The Titan's Curse

December 15, 2013
Grades 5-8 As readers of Riordan's series know, a war between Titans and gods is stirring, and the goddess Artemis is crucial to preparations. But five days before the winter solstice, when she must participate in the summit of the gods, she goes missing. Several of her hunters set out to find her, and though they initially refuse Percy a place in the quest, they eventually join forces for a perilous journey that leads to a showdown with the Titan Atlas and more than one heartrending death. Venditti (The Surrogates) remolds the tale into sequential form, successfully interspersing exposition, action, and revelation at a breathless pace appropriate to the novel. Futaki envisions the beloved characters clearly, and Guilhaumond finds a palette that nicely evokes our hero's accruing burdens. Although all of mythology's classic mayhem-makers are present, from manticore to dragon-tooth soldiers to the titanic Talos, they are somewhat robbed of their terrible awesomeness by the scale of the page composition and panel size. Nevertheless, no fan will be able to turn this down.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2014
Two of Percy Jackson's early adventures--questing for the Golden Fleece to renew Camp Half-Blood's protections, saving Annabeth from holding up the world in Atlas's stead--are turned into polished graphic novels with charismatic illustrations. Somewhat visually indistinguishable characters and a few overbroad narrative leaps cause periodic confusion, but the format makes the most of dynamic settings and thrilling monster battles.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)