BookTalk

Kristen C. Hoard

Dimondale, MI

Title: The Lightning Thief

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Miramax Books

Date Published: 2005

Genre: Fantasy

Grade Level: 6^th through 9th

Booktalker: Kristen C. Hoard

Background Information on Author: Rick Riordan was an English and history teacher for fifteen years in public and private schools in the San Francisco Bay area and Texas. The inspiration for the writing of The Lightning Thief came from Riordanπs experience teaching Greek mythology and his work with students who have learning difficulties. Riordan is now a full time writer and lives in San Antonio with his wife and two sons. He has also written several adult fiction titles which have won the top three awards in the mystery genre, the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Shamus. Riordan plans to write five books in the Percy Jackson series. Out right now are The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters. The Titanπs Curse is due out in May of this year.

Background Note: As a special education teacher I felt that this book had a lot to offer to my learning disabled students. The main character of Percy Jackson has both dyslexia and ADHD. Percy does not allow these disabilities to hold him back and he becomes a hero throughout this book. I think that my students would be inspired by this character in knowing that they too can do great things in their lives and they should not feel discouraged by their disabilities. It was nice to see that Rick Riordan has also worked with learning disabled students and this was part of his reason for writing this book. I co-teach a seventh grade history class and coincidentally we are studying ancient Greece. Several of my special education students are in that class. We have discussed the gods and Greek mythology and I felt that this gave the students good background knowledge on the Greek gods which are mentioned in The Lightning Thief.

Booktalk: My name is Perseus Jackson, Percy for short, and I just discovered that I am a half-blood. Youπre probably asking yourself what exactly I mean by half-blood. The technical term would be a demigod, which means I am half-god, half-human. If you arenπt familiar with the gods, I mean Athena, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, the immortal gods of Olympus who control the forces of nature and human events. Iπm a twelve year old New Yorker with ADHD and Dyslexia and Iπve been kicked out of six schools in six years and have never gotten higher than a C- in my life. Itπs only recently that I have discovered the truth. There have always been strange things that have happened in my life, where I felt like my brain had fallen asleep and the next thing I know Iπve missed something. My school counselor said it was the ADHD, but I wondered if it was something more.

Everything became even more confusing when my school, Yancy Academy, visited the city museum. My evil math teacher Mrs. Dodds and my Latin teacher Mr. Brunner were there with us. It all started when the horrible Nancy Bobofit dumped her half-eaten lunch in my friend Groverπs lap. Next thing I know, without even realizing I had done it, Nancy ended up in the museum fountain. I thought Mrs. Doddπs was going to make me buy Nancy a new shirt, but that was definitely not what happened. All the sudden her eyes began to glow like barbeque coals, her fingers stretched out and turned into talons, her jacket turned into large wings, and I realized something scaryämy teacher was a real monster. With her mouth full of yellow fangs I knew she was about to attack me. Out of nowhere, Mr. Brunner appeared and tossed me a pen, but it wasnπt just any pen, when I caught it the pen became a beautiful bronze sword. Mrs. Doddπs lunged at me and I swung the sword at her, successfully delivering a blow to her shoulder. Mrs. Doddπs exploded into yellow powder and was gone, leaving nothing behind besides a horrible stink. This wouldnπt be the last time I was attacked by a monster, I would soon discover that as the son of god, monsters were attracted just by my scent.

After killing a Minotaur, a half-bull, half-man who had killed my mother, I ended up at Camp Half-Blood where I was reunited with Mr. Brunner. At camp I met Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, who explained to me that this was a training camp for all of the sons and daughters of the gods. The problem was, when I first arrived, no one knew exactly which god my father was. After a game of capture the flag, to everyoneπs shock, another monster tried to attack me, this one being a scary black hound the size of a rhino, with lava red eyes and fangs like daggers. The monster was able to bite me before being shot and killed by one of the counselors. This is when Annabeth discovered that water was a healing source for me. She told me to get back in the water and as soon as I did so I felt better and miraculously my wounds healed. All of the sudden above my head appeared a hologram of green light and the image of a trident, a three-tipped spear. My father had claimed me as his own, and I knew that I was the son of Poseidon, god of the sea. But this was only the start of adventure. There was a reason that Poseidon has claimed me at that time, he needed my help. Poseidon and his brother Zeus were fighting over Zeusπ stolen lightning bolt, which was his symbol of power, from which all other lightning bolts were patterned. Zeus believed it was Poseidon who took the lightning bolt. It soon became clear that I had a job to do, it was my duty to find Zeusπ lightning bolt and prove Poseidonπs innocence and my worth as his son. If you want to hear more about my adventure in the underworld of the gods and the monsters I meet on my quest, donπt waste any time, go and pick up The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan!

Curriculum Suggestions:

Pre-Reading Activities:

∑ Discuss a time when the students have felt they were treated unfairly.

∑ Discuss Dyslexia and ADHD

∑ Discuss why the Greeks may have believed in more than one god.

∑ Have the students visit the map of Camp Half-Blood at http://www.rickriordan.com/Camp_Half_Blood_Map.htm and talk about where they would like to visit and why.

∑ Have the students fill out a chart with some facts about several of the ancient Greek gods.

During/After Reading Activities:

∑ The students could research more about the heroπs quest and compare/contrast Percyπs character to the heroes in other stories.

∑ After finishing the story, the class could have a Greek day, where they dress up in togas, share Greek food, perform skits from the book, and participate in a version of Olympic Games.

∑ The students could research Perseus who was actually the son of Zeus, as well as the other heroes mentioned in the book such as Hercules and Orpheus.

This book could be read in either a language arts or history class. I think this book would be a useful companion to a regular history text book on Greek mythology. It could be used as a read-aloud at the end of each history period. I think Percy is a character that kids would enjoy hearing about rather than just reading what they may consider ≥boring≤ material in a text book. Of course that material still needs to be taught, but it wouldnπt hurt to also used this fun fiction book as well.

There is also a teacherπs guide to go along with this book at the following website: http://www.rickriordan.com/Teacher_Guide_to_Percy.htm .

Bibliography:

Riordan, R. (2005). The Lightning Thief. New York: Miramax Books.

http://www.rickriordan.com/children.htm