The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan

Ok, so I really enjoy juvenile and YA novels, especially fantasy.  It used to be my guilty pleasure / guilty secret.  But now that I have a job that warrants reading all this sort of thing, I can feel somehow justified.  But let's face it:  I just really enjoy this sort of thing.  Recenly, my brother John recommended Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and last week I picked up the first in the series.  It was actually much better than I'd anticipated.  At first, I was just annoyed by the protagonist--I found Percy to be whiney and not at all likeable.  But as the novel progresses, and as Percy endertakes a quest of heroic proportions, he grows and develops in such a way that he becomes likeable and sympathetic.  So here's the quick summary:  12-year-old Percy Jackson, who lives in contemporary America, discovers that his father is one of the classical gods.  Olympus has somehow been relocated to the top of the Empire State Building.  And Percy must undertake a quest to recover Zeus's lightening bolt of power.  Riordan uses classical characters and themes in creative, interesting, and not entirely predictable ways.  In all, it was a good read.  John basically told me that it's clearly written for eighth  or nineth graders, so it reads really quickly but that it's both entertaining and interesting.  And he's right.  That pretty much covers it.  Next in the series is Sea of Monsters, and I hope to read it soon.