'Percy Jackson' by Vynavi

A student from Rak's Pallikkoodam writes her review on the famous Percy Jackson series!

I’ve wanted to read the Percy Jackson series of books for a long time, and it’s taken me until now to start. 
What’s great about the way Rick Riordan has written the novel is that without realising it, the audience is being educated in Greek mythology to an extent if you think about it. I don’t know about others who may have had a chance to read it, but, personally, beforehand, I never would have been able to name Greek Gods. However, some may argue that you can’t take it seriously because, yes, they do seem to be living in the USA, but that’s the fun of fiction! It’s a playground for our imagination, a chance to get lost, forget the world around us and open our minds to completely alien realms or (like in this book) see our world in a mystifyingly different light.

Onto the book itself, Percy Jackson, in his own words:

‘I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporised my maths teacher. That’s when things started going wrong. Now I spend my time fighting with swords, battling monsters with my friends, and generally trying to stay alive.’

If that synopsis does not draw you in to read this action-packed book, we are not on the same wavelength – but hey, that’s fine because everyone’s different. As the title suggests, this is the book where Zeus (God of the Sky) accuses poor, ordinary Percy of stealing his lightning bolt. Percy’s world turns upside down because of that minor situation and because he doesn’t even know he is destined for all this stuff. If he doesn’t do it before the summer solstice, a war between the Gods will erupt like a volcano on one of its bad days.

For me, this book was awesome! It is jam-packed with bits of history, intertextual references to many famous USA landmarks (making it easy to imagine battles), and the light-hearted humour between Percy, Grover, and Annabeth. We’ve got some mythological creatures tossed in there, along with food of the Gods that I’ve heard of and now really want to try... look out for ambrosia and nectar, and you’ll get my drift. 

If I were to put my English lit student cap on, I’d say this book was about Percy’s self-discovery and learning to accept who he is and what he’s more than capable of. I’d say it gives kids the message that believing in yourself, no matter who you are, is vital; if you can’t believe in yourself, no one else can.

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