Oh, how happy I am that Rick Riordan is back with some more Greek mythology stories. I've missed percy Jackson since he finished his quests, saved the gods on Mt. Olympus, and completed his prophecy. Although he is not in THE LOST HERO, other than just his name being mentioned, he still plays an integral role. I loved being taken back to Camp Half Blood, and some familiar characters, as we met three new demigods who we learn are incredibly important to the world as the gods have set it up now. THE LOST HERO has it all: adventure, battles, comedy, friendship, family drama, mythology references, saving the world urgency, excitement, mystery, and a little teen romance thrown in for good measure all in a quick read book.
In THE LOST HERO we meet Jason who doesn't remember who he is or where he's from - he just pops up one day on a school field trip. He's sitting next to Piper, who has her own issues because she keeps stealing things to get her famous father's attention and also thinks Jason is her boyfriend. Sitting near them is Leo who brings most of the comic relief to the story. When the monsters attack, we come to find out that Jason can speak Latin and refers to the gods by their Roman names. When the three are rescued and taken to Camp Half Blood, we meet up with lots of familiar characters and hear a new prophecy, and find out the parentage of the three new characters and what their quest will be. Along the way we meet new minor gods and goddesses, lots of mythological animals and people, and go along on their journey to building the friendship of Jason, Piper, and Leo and saving a major goddess.
The thing I really love about Rick Riordan's writing is that it's pretty straight forward and written at a great middle grades level. That means it will be easily accessible/readable to all of my eighth grade students; however, as Percy's fans have grown, so has the size of the new series of books - this one tops out at 553 pages. The beauty is that because of the excitement and pacing of the story, I never wanted to stop reading it or put it down. Another change that was made for this series, that I really enjoyed, is that it is actually told from three different character's points-of-view. The book is written in third person, but when we first meet the main characters, we're reading from Jason's perspective, then after two chapters we move to Piper's, and then after another two chapters we get Leo's. I liked that the timing of the change was consistent throughout the book allowing me to know what was coming, but also each chapter was titled the character's name from whose perspective it was written.
This book nicely sets up the larger premise for this new series by Rick Riordan - but I won't give that away here because I don't want to spoil the story! Luckily, we'll be getting new Rick Riordan books every six months alternating between The Kane Chronicles series and The Heroes of Olympus series - with the next heroes book, THE SON OF NEPTUNE coming out in a year.
THE LOST HERO is a must-read book for everyone who loved the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series: The Lightning Thief, Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, Battle of the Labryinth, and The Last Olympian. You won't be disappointed and will be so happy to be back in this world again. And if you haven't read the others yet, you need to!
5 STARS for THE LOST HERO
I didn't have time to do lengthy reviews on each of the books I read this summer, but I wanted to be sure to mention and give quick opinions on all of them, so here goes...
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
I love Sherman Alexie's voice - I've loved his writing and movies for a long time, so I was excited to finally read this book. It is a fabulous book - I can see why it won the awards it did - a must-read! Handles issues of race issues, adolescent boys, high-school, friendships, family, etc in a humorous and sensitive way. I will recommend this to all of my students to read with a caution of some mature concepts. 5 Stars
My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger
For the more mature reader - great book told from multiple points-of-view with three high-school friends who are the main characters. They are almost seniors, and writing an English paper on their most excellent year - all three write about their freshman year and the flashback part of the story is told through their journal entries from freshman year English class. I really like the voice and methods that the story was told in with letters and emails and instant message chats and journals. Deals with coming out of a gay character in a realistic and sensitive way. It's a book about relationships and discovering who we really are. Made my top books list for the year. 5 Stars
Gone by Michael Grant
I expected this to be a dystopian along the lines of Lord of the Flies; however it threw me off with the supernatural parts of it that I wasn't expecting. I enjoyed the basic storyline of a town where everyone over the age of 14 disappears one day, and how the kids survive, but didn't like the supernatural parts of it so much - they distracted me from the main plot. I will probably read the sequel though because I did get drawn in by some of the main and secondary characters. 3 Stars
NUM8ERS by Rachel Ward
I really, really wanted to like this book about a girl who sees a string of numbers every time she looks at a person's eyes. On the day her mother died, she learned that the numbers stand for the day that person is destined to die. I knew going in that it was a book from England, so some of the words would be different. However, I wasn't quite expecting it to be such an on-the-run story, and I wasn't hooked into the love interest storyline, which became more of a focus at the story moved on. Overall, I was disappointed in the twist at the end. Several times I wanted to abandon, but forced myself to finish it. Overall, it's an OK book for me. 2 Stars
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham
I've like John Grisham's adult books, so I was really intrigued to read this one. There's just something about series books that are obviously intended to be a series from the start so the ending feels a little incomplete that throws me off sometimes, and this is one of those. Overall, the story was cute with Theo and all of his knowledge of the law and his ability to be in with the judges and other court workers when a big trial is starting. There is quite a bit of law speak in this book, but it is explained pretty well. The plot kept moving fairly well and kept me interested. Overall, I think this is a book for those students who like to watch the procedural shows on TV and would be interested in trial stories and a new series. 4 Stars
