ShareThisMany parents dream of one day publishing the bedtime stories they create for their children, but Rick Riordan has actually done that -- in a big way.
This week, Riordan will publish the fifth -- and final -- novel in his best-selling "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series for readers ages 8 through 12. His publisher, Hyperion Books, is printing 1.2 million copies of "The Last Olympian" ($17.99) and Riordan, a former middle-school teacher, is doing a whirlwind, cross-country tour to promote it.
It's a long way from the time when Riordan first spun stories for his older son, then a second-grader, about a boy named Percy Jackson, who has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), is dyslexic and -- oh, yes - is the son of the Greek god Poseidon and a human woman.
Percy is 12 when the series begins in "The Lightning Thief," which was published in 2005. He's flabbergasted to learn of his heritage, especially of a prophecy that appears to place him in a pivotal role in the battle of good versus evil, or as the book portrays it, the Olympians versus the Titans.
In fact, as Percy discovers, there is a whole group of "half-bloods" like himself -- sons and daughters of Greek gods and humans. Unbeknownst to regular humans, the Greek gods actually are alive and well and living in places like Los Angeles (the modern home of Hades) and New York City (site of Olympus).
The gods are still warring with each other, mainly through their half-blood offspring. Their battles, however, are largely hidden from regular humans by a special protective "Mist."
At Camp Half-Blood, where Percy is sent during the summers to train as a demi-god, he gets to know other campers who will remain his friends throughout the series, especially a satyr named Grover, his half-brother Tyson, a cyclops, and Annabeth Chase, the half-blood daughter of the goddess Athena. Percy also meets Luke Castellan, the half-blood son of Hermes, who becomes his deadly enemy.
After surviving the challenges in "The Lightning Thief," Percy has numerous adventures, not to mention brushes with death, in the other books in the series: "The Sea of Monsters," "The Titan's Curse" and "The Battle of the Labyrinth."
All of those books build up to the eventual showdown between Percy and Luke, whose body now is inhabited by the evil Titan lord Kronos. Their battle is the focal point of "The Last Olympian," which Riordan's millions of fans may find to be the best volume yet in the series, as the author ties up a number of key loose ends while writing a page-turner filled with adventure, humor and even a bit of romance.
As usual, readers don't need to know Greek mythology to enjoy Riordan's riff on the subject. But those who do know something about it will get a particular kick out of the way Riordan hilariously combines the old with the new to create a totally convincing alternate universe.
Most important of all, Riordan shows once again that he knows how to write for kids, using short sentences, snappy dialogue, lots of plot twists and loads of humor to keep readers zipping through the pages -- even if, like Percy, they've got ADHD.
Here, for example, is the book's irresistible opening sentence: "The end of the world started when a pegasus landed on the hood of my car."
And, when Percy visits his father Poseidon at the beginning of the book, he describes the various creatures he sees there, including a merman whose eyes "were bright green, like that stuff they put in glo-sticks, and his teeth were shark teeth. They don't show you stuff like that in 'The Little Mermaid.' "
Readers also will love the illustrated "battle map of Manhattan," which precedes the action of "The Last Olympian." It's a helpful device for following all the battles in the book as the Titans advance on Percy and his friends in the heart of New York City.
While Riordan concludes Percy's story in "The Last Olympian," fans of the series will be happy to know that the author's not done yet with the Camp Half-Blood crowd. As he notes in the acknowledgements, this volume represents the conclusion to "the first Camp Half-Blood series."
Meanwhile, Riordan, who also wrote the first book, "The Maze Of Bones," in the best-selling "39 Clues" series, currently is focusing his time on his award-winning adult-mystery series as well as a non-Camp Half-Blood novel for kids, scheduled to be published next year.
But Percy's legion of fans can look forward to seeing him again soon, this time in movie theaters. "Percy Jackson," a film based on "The Lightning Thief," is scheduled to be released next February.
(Karen MacPherson, the children's/teen librarian at the Takoma Park, Md., Library, can be reached at Kam.Macpherson(at)gmail.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com)
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