Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan
I’ve just finished reading this series with my seven year old son. I’m going to get him to help me with the review.
First of all, I’m not sure I need a summary or how to go about that with an entire series so I’ll just give you the basic premise. So, Percy Jackson is a half-blood, meaning that one of his parents is a Greek god. Because, the Greek gods do exist and are still around.
I really enjoyed reading these books to my son. I was worried that they would get too old for him as the series progressed but they didn’t. (They were getting there. My son is pretty mature for his age and I’m not sure my second son will be able to appreciate them at that age.) I really liked this about them. I would love to read Harry Potter to my son but I think they just get too dark in the last few books but I would like to read him the whole series at once so I’ll be holding off on them. That’s one thing I really appreciated about these books.
They were definitely entertaining. And sometimes I find that a series of books like this gets old or tired by the end of the series and I’m just reading to find out what happens, but that wasn’t the case with these. In fact, I think they got better over the series.
We also learned a lot about Greek mythology. It also made me realize how much Greek mythology is still present in our society today. Isaiah (my son) has started noticing Greek letters everywhere and names of the gods also. He’s also given everyone in the family a godly title. For example, I’m the goddess of books and reading!
Here’s what Isaiah had to say about the books:
“I liked them because there were lots of battles and quests. They were exciting. I learned lots about the Greek gods and some letters from the Greek alphabet.”
“My favourite book was the 4th one (The Battle of the Labyrinth) because they went into the Labyrinth and time went by really fast.”
“My favourite character was Percy because he was the main character. My favourite god was Zeus because he can control the sky. He shot lots of lightning bolts at the bad guys.”
Overall, this was a great series for us to read together. Now, I just have to find something else for us to read. Any suggestions??
Tags: Rick Riordan
July 7th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
I admit that I’d not heard of this series until the movie came out. Still, sounds interesting and maybe I’ll give it a spin with my daughter. Speaking of her, I have been slowly reading her the Harry Potter series. I read her the first two in grade one, and now that she’s going to grade 2 in the fall, I’ll probably begin the third this summer. I agree that it gets darker and darker and that’s why I’m dishing them out slowly, hoping she’ll mature with the series.
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July 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
I am so glad you posted about this, we have the first of this series and I have been wanting to read it with my boys but I wasn’t sure. What is the fear factor in these books?
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July 8th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
John,
Your daughter is the same age as my son. Maybe I should start on the Harry Potter series?
Kristin,
I didn’t find the fear factor to be all that bad. Isaiah said he didn’t find them scary at all but I guess that depends on your kids too.
July 12th, 2010 at 10:03 am
I had a chuckle when I read this as I just started The Lightning Thief with Caleb two weeks ago. We’ve recently read The Hobbit and Tale of Desperaux, and he enjoyed both.
Michael is my reader, and some of the books he really liked when he was younger were the Silverwing series by Kenneth Oppel, the Deltora series by Emily Rodda, the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, and the Guardians of Ga’Hoole books by Kathryn Lasky. (Ummm, I suppose this is where I admit I also read all of them except the Guardians of Ga’Hoole as well. One of the great things about your kids getting older is when they say, “Mom, you gotta read this, it’s really good” – and it is.)
And I have to put a plug in for one of my all-time favorite children’s series – coming in a close second after Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time books -The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. Man, I love these books.