Susan May
Elaine Burroughs
Deborah Beckers
Anna Doll
Linsey Lanier
Sally Kilpatrick
Tammy Schubert
Darcy Crowder
Marilyn Baron
Sandra Elzie
Carol Burnside
Debbie Kaufman
Tamara DeStefano
Maxine DavisThe Lightning Thief
Movie and Book #1 from the series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Starring: Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Catherine Keener, Uma Thurman, Pierce Bronson
Director: Chris Columbus
Writers:
Craig Titley (screenplay)
Rick Riordan (novel)
Studio: Fox 2000 Pictures
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Book Released: June 28, 2005
Percy Jackson thinks he’s just a troubled kid with really, really bad luck. After being attacked by his psychotic pre-algebra teacher, he finds himself in a life or death race to the safety of a place called Camp Half-blood. Once there he discovers this is a camp for children with a parent who is a Greek God and that he is a son of Poseidon. With this realization, his luck goes from bad to worse.
He barely has time to take it all in before he has to embark on a quest to save the world from an all out mythological war. With the help of two fellow campers, Percy has to make his way to the underworld while navigating his way from one side of the United States to the other and through all the monsters in-between. If he can make it through this alive, he might just save more than humanity.
Mythology, heroes, and boy-meets-girl. This book/movie/series has it all.
I LOVED this story. My son and I started reading The Lightning Thief together and then both found ourselves skipping ahead when the other couldn’t be there to read it. Rick Riordon did an amazing job of creating Percy’s world. The way he bounced myths and legends off of each other made me feel like I was coming home to a place I already knew. It didn’t take us long to read all five books in the series. 
The movie was an excellent adaptation of the first book. Although there were many differences, I felt they did a good enough job that the differences were not disappointing. I highly recommend both the movie and the books, but if you want to know how the story ends without having to wait for the next movie to come out, the books are definitely the way to go.
Tags: book review, Movie Review, Tami Brothers, The Lightening Thief
About the author
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Tami Brothers | http://www.tamibrothers.com I’ve always wanted to live a fun, sexy and exciting life. But when my clumsiness left me with an aversion to high heels, my fear of wardrobe malfunctions cut out those plunging necklines, and my skydiving instructor politely suggested I take up golf; I decided the only way to keep from breaking my neck would be to write about such a life.
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March 13th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
I’ve been wondering about this movie, so thanks for doing the review. I didn’t know about the book but the movie promos looked interesting. I think I will go so it on your recommendation.
Marilyn
March 13th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Hahaha. I think you’ll like it. In the movie the characters are around 15 years old but the book starts with them at 12 and the five books progress until the end of a prophecy that ends on Percy’s 16th birthday. I LOVED the books and I think that they did a great job with the movie in a way to bring more of the teen crowd in.
I think you’d like them both. Hope you enjoy it!!!
March 14th, 2010 at 12:16 am
I loved the HP books, so would probably like these too. Thanks for the review.
March 14th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Hey Carol! If you love HP, you will LOVE these books. Percy grows with the series like Harry grew with his.
The beauty of doing this review is that I found out there will be a whole other series featuring this world. Not sure if it will have the same characters, but Rick Riordon ended this series so there was not loose ends hanging to stress about. So if he does use the same characters, I’ll be very excited to read them. AND if he doesn’t use the same characters, I’ll still be excited to read it…grin…
Hope you like it!!!
Tami
March 15th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I saw the movie and then read the book. It seems lately that is the best way to go with some of the books to screen adaptations or else you become very disappointed. I went out and bought the rest of the books. Enjoyed them. Saving for my grandchildren.