Reader Respone Febuary

                                                                                              
                                     Reader response

I am responding to “Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Lightning Thief” by Rick Rodian. I have read 375 pages out of 375 pages. The book is a fantasy.

The genre of this text is a fantasy because it contains unrealistic / practical / improbable / doubtful and unconvincing elements. The setting of the story is in the U.S.A. The main characters are Percy (the protagonist) his friends, Anna Beth and Grover, Ares (the antagonist), Chiron and Luke. The conflict is partly about Percy going on a quest which requires him to find the stolen lightning bolt and returning it to Zeus (a god). The story has more than one theme, a few of them being: destiny and responsibility, courage, loyalty, trust and betrayal.  The climax of the story is when Percy finds out that Luke (who was pretending to be his friend) threw the scorpion on Percy and told it to kill him.

Retell

Percy Jackson is a twelve year old boy who has been expelled from several schools, the latest one being Yancy Academy. Percy goes on a class field trip to an exhibition of Greek and roman art, with his friend Grover Underwood. During the field trip, Percy is lured away by his math teacher (Ms.Dodds) who attempts to attack Percy and reveals her self as an unknown creature (fury- or the kindly ones). After going on a trip to the tip of long islands with his mom, Percy’s friend Grover finds him and warns him that the kindly ones are looking to kill him. Sally (Percy’s mom) drives them to camp called Half–blood to keep Percy safe. As they approach the camp, they are attacked by a Minotaur who then gets killed by Percy. After a tragic night, Percy awakes and finds himself in the Half-Blood camp under the care of Luke. During a capture the flag game, Percy is attacked by the other team and he heals when he steps into the water and is revealed to be the son of Poseidon (god of seas). Percy is then granted a quest which requires him to find Zeus master bolt which Chiron (Percy’s tutor at the camp) believes that Hades has stolen it. However, Zeus believes that Poseidon had his son (Percy) steal the bolt. Percy has ten days before summer solstice to convince Zeus of his innocence.

Relate

This book sort of reminds me of 101 Dalmatians, because the story lines are fairly similar. In both stories something precious is stolen and a champ has to go retrieve that stolen item(s). Both stories share the same New York setting. In both stories, the champ (protagonist) retrieves the stolen item. In the story Percy goes on an adventure/quest that requires him to convince Zeus that he is not the one who took the missing lighting bolt. Percy some-what reminds me of my brother Mike, because Mike loves to go on adventures and he’s always trying to solve mysteries. If I could talk to one of the story characters I would ask Chiron why he thought Hades had stolen the bolt when Ares had it all along. Also, I would ask Ares why he wanted war to happen. I, myself as a reader really enjoyed the book; I liked the way the author used more than one point of view in the story (it really makes you understand the story). I didn’t understand why Ares wanted his family fighting.

Reflect

I think that the text was an effective piece of writing because the author shows awareness of self as a reader; he showed a clear description which made it easy to follow along in the story. He used an effective ending and he was funny- but not to funny- only at the right times. When I was reading the story, I made many connections along, for example when Percy was fighting the Minotaur, it reminded me of the time ‘Harry Potter’ fought the huge snake in the Chamber of Secrets. I also made many inferences too. After reading the first page of the story I terribly wanted to continue on reading because the author used such a catchy opening at the beginning of the story. This story really made me realize that thinking before you act is an essential thing in life. I learned that you can not always trust a person no matter how good they seem.

Reader Response April

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I am responding to “Percy Jackson and the battle of the labyrinth” by Rick Rodian. I have read 361 pages out of 361 pages. The book is a fantasy.

  Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth is the 4th book of the series. The setting of the story is in Manhattan in 2008. The main characters of the story are Percy, Anna Beth, Grover, and Tyson (protagonist). Luke, Kronos, and Geryon (antagonist) are also main characters in the story. The story is a fantasy because it contains unbelievable and non realistic elements. The conflict of the story is essentially about Percy, Anna Beth, Grover and Tyson using the labyrinth to find Daedalus so that Luke (antagonist) can not get the Ariadne’s string to which would cause an invasion. The theme of this story is revenge. Luke wanted to start a war between the gods so they would destroy each other. After they had done this, he wanted to take whatever was left over and rebuild the world. Little did he know that he was just helping Kronos get revenge on the gods for beating him thousands of years ago. The conflict of the story is when Kronos’s army burst threw the labyrinth and attacks camp half-blood. They fight until they were just about to lose when Grover lets out a huge scream that scares the enemy away, but then Daedalus destroys the maze by sacrificing himself to close the maze (labyrinth) which is tied to his life. The author used foreshadowing when at the end of the novel Nico shows up unexpectedly and explains his ‘plan’ to defeat Kronos.

