My wife Becky, internet guru of the household, is usually the one who finds mentions of Percy Jackson on the web. We've been amazed at how many times The Lightning Thief has appeared on required summer reading lists for various schools around the country. Since the book is only a year old, I didn't expect to see that yet. Some of the schools that will be spending their summer with Percy Jackson include:
Girls Preparatory School, Chattanooga, TN
Hathaway Brown School, Shaker Heights, OH
Winsor School, Boston, MA
Hackley School, Tarrytown, NY
Norwood School, Bethesda, MD
Wilson Middle School, Natick, MA
Holy Cross Catholic School, San Antonio, TX
Many more have The Lightning Thief on their lists of recommended books. I hope you all enjoy the book! More importantly, I hope the word "required" does not take the fun out of reading about Percy Jackson. It was meant to be fun. If you learn something along the way, that's great too, but mostly I want you to enjoy reading.
If any teachers are interested in checking out the series for their classroom, or for outside reading lists, be sure to visit the teacher guide:
http://www.rickriordan.com/Teacher_Guide_to_Percy.htm.
I designed it myself, based on the reading and writing activities I used to do in my own middle school classroom.
Have a great summer!
Rick Riordan