Skip to footer

'Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters': Your catch-up guide to the book series and movies

"Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters," the second installment in the movie adaptations of the "Percy Jackson" series, arrived in theaters Aug. 7. Are you wondering why your child suddenly knows all about Greek goddess Persephone? Or feeling mystified by the movie trailers? Here's our quick guide to all things Percy.

20th Century Fox/AP
Logan Lehrman stars in 'Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.'

1. Riordan's universe

  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson" series consists of five books, beginning with "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief" and ending with "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Last Olympian." The books are set in a universe that looks very much like our modern-day world but also includes the Greek gods as well as monsters from the Greek myths.

Riordan himself taught middle school social studies and English for several years, among other teaching experience. "I taught mythology almost every year that I was a teacher," the author writes on his website. "It was always my favorite thing, and the students always liked it, too!"

The author says he got the idea for the "Jackson" series when his son, Patrick, asked him to tell the Greek legends as bedtime stories. "When I ran out of myths, he was disappointed and asked me if I could make up something new with the same characters," Riordan said. The author created Percy Jackson and told Patrick the story of Percy's quest for the lightning bolt.

1 of 5
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.