Retell:

After being on an orientation tour to Goode High School, Percy was attacked by empousai cheerleaders. Once Percy arrives safely to camp, he realizes that a new half-blood sword instructor named Quintus is hired. During a game against giant scorpions at the camp, Anna Beth and Percy accidentally find an entrance into the Labyrinth. Percy soon learns that Luke had used this entrance before and will try and lead his army through the Labyrinth straight in to the heart of Camp Half-Blood.

Soon after that incident, Percy, Anna Beth, Grover and Tyson set off on a journey threw the labyrinth to find Daedalus, the creator of the labyrinth who holds the Ariadne’s string, before Luke gets a hold of it and takes control in invading camp Half-Blood. Along the trip Percy and his friends meet briares (hundred handed one), Kampe (half woman, half dragon) and the goddess Hera. After Percy receivies a hint from the Greek god Hephaestus, Percy sets of to mountain ST. Helens. There Percy finds telekhines (half human, half seal, and half dog) to which he decides to attack. In an attempt to flee, Percy causes an enormous eruption in Mount ST Helens. After waking up and finding him self getting cured by Calypso, Percy gets help from his mortal friend Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who has the power to see threw the mist. Rachel helps guide Percy and Anna Beth to the heart of the labyrinth where Daedalus workshop is.

Percy and his friend Anna Beth soon discover that Daedalus was Quintus, there mysterious new sword instructor all along. However, Percy and Anna Beth are too late. Daedalus has given the Ariadne’s string to Luke, and in return Kronos promised Daedalus to make him lord of the underground. Luke then leads his army into camp half-blood to attack, however Grover rescues camp by using a huge roar that causes panic and scares away the enemy. After the battle was over, Daedalus sacrifices himself to close the labyrinth, which is tied to him (since he is the one who created it).

Relate:

This book reminds me of The Maze Runner by James Dashner. Both stories share the same idea of ‘a hero getting trapped in a maze and trying to figure his way out’. In the story The Maze Runner, Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape. When I first started reading Percy Jackson and the Labyrinth I immediately made text to text connections to The Maze Runner. One of the main connections was that they both share a maze setting.

As compared to other texts by this author, I think that this book is the best so far. In my opinion a good book should be well written and enjoyable to read. Rick Rodian spent a chunk of his time planning out the plot and I could tell that it was well written because the plot flows perfectly. The reason people call them story books is because they are stories, many authors keep publishing stories with the same main idea/ plot or message over and over. Rick Rodian keeps it original but will always add new stuff to his story. For example, one book could be devastating and then another book would be a happy and cheerful ending. Also, Rick Rodian makes sure that he can relate to his readers, often times he would stop and ask the reader a question like “wouldn’t u hate it if that happened to you?” Another thing that Rick Rodian makes sure that he includes in his novels is mystery and suspicion. Rick Rodian always ends his books with a mysterious ending that makes you want to read the book that follows it. While reading the book I inferred that Quintus was a double agent who worked for Kronos and told him everything that was happening in camp Half – Blood.

I am different from Percy Jackson in so many ways. Percy was brave enough to go on the quest even though he knew there was a chance he wouldn’t make it back alive. I probably wouldn’t be able to take that risk, knowing that millions of people’s lives depend on me would probably make me sick and I’d get a heart attack on the spot. However, if I could talk to one of the characters I would talk to Percy and tell him how brave he was to go on the quest and come back alive.

Reflect:

When I read this book I was certainly shocked of what happened. I didn’t expect the story line to be that dramatic. The author captured my attention from the beginning of the book. After reading the first page, I instantly wanted to continue on with the book. Once again the author has captured the reader’s attention right from the start. If I could speak to the author I would ask him why he wrote the entire story from Percy’s perspective. As compared to other texts, the author usually writes the story from different perspectives. My feelings towards Nico changed when I found out that he was leading Percy into a trap. The whole time Nico was being generous and nice with Percy and in the end he leads him into a trap just because his father Hades (who hates Percy) told him to do it.

I question the accuracy of Annabeth forgiving Luke even thought he almost killed her and the whole camp. I think the author wrote this book to show people that when faced with two choices, you must take a side and believe in your judgment till the very end. The author did a good job sending that message threw out the whole book.  Overall, I highly recommend this book to everyone!