Given that the movie, "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" comes out today, we thought it might be appropriate to do a quick summary of Percy Jackson, the hero of five books by Rick Riordan, and his first quest for the lightning bolt.

Percy Jackson has a lot of personal baggage: he goes to boarding school 50 miles north of New York City, has been diagnosed with both dyslexia and ADHD and has just been asked not to return to yet another school for the next year -- and he's only 12. But then some strange things start happening around him, and although he can see them nobody else can, so to top it all off, the poor kid thinks he might be going a little crazy.

Fortunately, this self-doubt doesn't last for too long, and he discovers, finally, that he does in fact have a dad (his mother claimed his father was "lost at sea" before Percy was born) -- and his dad is none other than Poseidon, god of the sea. Only the problem is that "The Big Three" gods (Zeus, Poseidon and Hades) had made a pact after World War II not to sire any more children. Clearly Poseidon broke the pact and now there's going to be trouble. Not-so-mythical monsters can smell demi-gods, or "half-bloods" as Percy is now classified -- and like very much to destroy them. For his own safety Percy is taken into the protective custody of a camp for the children of gods. But it isn't long before the heads of the camp realize that Percy must go out into the now increasingly dangerous real world to search for Zeus' lightning bolt to prove not only that Poseidon didn't take it but also that Hades most likely did. And so the story begins.

This book is a real page turner from beginning to end, full of battles with the plot moving at a fast enough pace to keep kids interested. Kids will like Percy, the flawed boy who rises to the challenges and grows up during his journey. Fortunately he begins his travels with two sidekicks Grover and Annabeth who help him in his quest to retrieve the lightening bolt and protect him.

The Lightning Thief is the first in the series of the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" stories, there are four others. For the month of February, 2010, all Percy Jackson books are 20% off.

--Cathy the Toy Mom