This is the best youth fiction adventure book I’ve read since Half Blood Prince.

Really. I couldn’t put it down.

Basically, the book — by Rick Riordian, which on the back says he’s the author of the Tres Navarre series; I don’t read mysteries, but I guess they’re supposed to be good — is about Percy Jackson, who ends up being a demigod. Or, as they call it, Half-Blood. It’s an origin book: Percy goes from delinquent child to child of a Greek god, and then goes on a quest with two friends — another demigod and a saytr — to save the world. Honestly, though, I can’t do it justice here. It’s a great book. Fun, funny, exciting, and packed with references to Greek myths. (I LOVE the idea that Hades is under LA. Touche, but funny.) And I’m not even up on my Greek myths. I passed it along to M, who shares her father’s love of all things mythological. She’s excited to read it… and I’m betting she just loves it.

And it’s a series. Gotta find Book 2. (Though it’s not often that a series holds itself all the way through, but this one set it up quite nicely, so I’m hopeful.)