The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

What did you do on your summer vacation? Well, I’d be willing to bet none of you had a summer like mine. My name is Percy Jackson and I’ve always been “the problem maker”. I’ve been kicked out of six schools in six years. I thought my year at Yancy Academy was going well, until our field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nancy Bobofit spilled her lunch on my friend Grover’s lap and before I knew it, I was so angry and she was in the fountain. She said I pushed her and Mrs. Dodds, my algebra teacher, takes me aside to punish me. I figured she was going to yell and give me detention but instead the weirdest thing happened. “Her eyes began to glow like barbeque coals. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn’t human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.” My Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner, throws me a pen which turns into a sword. As Mrs. Dodds, “die honey”, I swing the sword and she vaporizes. That’s not the strangest part. Instead of being angry that I was kicked out of school, my mom decides to take me on a beach getaway. She wants to tell me something but before she can we are chased by a Minotaur, who I kill just as he kills her. Next thing I know I’m waking up at Camp Half-Blood.
It turns out I’m a half-blood, a demigod, child of a Greek god. Mom was taking me to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for others like me. Surprising I meet several familiar faces. Turns out Mr. Brunner is a centaur (half man/half horse), and my friend Grover is a satyr (half man/half goat). I soon discover my father is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Like I told you before, my life is full of trouble so of course it isn’t long before monsters are breaking into camp trying to kill me. It is decided that I will go on a quest, to retrieve Zeus’ lighting rod, which has been stolen. Oh yeah, I am the prime suspect so go figure, the quest to the Underworld to reclaim the lightening rod from Hades is full of adventure and mishap. But I didn’t have to go alone. Grover was there as well as my friend Annabeth, who is the daughter of Athena, Goddess of War.
Wanna find out if I found Zeus’ lightning rod and revealed the true Lightning Thief?
Greek mythology has never been this cool!

The Lightning Thief is a 2007-2008 nominee for the Soaring Eagle Award, Wyoming's teen choice book award. It will also be the selection for the October Afternoon Book Club.