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Rick Riordan's new book quietly builds buzz

While J.K. Rowling's 'The Casual Vacancy' is getting the media attention, Rick Riordan's latest children's book 'The Mark of Athena' has been racing up the bestseller lists.

'The Mark of Athena,' the third installment in Riordan's 'Heroes of Olympus' series, spent 148 days on the Amazon top 100 list before even being published.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling’s new book for adults, “The Casual Vacancy,” may be making the headlines, but another book is slowly racking up boffo sales as well.

The new children’s book by Rick Riordan, “The Mark of Athena,” recently took the place of “The Casual Vacancy” as number one on the Amazon bestseller list, and the book has already spent 148 days on the Amazon top 100 list before even being published. “The Mark of Athena” comes out today.

The new book is the third book in the "Heroes of Olympus" series, which is itself a sequel to the "Percy Jackson & The Olympians" series. The "Percy" series was adapted into a film, titled “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” in 2010.

“I grew up reading Rowling,” a Publishers Weekly user named Keira Jaimee Clark wrote online. “And while I plan to pick up Casual Vacancy at some point before the new year, MoA is much further up my priority list - I'm picking up a copy tomorrow!”

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