The Lightning Thief: The Graphic Novel (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 1)
Reviews (216)
Disappointing version of an excellent novel
Our 8 year old loves graphic novels, but this one missed the mark on many levels: (1) it is a highly abridged version of the original novel; (2) the artwork is very dark, with many close ups that make the story feel boxed in and not as epic and large as the original written work; (3) there are some errors in the printing that make the images offset and blurry - it's almost like it was printed from a low-resolution .jpg; and (4) there are very few contextual images (establishing shots) to set the stage for where they are on the adventure - as my 8 yr old said "I can't tell where they are or what they are doing. There are not enough words to describe what is happening so it is confusing. It is too short!" This is supposed to chronicle an epic adventure, and the graphic version does not capture that at all.
Missing Parts, but okay for a lower-level reader.
This does not fully follow the original novel. There are quite a few points of the story missing. It would work okay as a supplement to the regular novel, if a student is reading it for a class. However, it should NOT be used as a replacement for the original novel!
Printing quality problem
The printing quality on many pages is very poor and misaligned causing the graphics to blur. This does not appear to be a style choice...it's clearly a printing issue when you looked at the ouline of the speech bubbles...the page on the left is misaligned, the page on the right is not. Very disappointing, my son is very excited for this...otherwise would be exactly what he wanted.
A Great Companion to the Series
I see a lot of complaints that this is NOT the original novel, and I have to say: Of course it isn't. This is more of a companion piece - a cliff notes version; which is not to say that this is a bad thing. It really isn't. I do agree that it's short; yes, it is. But even the original series itself feels short if, like me, you're somebody who really gets into the stories they read. Also, some parts have been left out. Important parts that set up the future books. But This book just gives the reader the incentive (as it should) to then read (or re-read) the novels themselves, and to then fill the missing parts in and for me, it serves that purpose and then some. The main purpose this companion serves for me is the visual aspect. I love the English language and am actually a linguistics genius, but I have always preferred the visual aspect of media and entertainment. However, while I am one of the few who actually enjoyed the film version (to an extent), I wasn't really pleased with some of the aesthetics, and I did not appreciate some of the casting choices either, Annabeth Chase being one of the bigger ones. With that being said, I was actually ecstatic when I learned that there may possibly be a TV adaptation of the series, and I ordered this set to get an idea of the art style behind the characters, and this novel served that purpose beautifully. I will admit that some of the characters look a little more...developed, for their ages, but it's nice to get an idea of where the TV adaptation can go and, for that, I applaud these graphic novels wholeheartedly.
To confusing seems unorganized
OKAY originally I thought my son enjoyed the comic strip book version of this story. He picked the book up twice and never picked it up again. I am sorry I can’t recommend this book to anyone only because after I looked inside and started reading it the book was a bit confusing. I didn’t know which sections to read first. I will be donating this book.
Good for certain things, but not others.
I had hoped that this graphic novel would follow the text version of the story. I wanted to assign it to my students who struggle with reading lengthy chapter books. However, when I previewed the kindle version, I found that many of the chapters were missing, some examples are Aunty Em, Waterworld, the last chapter of the text version of the book. There were also several events that were drawn differently then how they appeared in the book, for example the scenes that feature Percy and Luke. However, this is a great item if you are someone who would like to give your students the option to compare and contrast the text version of the book, graphic novel, and movie.
Read it cover to cover the first day he received ...
Read it cover to cover the first day he received it. We had been reading the novel together but he was reluctant to read the novel by himself. He has been spoiled by graphic novels and their short sentences in my opinion. I am hoping this will be a bridge to getting him interested in the other novels in the series. We are continuing to read the novel together and he loves telling me he knows what will happen next.
Excellence for Reluctant Readers
As a reading teacher, I can say graphic novels are an excellent addition to the full size novel. Through excellent pictures and fewer words, children can more easily understand a novel. The novel being 360 pages long and the graphic novel being 100 pages, children will read the colorful graphic novel and visually see the details in each frame. I highly recommend it for children who do not like to read.
Great for Getting Kids to Read But There Is A Lot More To The Story
Basically this is a solid adaptation that would serve well for younger children or to get uninterested kids into reading. Having read the original book, there is a lot more interesting material to be seen. Robert Venditti, the writer who adapted the book for the graphic novel, is a well respected comic book writer. The length limitations though do leave something to be desired. As for the visuals, I would say that they are age appropriate in content, but hardly in a juvenile style. Definitely read the original book, but this adaptation would make for a great addition for a classroom library or primary reading for younger children. Note: Always screen graphic novels for content. This title should be fine for most, but some titles, especially superhero based ones, may have content that could be deemed too violent or mature for young readers. Comics are a great resource, but should be treated like all other forms of entertainment.
This graphic novel felt like more of the movie than the book.
I enjoyed the novel with the same name. It was a more modern Odysseus. However, I never got that feeling while reading the graphic novel. It left out too much information and skimmed a bunch of material; this made me feel like it was more a graphic novel of the movie and not necessarily of the original novel.
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