I want to thank Rick Riordan. When my youngest son turned eight years old, he suddenly stopped wanting me to read to him. It broke my heart because I have spent years with him and his two older brothers, snuggled up, reading books together. But he now reads his own novels (He’s in the middle of the Harry Potter series). I wandered around the house, without a listener (the dog wouldn’t sit still).
But when The Mark of Athena — the most recent book in the Heroes of Olympus series by the prolific Riordan — came out, my son came back in. So, I owe ya one, Rick. (Plus, he has learned how to count with Roman Numerals with the book. I’ve had him tell me the chapter number for each chapter, navigating the Roman symbols in a fun way). My son and I have spent the last two weeks completely immersed in the continuing saga of Percy Jackson and his demigod colleagues, including his girlfriend, Annabeth Chase (daughter of Athena), as they continue to move towards an epic battle against Gaia and the forces of Giants who want to overthrow Olympus and destroy the world.
(A side note: I ordered The Mark of Athena from Scholastic as part of our book club. When it came in, I had the book on my desk. I had more students come over and look at it and talk about it than any other book that has been on my desk this year. One girl was so excited about it, she did a happy dance across the front of the room. But then she realized that she did not have the book yet and her parents might not be able to get it for her anytime soon. I looked at her. I looked at the book. And I lent it to her to read. She zipped through it in five days. My son, who was waiting for the book, too, was not at all happy that I had lent it out before he got a look. BUT, the teacher in me trumped the parent in me.)
I won’t give the plot away, but this book centers on Annabeth Chase more than any other demigod, and that’s a good thing. She is smart, and powerful, and she uses her wits to survive a terrifying ordeal late in the book. And the seven demigods are mostly an interesting crew. The only one who does nothing for me is Jason, the son of Jupiter (ie, Zeus) who just seems like a dud to me. A powerful dud, but still, a dud. Still, Riordan finishes the book up in a very dramatic style, sending two demigods to an unknown future (I won’t say which two) in a classic cliffhanger moment. I got to the last page and my son looked at me.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“What happens?”
“We’ll just have to wait ..” and we both looked to the back page, where the book advertises the next in the series — The House of Hades — which comes out in Fall 2013 “… for another year.”
“Nooooooooooooooooo.”
You could say he’s hooked. Thanks, Rick.
Peace (in the adventure),
Kevin