I love the Percy Jackson books and can't wait for the movie!

[MomofKatie]

Can anyone recommend a similar book or book series? I bought DD11 books 1-3 for Christmas. She had previously read #1 at school. By December 28, she had finished ALL of them and was begging for books 4 and 5. So, I put them on my Kindle for her. Now she's mad because she's finished them both within 4 days and wants actual physical books so that she can take them to school so she can read them over and over. I appreciate that she likes them, but honestly, I'd rather she read something new!

MY DD11 loved Percy Jackson, and she also loved the following series:

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart- about a group of gifted children who are recruited to join a secret society that fights evil. Very clever, filled with action and comical characters.

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull- the 2 main characters go to their mysterious grandparents' home for the summer and discover it is a "nature preserve" for mythical and fantastical creatures- and some force is threatening it.

The Shadow Thieves (Book one of the Cronus Chronicals) by Anne Ursu- Charlotte and her cousin, Zee, have to help their friends, who have all been felled by a mysterious illness. Turns out, their shadows have been stolen and transported to the Underworld by a beaurocrat demon who wants to overthrow Hades. They must venture into the world of Greek mythology to help their friends and save the world.

Peter and the Starcatchers by Ridley Pierson and Dave Barry- A wonderful, adventure-filled series that answers the question- How did Neverland, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, and Tinker Bell come to be?

The Night Tourist and The Twilight Prisoner by Katherine Marsh- Another series that explores the Underworld. Jack, after a car accident, can see the dead. He meets Euri, a nice dead girl, at Grand Central Station. She leads him to the Underworld, where he has to solve some mysteries and find someone from his past before he can go back to the land of the living.

 

[meghanet]

They're making a movie of it!!! That is awesome!!! I got the whole series for my little brother and he loved them. Can't wait to tell him there's a moving being made, he'll be so excited.

BTW, I got all the books off of Amazon. The first 3 were in a box set and the other two I just got separately. We paid something like $17 for the first 3 and then $17 combined for the last two, so $34 total for 5 books, I think that's a great deal.

 

[mominwestlake]

My kids also love the Percy Jackson books and own all of them. My dd got a "mini" Percy Jackson book for Christmas called The Demogod Files.

My ds was also not a reader in 6th grade and this series got him hooked. I am on the lookout for another series that will do the same thing. Older dd liked the Artemis Fowel series.

 

[leagirl12]

Thanks to Percy Jackson books I have found my DS12 actually reading for fun!!!!!

We watched the trailer online last night and now I want to read the books. He has the complete set so I will probably start on the first one tonight since DH starts working night shift. I am looking forward to it!!!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I love them as well. There are so many things you could do with them. I read te first one to my fourth grade LD class last year and it was great because they could completely identify with the main character. It's not often that they get to read books about characters with LD or ADHD like they have- and particularly with it painted in such a positive light!

I cannot wait for the movie.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I enjoyed them. Need to finish the series though (stopped on three). I gave my mom the whole series for Christmas and we are both stoked for the movie. Couple of notes:

1. The kid playing Percy is the spitting image of a young Christian Slater!

2. I didn't picture Grover as a black kid. Did they ever mention this in the book?

If you read the Demigod Files, it has full color prints of various characters and Grover is pictured as a white skinned kid with dreds and Rastifarian cap.

I highly recommend Demigod Files. It's sort of a standalone that was released between books 4 and 5 that contain mini adventures of the various characters and is very loosely referenced in book 5.

 

[Desnik]

My DD loved this series and tore through them in record time! She is very excited about the movie coming out. She has been trying to get me to read them for awhile now. I am glad to hear all these great reviews by adults! I can't wait to read it but have so many books on my list to read!!

 

[MAGICX2]

My DS8 and I love the Percy Jackson series as well. We went to see the movie tonight. While the movie its self was good......

Unfortunately they stray VERY FAR from what actually happens in the book. While I don't mind the story being tweeked a bit for storyline or time sake, this went a little to far. I was very dissapointed.

They don't show the Three Fates in the book at all. There is no hill with a lone pine at the top. They go to Nashville and fight the Hydra instead of St. Lois. The entrance to the Underworld, Charon and Persephone were ALL wrong. That is just the tip of the ice berg. Why did they have to go messing with it like that?

 

[agnes!]

My DS8 and I love the Percy Jackson series as well. We went to see the movie tonight. While the movie its self was good......

Unfortunately they stray VERY FAR from what actually happens in the book. While I don't mind the story being tweeked a bit for storyline or time sake, this went a little to far. I was very dissapointed.

