Didn't See That One Coming

I take back what I said. When I learned that Al Roker had paired with Scholastic Books to bring us his new bright n' shiny summer reading thingy (I think he went and called it Al's Book Club) I got all snarky and started trying to predict what books he'd do. Needless to say, and I don't think this was much of a stretch, I said he'd do all Scholastic titles. And certainly book #1 was Hugo Cabret, just as I thought. Now they've announced book #2 though, and my pet theory has taken a dive head-first out the nearest window.

The second book for Al’s Book Club for Kids is Rick Riordan’s book, “The Lightning Thief.” This is the first book in his “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series. The main character is a 12-year-old dyslexic boy who discovers that he is the modern-day son of a Greek god. For the series, Riordan draws upon his experience teaching kids Greek mythology. “The Lightning Thief,” chosen as an American Library Association Notable Book, was optioned for a feature film to Twentieth Century Fox.

Well, you can just knock me over with a feather then. That's not a Scholastic title! That's Miramax's baby. I can attest that it is also a great bookgroup book. I did it with my homeschooler group a month or two ago. It went over like gangbusters too.

So let's do a quick search here. If this announcement came out on May 18th then how many holds are on The Lightning Thief in the New York Public Library System? Survey says: 9. And five of those are for the large print edition. Perhaps Al is not the mover and shaker I supposed him to be. I remain very impressed that his Book Club is doing more than Scholastic titles, though. Very impressed indeed.

Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

Cinematic Rick

I'm still a little surprised by how few kids are familiar with The Lightning Thief these days. The minute you introduce the Percy Jackson books to them they become these raging balls of Riordan-adoration. It's an instantaneous reaction. So I suppose I better stock up on our paperback copies of The Lightning Thief, eh? After all, if Chris Columbus is slated to film the first in Riordan's series (and with Harry Potter safely out of the way soon enough) libraries are going to have a veritable feeding frenzy on their hands.

Thanks to Alan Silberberg for the link.