(DLA Las Piñas HS LRC) January Book of the Month - Percy Jackson's Greek Gods

Who could tell the origin stories of the gods of Olympus better than a modern-day demigod? Percy Jackson provides an insider’s view with plenty of attitude in this hefty illustrated collection of short stories as he takes a break from his exciting but surely exhausting adventuring to serve up the Greek gods in a more organized introduction like pancakes you have for breakfast before going to school.

"A publisher in New York asked me to write down what I know about the Greek gods, and I was like, Can we do this anonymously? Because I don’t need the Olympians mad at me again. But if it helps you to know your Greek gods, and survive an encounter with them if they ever show up in your face, then I guess writing all this down will be my good deed for the week."

So begins Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods, in which the son of Poseidon adds his own magic--and sarcastic asides--to the classics. The son of Poseidon is on form as he debriefs readers concerning Chaos, Gaea, Ouranos and Pontus, Dionysus, Ariadne and Persephone:

"He'd forgotten how beautiful Gaea could be when she wasn't all yelling up in his face."

Here they are, all 12 Olympians, plus many various offspring and associates: the gold standard of dysfunctional families, whom Percy plays like a lute, sometimes lyrically, sometimes with a more sardonic air. The age-old stories are endlessly strong, resonant, and surprising, while the telling is fresh, irreverent, and amusing. Percy's gift, which is no great secret, is to breathe new life into the gods along with the many pop-culture references. Percy definitely does not hold back.

“If you like horror shows, blood baths, lying, stealing, backstabbing, and cannibalism, then read on, because it definitely was a Golden Age for all that.”

The Greek gods have been around for, well, ages, but until New York Times best-selling author Rick Riordan got his hands on them, they seemed as remote as Mount Olympus to most young readers. Now he's agreed to oversee a tour through the pantheon of these often temperamental deities and he's enlisted Percy to be the tour guide in approximately 400 delightful pages. Dramatic full-color artworks throughout by Caldecott Honoree John Rocco which smokes and writhes on the page as if hit by lightning make this volume a must-read as stunning as it is entertaining.