The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

It's going to look like I do nothing but read Rick Riordan books, but I'm way behind on my blogging!  So I've decided to blog about the most recently read (and therefore best remembered) backwards.

This is the fourth book in the Percy Jackson series.  I had to read it to keep up with the middle schoolers and keep up my credibility.  Plus it's a pretty entertaining series.  Unfortunately, it's been awhile since I read the other three, and I'm having trouble remembering details.   Still, a vague recollection is good enough.  Though if you haven't read any of them, I'd definitely start with the first one, The Lightning Thief.

The basic premise of this series is that the Greek myths do exist, and Percy Jackson is a half-blood, with one mortal and one immortal parent.  It's entertaining to see how Riordan deals with the old myths.  Almost all of them have a new spin on them that fit in with contemporary American culture.  (The sphinx has its own game show, for instance.) If you know the myths, it's fun to figure out which is which.  If you don't, it's just fun to go along for the adventure.  The characters are well done, and Percy has an authentic, teenage boy voice.

I thought this was originally supposed to be a trilogy, so I was really disappointed with the third book, which created way more questions than it answered.  But this one did a good job of creating action and adventure without leaving you hanging too badly at the end.  There's definitely room for more, though.  Which is good news, because my middle school males who like fantasy really LOVE this series.

PG-13:  fantasy violence, but nothing too graphic; no swearing; no sex