They don't show the Three Fates in the book at all. There is no hill with a lone pine at the top. They go to Nashville and fight the Hydra instead of St. Lois. The entrance to the Underworld, Charon and Persephone were ALL wrong. That is just the tip of the ice berg. Why did they have to go messing with it like that?

Sometimes I don't know why things are changed so much for movies, sometimes I can see the reasoning but not always. Changing things around from the book for the movie version is nothing new though. The Wizard of Oz movie changed the color of the shoes from silver to red (which was kind of minor) but they also changed the whole "Oz" experience to being the result of Dorothy hitting her head and that *always* annoyed me as a kid, that Hollywood made Oz a hallucination and that it wasn't a real place.

agnes!

 

[FayeW]

I took DS and his friend to see the movie yesterday and it was great! Neither of them have read the books, so they probably enjoyed the movie more than some who are fans of the series. I say that because apparently Percy is about 10 in the first book, but in the movie he was clearly 16-17. They didn't actually say how old he was but the kids were driving, checking into hotels, and hanging out in Vegas!

 

[thisonegirl]

I love the books, but I can not get over the fact that Annabeth is 23-years old. That's over half of Annabeth's age. That's crazy.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Saw the movie yesterday afternoon (picked DS up after school and surprised him). He hasn't read the books yet, but liked the movie. I liked it on it's own as well, but I do agree that compared to the book, they left quite a bit out!

Magicx2, I missed the tree, too! But I thought it was actually kind of interesting that they gave Persephone a stronger role.

They also didn't set the movie up for sequels as much as I though they would. -- Though I'm so glad I noticed this thread; I had borrowed books 1-3 from the library, but didn't realize there were 5! Must go shopping....

 

[fun4me]

I took my boys to see it last night. The both read the books, loved them and were so excited to see the movie!! They were disappointed that they strayed so far from the book. I get that movies are almost never exactly like the book but IMO they could have stuck closer to the book.

I think if we didn't read the books first we would have enjoyed the movie more. LOL


Wanted to add they are making A Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie!!! Saw the preview for it last night and it looks like it could be funny. I have one son who is a big fan of the book series. He was excited to see that.

 

[Ember]

Oh no! I'm so sad to see bad reviews for the movie! I'm not sure when I'll get to see it (going out requires arranging for care for mum) but I don't want to be disappointed...

 

[golfgal]

My boys went yesterday, they haven't read the books, said the movie was ok but not great. They said something about a sword fight and it was lame.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I went last night with my boyfriend and his sister. They left out some of my favorite scenes and characters, changed the nature of the quest, really changed the layout of Camp Halfblood, etc. I don't know if they are planning to make the other 4 books into movies, but they're going to have their work cut out for them if they do because they left out the catalyst for the following books. They'd have to be creative to work it in.

It was a decent movie on its own, but I'm very disappointed in Chris Columbus. I thought out of all the early HPs, he did the absolute best job of staying true to the books, so I had high hopes for Lightning Thief. Sadly, the movie is a disappointment to fans.

 

[paintnolish]

DH and I saw the late show last night. I fell asleep a little but not because it was boring- I was really tired! Anyway, I liked it. Dh complained that the movie wasn't as good as the book. Duh. Does anyone ever leave the theater and say, "Gee. That was way better than the book"? No! It is just cool to see a book you enjoed on the big screen- to see who they cast and how those characters and scenes live up to your interpretations.

 

[goofy's friends]

We were looking forward to this movie in a big way---my dd13 is a huge fan and had me read all the books before the movie and I loved them. I can't believe how far they strayed from the book--it was a different story. Some of the effects were cool, but there was no suspense-it moved along like clock-work and and my DD13 claimed the action as lame as well. Camp-halfblood was such a disappointment too--they really could have developed that part of the story as it was in the book--cabins were tents not representative of gods. I hated that they made the characters older than they were in the book and they changed how Percy found out he was a demi-god, which was one of my favorite parts. Oh, and his reaction to the news? "no way"--that was it. A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT of a movie--I just wish they had kept to the story a little bit.

 

[flamom]

DS12 loves the books and wants me to read them too.we're going to see the movie tuesday, he can't wait.

 

[Feralpeg]

I haven't seen the movie yet. I plan on seeing it tomorrow. I'd looked up the characters on IMDB and was surprised at some of the names I was seeing because they weren't in the book or had a minor mention in the book. After watching the trailers, I was also a little sad to see how they aged the characters. I'm sure I'll still enjoy the movie, but also wonder why they have to change things so drastically.