Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson is twelve years old, has been expelled from six schools in six years, and has just discovered that his pre-algebra teacher is actually a monster trying to kill him. This is, as it turns out, because he is the son of Poseidon, god of the sea — and because someone has stolen Zeus’s master lightning bolt, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Rick Riordan’s debut novel launched one of the most beloved children’s fantasy series ever written, and it is not hard to see why. The central conceit — that the Greek gods are real, that they live on the six-hundredth floor of the Empire State Building, and that their demigod children attend a summer camp on Long Island — is so delightfully specific that it feels genuinely plausible. Riordan’s monsters are funny and terrifying in equal measure; his gods are petty, magnificent, and completely believable; and Percy himself is one of children’s literature’s most likeable heroes.

For young readers who love mythology, adventure, and heroes who are simultaneously extraordinary and completely ordinary. And for their parents, who will inevitably read it too. Published by Puffin.