37. the LIGHTNING THIEF

Rick Riordan 2005

This is the first of five books in the Lightning Thief series written for ages 9-12 but nevertheless I totally enjoyed. It is funny, fast-paced and full of Percy Jackson's adventures as he finds Zeus's stolen lightning bolt. I enjoyed the hodgepodge of characters from Greek mythology and that Mount Olympus is on top of the Empire State building.

"Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood."

"Or maybe they realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book."

"I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies--my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting."

"If you were a god, how would you expect being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"

"All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy , of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington."

"Like it or not...America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."

"I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets have responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing."

"Zeus's master bolt...The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclops for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top of Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."

"No gift comes with out a price...There is no such thing as a free lunch. That's an ancient Greek saying that translated pretty well into American. There will be a price. You wait."

"The River Styx," Annabeth murmured. "It's so..." "Polluted," Charon said. "For thousand of years, you humans have been throwing in everything as you come across--hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me."

"Annabeth had said at the Denver diner, so long ago: Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."

"The sea does not like to be restrained."