Percy Jackson and the Olympians, written by Rick Riordan, is a great novel that compares to its theatrical counterpart. In both, it is interesting to note where Riordan gets his inspiration. 

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series is about a twelve-year-old boy who finds out he is a Greek demigod (half-human, half-god) who goes on quests to help save the demigods from Luke and Kronos (the villains) and their destruction. Percy’s friend Annabeth and Grover also help with most of his quests  throughout the book. For half the book, they are fighting Greek monsters and learning about Greek gods, narrowly escaping death. There is a lot of violence and comedy placed perfectly in the books. What’s interesting about the novels is that readers learn so much about Greek mythology, including the Greek gods, titans, and monsters.  

As a child, Riordan read The Lord of the Rings several times, which later inspired him to write about multiple types of mythology. The original Percy Jackson was originally a bedtime story for his son, who is the inspiration of Percy. Both boys have dyslexia, which was written into the book as his difficulty with school. However, his brain is also hardwired to read and write in ancient Greek. In addition, Riordan has a book series called The Kane Chronicles about Egyptian myths as well.

The Percy Jackson books and the movies are not very similar at all, which true fans are aware of. For instance, in the movies Percy is seventeen, but in the books, he is a twelve-year-old boy. Second, when they go on the quests in the movie they have to gather three pearls, but in the books Percy Jackson is told to go to Los Angeles (in the ocean) to get these three pearls as a gift. Lastly in the beginning of the movie, Luke mentions he stole a pair of flying shoes from his dad and also mentions he has enough of them, when in the book he says it is a gift from his father. This events greatly change the plot.

In conclusion, Percy Jackson is a great novel series for children ages 10-13, which were inspired through various sources. Although these novels are vastly different than the series, they are worth the read! Rick Riordan has a lot of great books. Go check some of them out at the local library.