Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief

Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief. New York: Miramax /Hyperion for Children, 2005. Print.
In The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, troublesome Percy Jackson learns he is the son of Poseidon, one of the big three gods, and is sent on a quest with Annabeth, daughter of Ares, and Grover, the satyr protector, to prevent the gods from a disastrous feud over Zeus’ missing lightning bolt.
Twelve year old Percy Jackson doesn’t mean to be a bad kid, it just that bad things keep happening to him and he is forced to moved schools. He doesn’t learn until the summer of his 6th grade year that this is because he is a half blood. Half human. Half god. He finds this out in the very casual way of his english teacher turning into the magical greek creature,

His best friend Grover who is actually his saytar protector, rushes him and his mom to the camp Half Blood in New York, where kids just like Percy are protected from the mythical monsters. At camp, Percy learns that his father is Poseidon, one of the big three gods. When Poseidon is blamed for stealing Zeus's master bolt, Percy is sent out on a quest to retrieve it. It is rumored that Hades took the bolt to his Underworld, so that is where he is headed. Along this quest Percy has Grover and Annabeth, a brilliant half-blood daughter of Athena helping him. To get there the trio takes a train, bus, taxi, to get them from Camp Half Blood in New York to the gates of the Underworld in Los Angeles. Along the way they battle the mythical monsters like Medusa, get tricked by Ares on the gateway Arch in Missouri, and almost get stuck in the emotortal Vegas casino. When they finally get to the underworld, Hades reveals to Percy that he does not have the missing master bolt yet accuses Percy of stealing the bolt and Hades helm of darkness. Somehow the bolt magically appears in Percy's possession while talking to Hades. Once they get out of the

Throughout the entire book, Percy Jackson is discovering who he really is since he never knew the special powers that he had. At Camp Half Blood and through his quest he learns that his weaknesses; him being a “dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years” (Riordan, 94) , we're all just his demigod powers showing through in his life. When Percy returns home, he is the truest version of himself. We also see the importance of family, whether that is the destructive or the innovative force in a person's upbringing. Since all of the Greek gods are related to one another they share all of the family arguments and concerns. Many of the demigods in Camp Half Blood feel abandoned by their parents and have a hard time trusting the gods. This is extremely prevalent in Percy's life since he is the only living child of Poseidon but he never came and visited him.He “resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry［his］mom” (Riodran, 101) and leaving him alone for his entire childhood. This helps push Percy to try and make his father proud of him and make him want to wish that he had been there all those years