Author: Rick Riordan
Format: Paperback
Published: Little Brown, 2005

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is what one might call a troubled youth. He never knew his father, he's been thrown out of six boarding schools in six years, he's been diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia, and his only friend Grover is also an outcast. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. He accidentally vaporizes his math teacher on a class trip, finds out that Grover is really a satyr, watches his mother get killed by a minotaur, and winds up at Camp Half-Blood. There he discovers that his father is actually Poseidon. And he has to act fast because a bitter feud between Poseidon and Zeus is threatening all of humankind. Whew. With his incredible writing, Riordan makes turns the complicated premise into an incredibly exciting novel that also explores friendship, family, and identity.