The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series, Bk 1)

Percy was just a normal 6th grade boy with a great mom, who tried her best to support them, and a "dad", who was just the opposite. In a sudden event during a field trip to the museum, Mrs. Dodds, the math teacher, turned into Alecto. 

Alecto is one of the three Furies (chief servants of Hades), and head torturers in the Underworld. When she turns into her true form and accuses Percy of stealing a lightning bolt, Percy realizes something is up. He is taken to a camp called camp half-blood where he finds out that he is a son of Poseidon, therefore being a demi-god, or half-blood, and finds out that Greek mythology is actually real. 

Zeus' most powerful weapon, his lightning bolt, has been stolen from him, and Percy is being accused. Percy must go to Olympus, and persuade the gods that it was not him that stole the lightning bolt. 

On this quest, Percy and his friends encounter some big obstacles, and most dangerous of all, monsters sent from Hades himself that want to hunt down and kill Percy. Will Percy be able to complete the quest, or will there be a chaotic war between the gods until the lightning bolt is found and Percy is killed, creating even more catastrophe than World War II?

The genre of this fast paced exhilarating book is fantasy. I would recommend this to anyone who likes Greek mythology or action. Read The Lightning Thief and the other 4 books that come after it in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

Reviewed by Bella ~ 6th Grade

Lexile 740