No.92 Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

I was totally prepared to hate this book. I'd convinced myself that I didn't like American children's fiction, let alone American teen fiction! And did you really expect me to enjoy a book that seemingly mixed the American high-school genre with a no doubt dodgy take on classical mythology?

Low and behold I opened the book and was greeted by a self-centred, troubled teenager telling me not to read on if I believed I was a 'half-blood' too; at this point I nearly gave up on the whole thing! However, remembering that I had pledged to read 100 books, and giving up on number 92 would be ridiculous, I ploughed on! And i'm really glad I did! 

Yes, it was a bit cheesy, yes it was somewhat predictable, and yes, it had a slightly dubious take on Greek mythology, but i'll admit Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief was a real page turner and to my surprise I actually enjoyed it! 

The story is narrated by Percy Jackson, a twelve year old boy who discovers that he is a demigod or half-blood. It turns out that Percy's mum had a fling with the Greek god Poseidon and Percy was the result! As I said the story has an interesting take on Greek mythology! However dubious, everyone whose anyone in Greek mythology features in this book! Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Dionysus, Ares, Medusa, to name but a few. And Percy finds himself face-to-face with many a mythical creature too, he fights the Minotaur, the Furies, Cerberus the three-headed dog (think Fluffy in The Chamber of Secrets), and a Chimera. Therefore, its a good job he goes to stay at Camp Half-Blood. 

Camp Half-Blood is a summer camp that teaches children like Percy how to do what a demigod should do; it is like Hogwarts for children who are half Greek god. It is run by headmaster and alcoholic Dionysus the god of wine, his deputy Chiron, a centaur, and some Satyrs (half goat, half man). Percy's best friend Grover, whom he met at his last school turn out to be one of these Satyrs, apparently putting trousers and trainers on completely disguises goat legs! Anyway, as well as Grover, Percy makes another friend, Annabeth, daughter of Athena. Like her mother Annabeth is known for her intelligence, logic and reason; she is somewhat of an intellectual, with a thirst for knowledge and a cool head in a crisis. Sound familiar? Yes I thought so too. Annabeth sounds very much like Hermione Granger don't you think? Once i'd picked up on this it was really hard not to see Percy as a Harry type character and Grover in some ways as Ron (it didn't help that i'd imagined him with ginger hair!). Although Percy has a mother (who dies temporarily) and a father who is a god, he spends a lot of time in boarding schools giving him a hint of the orphaned boy character, a well used protagonist in much children's literature, from Dicken's Oliver Twist to our beloved Harry Potter, and lots of other characters in between. Riordan uses this stereotype to endear his readers to Percy, making us feel a little sorry for him, as well as backing him in his fight against evil. The main plot of the story involves Percy and his friends going on a quest to return Zeus's Master Bolt to the god after it is stolen. 

Here are my high points from the quest:

• Percy has a really cool pen that turns into a sword! 
• Medusa owns a garden gnome emporium! Somewhere she can sell all the people she has turned to stone of course. 
• Percy encounters a water-bed salesman who is in fact a mythological creature.
• Demigods and other mythological creatures communicate through 'iris-messaging', which is like video-calling through a rainbow.
• The underworld is situated in a recording studio in L.A.

I would actually recommend this book! It was a fun, enjoyable read, with a creative twist on the stories and characters of Greek mythology. 

Thanks for reading, L x

In other news I have set up a facebook page for this blog! I'm planning to fill it with articles and other interesting things that are children's lit related. If this sounds up your street then click here to take a look! Thank you! 

No.93 - Thomas the Tank Engine

Hello! 

I've been recently informed that my blog loads in different fonts on different computers/browsers..... I'm really sorry if you've been trying to read it in a super italic font! This is not a bad decision on my part, but the work of the gremlins that live in the internet! If you would rather read the blog in a more readable font I suggest refreshing your browser window, which should change the font making for a more comfortable experience! 

Right, technical bits over! On with the blog! This time the book is Thomas the Tank Engine, no.2 in Rev. W. Awdry's Railway Series. 

Funnily enough this little book was really hard to track down and in the end I had to download it onto my kindle! But Thomas is everywhere I hear you say - true, but not the original Thomas. There's a difference? Yes! Now all the Thomas the Tank Engine books are part of the Thomas and Friends franchise, and the stories are all different! 

I was a Thomas the Tank Engine fan when I was little, in particular the 90s tv version, but I don't actually remember ever reading the original books! When trying to track this one down I was surprised to see that Thomas was not the main focus of the Railway Series, as the modern versions would lead us to believe, but in fact the second book. However, it is clear that out of all of Awdry's little trains, Thomas was the one to capture the hearts of children everywhere. 

