After Harry
Potter, The Lightning Thief series, with hero Percy Jackson, has
garnered the most accolades from critics and amassed a devoted fan base of middle schoolers and adolescents. Rick Riordan has written an immensely popular
series with the great premise: what if
you found out you were a demi-god in this day and age?
Percy
Jackson, a 12-year-old in the middle of a relatively normal life, is the victim
of an unprovoked attack by one of his teachers while on a school field
trip. Other strange events ensue, and
before he knows it, he is deposited at a safe haven (Camp Half-blood) with
others like himself: children of the gods and mortals. Percy has been unfairly accused of stealing
Zeus’ lightning bolt and must retrieve to clear himself and prevent a war. Other books in the series continue Percy’s
adventures in the realm of the gods, which coexists alongside an oblivious New
York.
Riordan has
branched out and now written another series: the Kane Chronicles; this time
unleashing the ancient Egyptian gods among us.
Ready to
branch out to other mythologies? Here
are some other series with teens either discovering their own powers or
battling gods, and other mythical creatures:
Iris,
Messenger : Short on action, but long on
stories. Iris, like Percy has doubtful
parentage. On her birthday she
mysteriously receives a copy of Bullfinch’s Mythology, which fascinates her and
appeals to her imaginative daydreams.
She discovers the book is annotated with odd notes and clues as to the
current whereabouts of the Greek gods. Iris proceeds to track them down. The
book proceeds in a somewhat amusing, yet poignant vein, with Poseidon owning an
oyster shack at the Jersey Shore, Apollo playing sax at a jazz club, Aphrodite
operates a beauty salon. The gods each
retell their story to Iris, including the goddess she was named after They are a disheartened lot and Iris does
what she can to help them in their current situations, such as reuniting
Poseidon with his love and releasing Sisyphus from his punishment by Hades.
Loki’s Wolves deals with Norse mythology. The
Thorsen family is the law and order of their South Dakota town. Literally the descendants of Thor, they are
proud of their lineage, as are other descendants of the trickster god, Loki. His descendants can shape shift into wolves.
Signs are pointing to an epic battle and Matt Thorsen is chosen as the
champion. Reluctant at first, he begins
to gather around him a cadre of other teen/god descendants, not quite sure of
their loyalty. The saga continues with Odin’s Ravens.
Artemis Fowl Series
Artemis Fowl already knows he has superior mental powers to other teens
and he knows just what he wants to do with them – learn the secrets of the
Fairies and produce gold, enough gold to make his family fantastically wealthy
again. The People (fairies, leprechauns, trolls) of Irish mythology all reside
inside the Earth now, but emerge to silence Artemis and free Holly, an agent
from the LEPrecon force Fowl has kidnapped.
Artemis Fowl (or should we say Foul) has no moral scruples except family
loyalty and a soft heart, which kicks in just when he least expects it. The Artemis Fowl stories are an unusual
combination of high tech and folklore. From the opening pages, when the reader
is dropped into the middle of an
encounter between Fowl and his nemesis, the action is as fast-paced and
unrelenting as Fowl’s determination. Not too much soul searching or angst here.
The Alchemyst series: While working at pleasant but mundane summer jobs in San Francisco,
fifteen-year-old twins, Sophie and Josh, suddenly find themselves caught up in
the deadly, centuries-old struggle between rival alchemists, Nicholas Flamel
and John Dee, over the possession of an ancient and powerful book holding the
secret formulas for alchemy and everlasting life. The twins are revealed to have magical powers
themselves. Various mythologies are
intertwined, with elements from Norse, Biblical, and Arthurian legend providing
characters in conflict.
Pendragon series Follows the time and space traveling
adventures of 14 year-old Bobby Pendragon, as recounted through letters smuggled
through a wormhole “flume” to his old left behind friend and girlfriend. Going on instinct, he has accompanied his favorite
Uncle Press to an encounter with an evil shape shifting enemy in the New York
subway system (already pretty creepy!) and is transported to the planet, Denduron. Similar to Earth, Denduron is but has
followed another course and is more like the Middle Earth of Tolkien
tales. Bobby gradually discovers his
role and strengths in aiding the downtrodden Milago as he meets other Travelers
like himself. Bobby is a great
character, full of humor (“…dressing in skins without my boxer shorts?”) and self-aware
of his conflict in wanting to help versus going home. MacHale writes an action filled saga with
complex characters who grow throughout the series.
Cronus Chronicles
Zee (short for Zachary) arrives to live with his cousin Charlotte’s
family in order to escape guilt feelings over a mysterious plague that afflicts
kids in his vicinity with a terrible weakness. Charlotte and Zee, although mere
mortals themselves, are drawn into a conflict among the Greek gods for control
of Hades; only by going down into the underworld can they heal the sick
children. Though they rescue the children, further fighting with various gods
of the underworld continue the series.
These are just a sampling from our bookmark, If You Like Percy Jackson, available in the Children' s Dept.
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