{"id":305,"date":"2007-12-05T17:59:57","date_gmt":"2007-12-05T17:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/?p=305"},"modified":"2012-02-27T14:22:40","modified_gmt":"2012-02-27T14:22:40","slug":"the-lightning-thief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/?p=305","title":{"rendered":"The Lightning Thief"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lightning Thief<\/em> by Rick Riordan<\/h3>\n

This meeting at the North Village Library attracted seven participants, including two first-timers. Our topic was The Lightning Thief<\/em>, a young adult fantasy by San Antonio author Rick Riordan. The book is a modern-day tale about an adolescent boy, Percy Jackson, raised by his mother and an unpleasant stepfather. Percy discovers that his absent father is a Greek God, and that supernatural creatures are out to get him. This leads him to a summer camp for \u201chalf-bloods\u201d and eventually to a big adventure. \u00a0Two of us had read Riordan\u2019s prior books, which are mystery novels.\u00a0 Everyone at the meeting started and finished The Lightning Thief.<\/em><\/p>\n

We enjoyed how this book revisited classic Greek mythology. It was fun to read about what gods do now vs. what they did in the past. We felt that much of this material might be new to a kid in its target age range. \u00a0One person appreciated the underworld being located in Los Angeles. Another liked the modern twist of wings on sneakers.<\/p>\n

We liked Percy and his cohorts. They were flawed and likeable, but not too reminiscent of Harry Potter and his friends. We liked Percy\u2019s mother and appreciated the final fate of his evil stepfather.<\/p>\n

We admired Riordan\u2019s efficient writing style that was always clear and never boring. We felt that this book is well-suited to its audience, children with short attention spans. \u00a0We appreciated the whimsical tone. Several of us reported finishing the book in either one or two sittings. One person commented that this is close to the best children\u2019s fiction she\u2019s read. She thought Riordan\u2018s story followed classic fiction tropes.<\/p>\n

Several of us reported giving copies of this book to our early-teen children, nieces, and nephews. This has proven to be a popular gift, often passed around among groups of friends.<\/p>\n

We found The Lightning Thief<\/em> to be fun for kids of all ages. It was perfect holiday reading. \u00a0One member said that she plans to read future books in the series when she needs cheering up.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, several of us had a nice dinner at Conan\u2019s.<\/p>\n

—A. T. Campbell, III<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan This meeting at the North Village Library attracted seven participants, including two first-timers. Our topic was The Lightning Thief, a young adult fantasy by San Antonio author Rick Riordan. The book is a modern-day tale about an adolescent boy, Percy Jackson, raised by his mother and an unpleasant stepfather. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":577,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fact.org\/reading\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}