Is the Percy Jackson series well written?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what are the well-written children's books people like?
DS has gone through all the older classics. He will read most anything and doesn't need to be given books that were written to get reluctant readers to read. He gets enough of those from school.

I assume you don't need any recommendations from the golden age of children's literature, so here are some newer ideas.

* despite the fact that I find his adult stuff terrible, the YA and JFIC by Brandon Sanderson is actually really well done and hilarious
* Andrew Clements
* more for older elementary (because he touches lightly and non-graphically on quite heavy topics), Gary D. Schmidt
* The Vanderbeekers
* The Penderwicks (and it looks like Birdsall has a new one out that my trusted sources highly recommend) - both Penderwicks and Vanderbeekers will appeal to kids who have read a lot of classics
* The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place
* not that new, but Grace Lin's novels
* Maria Parr's books
* The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic
* the writing is uneven (pacing gets very slow at times), but Andrew Peterson's books have so many sparkling moments as to overcome that and will appeal to a kid who is familiar with the older classics
* Kate DiCamillo anything (just pay attention to age, because her older JFIC again deals with heavy topics like Schmidt's)
* Mistmantle Chronicles
* The Wild Robot series

Note that my kids have read all of these, and they don't solve the problem of not knowing what your peers are reading...because they often aren't that.

[Anonymous]

Also take your kid to the library. Those librarians know all the new stuff and can recommend great stuff. There is so much more now than when we were kids.

I loved Lloyd Alexander as a kid but boy, some of his stuff hasn't aged well.

[Anonymous]

Oh it gets worse. The plot is pretty nonsensical too.

I enjoyed reading Harry Potter out loud, I can ignore a few holes in the plot. But Percy Jackson is pretty bad.

[Anonymous]

My boys were pretty good readers for their age cohort (born 2000s).

My boys and my younger nephews liked the Warrior Cats and lots of Rick Riordan. I feel that the plots and the characters were what they liked, not the level of the writing. They didn't need dumbed down books, they just liked the stories. My kids got their intro to Greek and Norse myths through D'Aulaires books, just like me.

When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I read my mom's 1950s YA fiction about high-schoolers being "senior widows" when their boyfriends left for college, getting "pinned", etc. I even read some dreck called "Cherry Ames, Student Nurse". Some was good, some was bad but all of it felt antique. I would guess that Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew are like that now. Books where characters don't have smartphones are practically Victoriana.

I think people will always appreciate what seems "of the now" for their current life. And parents try to find what they liked as a kid and have their kids read it - but results on that are mixed.

[Anonymous]

It’s far better written than Harry Potter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what are the well-written children's books people like?
DS has gone through all the older classics. He will read most anything and doesn't need to be given books that were written to get reluctant readers to read. He gets enough of those from school.

I assume you don't need any recommendations from the golden age of children's literature, so here are some newer ideas.

* despite the fact that I find his adult stuff terrible, the YA and JFIC by Brandon Sanderson is actually really well done and hilarious
* Andrew Clements
* more for older elementary (because he touches lightly and non-graphically on quite heavy topics), Gary D. Schmidt
* The Vanderbeekers
* The Penderwicks (and it looks like Birdsall has a new one out that my trusted sources highly recommend) - both Penderwicks and Vanderbeekers will appeal to kids who have read a lot of classics
* The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place
* not that new, but Grace Lin's novels
* Maria Parr's books
* The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic
* the writing is uneven (pacing gets very slow at times), but Andrew Peterson's books have so many sparkling moments as to overcome that and will appeal to a kid who is familiar with the older classics
* Kate DiCamillo anything (just pay attention to age, because her older JFIC again deals with heavy topics like Schmidt's)
* Mistmantle Chronicles
* The Wild Robot series

Note that my kids have read all of these, and they don't solve the problem of not knowing what your peers are reading...because they often aren't that.

Kate DiCamillo is a great writer

I also read The Swifts books to my kids and Bo At Ballard Creek books. All well written. I can’t stand reading Nancy Drew.

[Anonymous]

It’s a step below Harry Potter b it the kids enjoy it, and it’s pretty humorous in parts and keeps them engaged.

[Anonymous]

second the Stifts series- its really well written and fun

also teh Anna James series Pages and Co and Kate Saunders books are fun and a bit different since they are British. David Walliams is another fun one as an alternative to diary of a wimpy kid.

My kid who really could not get into the Harry Potter/septimus heap Magic etc books really loves the Rick Riordan books and became obsessed with mythology. they are reading the Iliad now as a 7th grader for fun so writing being down to earth or not- that's amazing!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what are the well-written children's books people like?
DS has gone through all the older classics. He will read most anything and doesn't need to be given books that were written to get reluctant readers to read. He gets enough of those from school.

Here are some books that my kids and I have enjoyed. Some are classics, while others might lean more to popular appeal than you might wish. As for being well written, that seems to require subjective judgement. Some of these are more literary and others geared more for casual reading. Also, some may be intense/scary, have tragic parts, reflect outdated cultural attitudes, and/or have girl protagonists.

I highly recommend the Newberry Award Winners/Honors books in general. Some of my recommendations below are Newberry books.

How to Eat Fried Worms
Susan Cooper - The Dark is Rising series and Victory
Louis Sachar - Holes and Wayside School series
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Kipling - Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and Just-So Stories
Danny Dunn series
Frindle - Andrew Clements
Hidden Talents by David Lubar
Three Investigators series
Misty of Chincoteague
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Ben and Me
Sisters Grimm series
The Westing Game
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
A Wrinkle in Time
Call It Courage
Tuck Everlasting
Pippi series
The Phantom Tollbooth
Green Knowe series
Gail Carson Levine
Ally Carter
Bunnicula
Tom Sawyer
The Great Brain
Choose Your Own Adventure series
Kate Klise
Secret Garden
Pollyanna
folktales from the nonfiction section

Where the Sidewalk Ends (quirky poetry)

[Anonymous]

Will always love these books as they helped DC with ADHD and dyslexia find themselves celebrated in a book.

[Anonymous]

I love Percy Jackson! The prose is not its strength. But it is accessible and adequately services entertaining plots and good characters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I picked up a Hardy Boys book recently. Percy Jackson is better.

What's wrong with casual language? It's how humans speak.

My kid learned some old fashioned mafia slang from the original Hardy Boys book, ha ha. He also loved the Rick Riordan books. But he also enjoyed Sherlock Holmes & Jules Verne around the same age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The author also specifically wrote the books with his son in mind. His son has ADHD and Dyslexia which is why Percy has those conditions as well.

If the books connect with kids, great, honestly.

This. My ADHD kid loves his books, and it kept him reading because he related to the characters. And there are other series from the author, plus books written by authors that he has promoted. So many good options to get kids reading.

My kid also reads "classics", mostly assigned at school. He hasn't liked many of them, because the characters aren't relatable or they're whiny. I'm an avid reader and felt the same way when I was his age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP the prose isn't literary. The feature of the series is how impressively he integrates such a wide body of Greek and Roman mythology into the story.

This. At least kids become aware of Ancient Greece and Rome. And it’s finally not about some injustice happening to a non white kid (which a lot of other school assigned books seem to be about).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The author also specifically wrote the books with his son in mind. His son has ADHD and Dyslexia which is why Percy has those conditions as well.

If the books connect with kids, great, honestly.

Oh boy. Where are the books about NT kids not going through social injustice? Always someone suffering