66 in my 2011 book blogging challenge.
Rick Riordon’s latest was my reading pick for the days I stayed home sick this week. It’s an undemanding book written for middle-schoolers. It was easy to read and sleep at the same time.
Why is a grown woman reading a book like this, you ask? Well, mainly because I’ve read all of his other books.
I wouldn’t say that these books do make the leap from being books for kids to being books for everyone, but they do have a certain charm. I enjoy them, and I suppose that’s all the reason I need.
In The Son of Neptune, we once again follow the adventures of Percy Jackson. This time, however, he’s lost his memory, and he has found his way to a camp of demigods who follow the gods in their Roman aspects rather than in their Greek aspects. This is really a brilliant way to teach the differences in the Greek gods and their Roman counterparts. I know I came away with a better grasp of how Neptune is not just another name for Poseidon but another personality for the sea god as well.
That said, I didn’t like this book as well as I liked the previous one, The Lost Hero, but I did finish it eager to read the next installment. I think this a bridge book. The third one in the series where the Greek and Roman camps come together should be the real story. On its own, book 2 is really just the same old Percy Jackson stuff told all over again. As part of a series in which we get Greek and Roman demigods coming together on adventures, it’s a pretty cool twist on Riordon’s normal pattern.
If you’re a Percy fan, you’ll enjoy this one. If you aren’t already a Percy fan, there’s no point in starting here. Go back and read The Lightening Thief instead (the first book in the original series). And if you have middle school kids studying mythology, consider that not just a suggestion, but a must. There’s no one better than Riordan at making the old Greek (and now Roman) myths come to life for a new generation.
