The sea of monsters

Gr 5-9-In this sequel (Miramax Books, 2006) to Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief (Hyperion, 2005; Listening Library, 2005) 13-year-old Percy is just finishing up his school year and is looking forward to another great summer at Camp Half-Blood with all the other demigods. But even before school ends, things start happening, and soon Percy is at camp along with Tyson, a homeless kid adopted by Percy's school. At camp, Percy not only discovers that Tyson is a Cyclops and a son of Poseidon, which makes him Percy's half-brother, but also that the camp is in trouble. There's a quest to rescue Percy's friend, Grover the satyr, and to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The plot zips along with plenty of action; lots of mythological monsters, titans, and gods; and a leavening of humor. Jesse Bernstein does a good job of giving Percy a youthful voice in this first-person narrative, while at the same time creating appropriate voices for the other characters. Listeners who have not read or listened to the first book in the projected trilogy will want to do so before the next installment is published.-Sarah Flowers, Santa Clara County Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.