I rarely check out books for pleasure reading from our school library, but I checked out this second book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series so that I could read it and not have to wait for a trip to the book store or a shipment from amazon.
In The Sea of Monsters, Percy learns that Camp Half-Blood, a magical camp where the demi-god heroes train to protect themselves from monsters, is in danger. To make matters even worse, his friend Grover, who has gone searching for the god Pan, is also in trouble and has been sending Percy mental messages and pleading for help. Percy is not chosen to go on the quest for the Golden Fleece (yes, THAT Golden Fleece) which can save the camp, but he feels strongly that he needs to search for Grover. Along with Annabeth Chase and Percy's newly discovered younger half-brother Tyson (a Cyclops), he sneaks out of camp to go on a quest to find Grover. Not surprisingly, his quest intersects with the quest for the Fleece, so his little group is forced to join up with Clarisse, a daughter of Ares. Once again, the group of young demi-gods must battle familiar mythological monters, including Polyphemous and Circe, as they go on their journey. They must also fight the traitorous enemy from book 1, who happens to be behind the poisoning of camp Half-Blood. The group is successful in finding both Grover and the Fleece, but there is a twist at the end of the story, which will leave the reader hunting up book 3, The Titan's Curse, as quickly as possible.
Once again, this is a book that I would strongly recommend to both adults and YA readers.