Lament and Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater
I love, love, love Maggie Steifvater's writing! I first discovered her when I heard her speak at a conference and got an advance copy of Linger, so of course I had to go buy Shiver and read it right away (stories with werewolves). As soon as I read them, I knew she was one of my favorite authors, and I recommended the series to all of my students and coworkers. So, this summer I wanted to go back and read her first books (stories with faeries), Lament and Ballad. I really enjoyed both of these books: the writing drew me in, I was invested in the characters and what would happen to them, the suspense in the plot and wondering how these human characters would deal with the faeries kept me reading, and I was eager to read the second once I had finished the first. All of these things are what I want in a book. i enjoy reading books with paranormal/fantasy romance aspects, especially ones by Maggie Steifvater, and these didn't disappoint! 5 Stars
The Last Thing I Remember (The Homelanders) by Andrew Klavan
I picked this book up because I saw the cover in the bookstore and the back summary made me think this might be a good suspense/adventure series that would engage eighth grade boys. Mostly I think it will, but I was a little disappointed. I felt that the beginning, when Charlie wakes up in a room being held prisoner, all beat up, doesn't know what is going on, and doesn't remember how he got there was a great start especially as he's trying to escape and figure out what's happening. It flashes back to the last day he remembers in alternating chapters. The problem that I had was that after he escapes and is on the run it got very slow for me. It wasn't until almost the end that the plot picked up again and we started to get answers on who these terrorists were. By the end I was a little disappointed because I didn't get as many answers as I would have like on how Charlie ended up there. I will probably recommend it to boys looking for adventure books, but ask them to read the second one in the series and let me know how it is. 3 Stars
The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Re-read these two for the second time in anticipation of Mockingjay's August release, and so glad I did. It was nice to catch back up on the story of Katniss, Peeta, and Gale after one and two years since I read them, and reminded me of why this is one of my all-time favorite series!
This series is one of the best dystopian stories I've read - a story taking a country similar to ours and putting it in a near future in which the world has changed in some way in which is is supposed to be better and is controlled by a different leading organization than our current governmental structure.
In The Hunger Games, the country is run by The Capitol - the only area of the country in which they have enough money and food to live a good life. To remind the twelve districts of the failed rebellion from years ago and to make sure they don't rebel again, they hold the annual Hunger Games, a televised event that everyone in the country watches, in which one boy and one girl, between the ages of 12-18, from each of the districts, enters the game world and fights to the death. The winner is set for life and gets food for his or her entire district. When Katniss goes to the games, things change not only for her, but for the entire country of Panem. If you've been waiting to read these books, now that the third one will be out, it's time to read them all in a row. 5 Stars
Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
I loved Perfect Chemistry so much that I definitely wanted to read the sequel and learn Carlos' story. Overall I liked it, it's a good romance escape novel, but was pretty similar in storyline to the first book. (See full review blog post) 4 Stars
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
Enjoyed the new series with Egyptian mythology from the author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. (See full review blog post) 4 Stars
THE RED PYRAMID is the first book in The Kane Chronicles, a great new series for anyone who liked Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, here is a new one to keep you going on epic quests. Just like Percy, Sadie and Carter Kane are on a journey of self-discovery and learning about a world they didn't know existed hidden behind their own regular world, but this time it is the Egyptian gods and goddesses. As they didn't spend much time together growing up, they are building their brother/sister relationship throughout the book. They somewhat remind me of Dan and Amy from The 39 Clues series - a great brother/sister team who look out for each other.
Although The Red Pyramid book is longer, and takes a little longer to read due to being mostly unfamiliar with Egyptian mythology (unlike the Greek gods and goddesses who were familiar in Percy Jackson), it is still well worth your time to read. It is written at a level that is appropriate for middle school students, and has enough excitement and action to keep one interested, although you have to pay attention to the explanations of the mythology to follow along with what's happening in the story.
The story starts off when Carter and his dad, who have been traveling around the world for his dad's work as an expert, come back to London for one of their visits to Sadie, who lives with their grandparents after their mom died. Dad takes Carter and Sadie with him to the history museum, and when they witness him unleashing gods from the Rosetta Stone, and he disappears, they don't know what to think. Luckily, the next day their Uncle Amos shows up to take them to the U.S. where they learn that they are actually descended from a line of pharaohs which makes them magicians. Along with this knowledge, and the dream visions they start having, they learn that some other magicians aren't too happy with them and that's when the attacks start. Ultimately, they need to face Set, who is trying to unleash chaos, so they can bring the gods and magicians together to keep chaos from changing the whole world.
One thing that is important to note when reading this book is that it is told through the voices/points of view of both Carter and Sadie. Make sure to look at the chapter headings and the tops of each page to keep track of which character is the "I" in each chapter. Although, it is one of the things I like best about this book because you do get good insights into the whole story because you know things from both main characters, it can be confusing if you're not paying attention.
4 Stars for THE RED PYRAMID
