The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, 375 pages

"Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightening bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves." -Back Cover

Okay, so after The Lovely Bones I needed something light. With chapters titled "I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-algebra Teacher," I Ruin a Perfectly Good Bus," "A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers" and "We Take a Zebra to Vegas" I knew this was the one for me.

The Lightning Thief is written especially for 5-9th graders but I found it utterly entertaining as an adult. Some of the story was a little predictable but I was having too much fun to care. I laughed out loud, a lot. The idea of weaving modern-day characters with mythological characters is brilliant. I'm sure for a junior high student who hasn't had any exposure to Greek mythology this is the perfect introduction. Rick Riordan makes them easy to understand and fun to visualize.

Percy is hilarious. He talks back to gods, has a typical teenage attitude, and doesn't shy away from a fight. Dionysus, or Mr. D. as he's known in this book, is perhaps my favorite. He is bitter about having to work at Camp Half-Blood and it shows. I can't wait to read book 2, The Sea of Monsters. Well, I can wait at least a couple of days. Catching Fire came out today!! If you haven't read The Hunger Games yet you really, really should.