TheREDBooks

This books was all kinds of perfect middle grade fantasy adventure awesomeness. It's been a while since I read the first one (The Lightning Thief), but I don't remember being nearly as impressed with it as I was with this. That's another thing I liked about this book: you don't have to remember everything about the first one in order to get it. 

This book was basically a kid's version of The Odyssey, which I definitely appreciated since I studied The Odyssey in college. I pretty much laughed out loud when I realized Grover was Penelope (it really shouldn't have taken me so long to realize this). I love the characters. Annabeth is so smart and cool and Tyson is so sweet and funny. Percy is adorable with his occasional cluelessness and his heart of gold. Grover is just hilarious. I high recommend getting into this series if you haven't already. I'm sure you have, though, since I'm so late to the party.