I enjoyed my time with this as an audiobook. The narrator, Jesse Bernstein, is perfect for the voice of Percy and definitely perfect for all of the evil monsters and ambiguous gods and goddesses.
I've always enjoyed mythology, Greek and Roman primarily, so this is the perfect series. It refreshed my memory of the tales and is a wonderful portal for teaching the YA audience all about Zeus and Hera and the other peeps up on Mt Olympus.
Percy has been tossed out of many schools as a trouble making child, failure to learn, etc. He has dyslexia and ADHD, but he finds out that it's due to the fact that he is a demi-god, aka son of a god and a human. Percy's dad is Poseidon, god of the oceans deep. Percy's mom has been protecting him from the monsters out there and the gods who would want him gone as Percy is the son of one of the Big Three and that apparently has been deemed a no-no.
Percy finally discovers who he is and goes to Camp Half-Blood, where all good (and not so good) demi-gods go to strengthen their powers. And he is sent on the quest to find the lightning bolt stolen from Zeus. He goes with his buddy and protector, Grover the satyr, and Annabeth, daughter of Athena, on a major league roadtrip to prove his innocence, get the bolt of lightning and save the world.
I liked watching Percy grow into his powers and realize his intelligence. He had to work through plenty of trials and tribulations to get to the endgame and it was a fun ride the whole way through for me to listen to. I look forward to getting more of the series from RecordedBooks.


Five mythology is way cool beans.....

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