“Read it!” My friend Krysia urged me. “It’s like Harry Potter in mythology!”

She was right; it was amazing. I borrowed the first book, The Lightning Thief, from her on Friday morning and finished it that night. The next, The Sea of Monsters, took me two days because I had less time to read it.

I started the third last period when I was supposed to reading a poem in English. But don’t tell Mrs. Krueger that.

I’ll admit, they aren’t the best the best books ever written, but they’re young adult fiction, and for young adult fiction, they’re superb, never mind the one mistake my friend made a point of correcting in her copy.

And yes, okay, they were written for middle schoolers. I don’t care though: no middle schooler would have as much fun with the mythology as I do, and I still pick up my Madeline books occasionally, so I’m not about to start outgrowing good books.

The Percy Jackson books are suspenseful, funny and most importantly to a literature geek like me, loaded with Greek mythology. And yet, beneath all the Greek mythology are direct parallels to Harry Potter.

For example, the cabin system is based off the gods, but are very similar to the houses in Harry Potter, I think. Meanwhile, Percy is an American Harry Potter, with far less angst.

So this is my advice to everyone, but especially for little freshmen that are supposed to read Homer but probably won’t: read Percy Jackson.

And then if you’re nice to me, I might give you a ride to the movie premiere on January 12th. I’ll be the one in the Yankee’s cap, dressed up as Annabeth.