Quicklets: Learn More. Read Less.
The Lightning Thief started out as a bedtime story for Rick Riordans oldest son. After writing adult mysteries for some time, Riordan decided to try his hand at childrens fiction. Making up a tale for his son was the perfect place to begin.
The story takes ancient Greek mythology and brings it into the modern world. Riordan creates a here-and-now in which gods and creatures of myth and legend are still active, though perhaps not in the ways we would expect. The Greek gods palace on Mount Olympus has shifted to the new center of Western civilization the United States, but the gods still get up to their old tricks. They still fight, and fall in love, and have children with mortal humans.
The story of one half-human, half-god boy, Perseus Jackson, is the basis of The Lightning Thief. Riordan takes a fantastic what-if ideawhat if the Greek gods still existed and had half-divine children in the modern world?and creates a rousing adventure tale of friendship, courage, and doing whats right.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicole has been writing since she could make letters with a pencil, and has been making a living at it for more than ten years. She has gone back to school too many times, studying archaeology, folklore, writing and visual art. She writes fiction under several pen names, and also does printmaking, book arts, and photography. She's an avid amateur natural historian with a particular fascination for things that fly, whether it's birds, bats or insects. And if it's possible to be both a luddite, with a love for the low-tech, and a technophile, with a fascination for everything new and shiny, Nicole is both. She reads too many books, plays too many video games, and watches too much anime.
BOOK EXCERPT FROM THE RICK RIORDAN QUICKLET: THE LIGHTNING THIEF
Chapter 1: I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-algebra Teacher
Percy Jackson, a boarding student at Yancy Academy for troubled kids, is on a field trip with his class to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek Art. The Lightning Thief is full of clues about Percys nature and the events of Greek mythology, which make it doubly fun for anyone who knows a little Greek myth. The first hint about Percy is his name: Perseus was a hero in Greek myth who performed a number of courageous deeds. The trip to the art museum holds another clue, because the class is looking at ancient Greek artifacts and gets a lecture on myth and history.
An incident with a bully at school, Nancy Bobofit, ends up with her soaking wet in a fountain, and Percy not sure how it happened. This incident is the readers first clue that Percy has a connection to Poseidon. Poseidon is god of the sea, and thus has control over water, so when the water saves Percy it shows it recognizes him as connected to it.
Percy finds himself in trouble with Mrs. Dodds, the pre-algebra teacher. Mrs. Dodds is not what she seems, and she turns into a winged monster. She is not just any monster, either, but a Fury, a creature of vengeance sent by Hades, god of the Underworld. The Latin teacher appears and gives Percy a pen that turns into a sword, and Percy ends up disintegrating Mrs. Dodds into powder.
When Percy returns to the group, no one knows who hes talking about when he asks about Mrs. Dodds. This is when Percy really begins to realize that something strange is going on. His memory and that of everyone else do not match, and only Grover seems to have any notion about what Percy saw. But Grover will not admit to knowing anything.
Quicklets: Learn More. Read Less.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
- Quicklet on Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief
- Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief
- About the Book
- About the Author
- Summary of The Lightning Thief
- Chapter-by-Chapter Summary & Commentary
- ...and much more
