(i kinda dropped this feature over the holidays + cha rush - but i'm excited to be bringing it back into rotation. i love looking back at the older posts i've done and remembering what i've read w/ the boys)
the percy jackson series by rick riordan : the lightning thief, the sea of monsters, the titan's curse, the battle of the labyrinth & the last olympian
alex picked the first percy jackson up through a book order. rick riordan wrote a couple of the 39 clues books, so i figured he was a safe bet to help alex branch out to a new series. he finished it and had us at the library collecting the second one in no time.
the basic premise of this series is that percy jackson discovers he's a half blood - his father is a greek god, his mother is a mortal. the greek gods are alive and well, and apparently friendly with the mortals, because there's a whole camp full of half bloods who spend their lives plagued by monsters trying to kill them. through out the series, there are several threats against percy and all of mortal civilization, and he and his half blood friends have to make things right.
it's a really well written series. it doesn't talk down, but is still age appropriate. i picked up the first book after alex, because we like to read what they're reading from time to time - and i was sucked in. alex and i ended up fighting over final book last week - luckily he's not very good at hiding things. ;) we redboxed the movie one weekend and both alex and ben loved it - so we've started reading the series together at night. we're halfway through the sea of monsters.
the coolest part about this is that the bigs are now totally into learning about greek mythology. having a solid knowledge of those stories will definitely serve them well in lit classes in the future.
currently reading :
alex - the lost hero, rick riordan (this is a new series that happens after the percy jackson books. he's keeping it at school so i can't finish it before him. hmph)
ben - miss holly is too jolly, dan gutman (i've gotta get this boy to read books that AREN'T weird school daze or captain underpants. sigh)
sam - great big book of spacey snakey buggy riddles, simms taback