This lovely little book is made up of 4 stories about Thomas, the little train who wants to be 'a very helpful engine', as the Reverend puts it. Thomas is introduced as a loveable but very cheeky engine! To begin with he has a bit of an attitude problem, playing tricks on the big engines and telling them they aren't working hard enough! Thomas's job is to move the coaches and carriages ready for bigger engines to pull, but really he wants to be like them and go on adventures. It certainly reminds me of smaller siblings wanting to do everything the older ones do, believing that that is better, and I think this is at the heart of Awdry's story. Over the 4 stories Thomas learns that he's not experienced enough to do the big jobs and that they are much tougher than he thinks. However, in the last story Thomas gets a chance to prove himself by pushing the rescue trucks to help save James when some naughty trucks run him off the rails. For this Thomas gets huge praise from the Fat Director (yes, not the Fat Controller! I was surprised too!). From then on the other engines stop seeing Thomas as a trouble maker and they all get on splendidly as equals. Thomas also learns that he is a valuable member of the team, and the jobs he does are as valid as the job of big engines.

It has its moral messages, just as you'd expect from a vicar writing for children in the 1940s, but it is fun too. Also, as you'd expect at that time, these books were written for boys, Awdry's son Christopher to be precise. The association with boys and trains or cars or any vehicle for that matter, is one that still continues today in the children's book industry. However, I would urge any one with a young child, whether boy or girl to read these lovely little books by the Reverend Awdry, as they are truly delightful! Plus C. Reginald Dalby's colour illustrations are beautiful too, each one its own little painting depicting the escapades of the little train. Children cannot help but love Thomas and his friends, and this is clear to see even today, where despite a few reinventions the characters are still timeless. Awdry's little train is a classic! 

No.94 - A Wizard of Earthsea

I'll be the first person to admit that fantasy is not really my bag. I've read a bit of Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman, and of course Harry Potter, but i've never tackled the likes of Tolkein for example! So when I was confronted with A Wizard of Earthsea I was interested to see how i'd enjoy it. Unfortunately, it was not for me! 

I don't want to be super critical of this book, but there were certain aspects that I struggled with. Originally published in 1968, A Wizard of Earthsea is a coming of age story about a young wizard searching to find his true self (sound familiar!?). Before reading this book I'd read that A Wizard of Earthsea could be considered a forerunner to boarding school/fantasy stories such as The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy and the Harry Potter series. This filled me with hope, as I really enjoyed both of these! However, the boarding school part of this story was extremely brief, and quite early on in the story. The entire plot was what I would term 'flitting', jumping from one thing to the next, leaving the reader feeling a tad confused. I felt there were many moments where I was left wanting just a little more story, or information. As a younger reader I feel I would have really struggled to keep up with the narrative, especially as the location was constantly changing, along with the array of characters and even their names. 

Names play a huge role in this story, as the hold the key to the true version of things, ie. characters and animals have their given names and their true names. Just explaining this to you has confused me, and gives you an idea of how complex this story is. By the end of Chapter One, Duny, the main character, is given his 'true name', and is referred to as Ged for the rest of the book. I know it sounds silly but it took me a while to understand what had happened and who Ged was, so I can imagine that for a child this would cause some confusion! 

The language and narrative style were also quite complex, and I found it much easier to read it out loud than in my head! I'd like to take this moment to apologise to anyone who had this book read at them over the last few weeks! Set around an archipeligo of islands there were lots of really odd place names such as Vemish, Iffish and Gont. Le Guin refers to all these places like you've been there, know exactly where they are and who lives there, which makes it even more confusing! There are sections where she explains locations and their mythology, which in some ways was helpful, but the way it was written was quite dense. However, she also provides some rather helpful maps, which made it much easier to chart Ged's journey! 

Our hero sets loose a dark shadowy beast/creature/thing which continues to follow him around the archipelago trying to kill him... I think! Every time he faces this thing it weakens his powers. The book is mainly made up of him sailing around, trying to run away from it! However, after consulting his mentor Ogion the Silent (a fine example of one of the names in this book, but not as good as Kurremkarmerruk the Master Namer, which i'm still not sure how to pronounce!!) he decides to go after the beast, and the book culminates in their face off. I shan't tell you anymore in case you fancy trying it out for yourself! Personally, it was quite a slog for me, but if you're used to fantasy fiction then you might really enjoy it!

Thanks for reading X

Next up, the children's classic Thomas the Tank Engine by Rev. W. Awdry