Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson has a rather big secret. He's a kid, yeah, but he's also a Demigod, and the son of the God of the Oceans, Poseidon. He's not the only kid who's also the offspring of a Greek God; he goes to a camp called Camp Half-Blood with people like Annabeth, daughter of Athena, Charlie Beckendorf, son of Hephestus, Thalia, daughter of Zeus, and Nico, son of Hades.

Camp Halfblood is where the half-blooded children of the Gods spend their summers, along with other young members of non-human species, like Grover Underwood, a satyr. The director of the camp is Chiron the Centaur, immortal and a trainer of heroes.

Percy is normally the hero of his own series, but the stories in this volume are all short stories. One takes place in Camp Half-Blood, and the other two involve other half-blood children of the Gods.

In the first story, Clarisse, daughter of Ares, borrows her father's chariot of war for a spin, like all his children get to do on their 16th birthday. Unfortunately, her two half-brothers, Phobos and Deimos steal it out from under her and hide it, and she has to find out where it is and get it back to Ares's temple in the Intrepid before the sun goes down. But Can Percy, who's not a mighty warrior at the best of times, help her overcome Fear and Panic to return the Chariot?

The Second story takes place at the Camp and has Percy, Grover and Annabeth teaming up to rescue Charlie Beckendorf from the Ant-Men called the Myrmekes. But to do that, he and his friends will have to reconstruct the mechanical dragon who once guarded the camp, not the easiest thing when they only have the head and aren't sure where the actual body is buried!

The last story teams up Percy, Nico and Thallia to retrieve a sword that was being made for Hades and contains one of they keys to life and death. The sword was stolen by another Half-Blood for Kronos, the Titan who is seeking to bring Armageddon to the world, and having a sword with a key to death in it would make it much easier for him to triumph. On his side is Iapetus, another Titan, while the Half-Bloods only have each other... and they don't like each other much at all. Is there any hope for them to track down the thief and retrieve the sword?

The book also has "interviews" with Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and the twin sons of Hermes, a map of Camp Half-Blood and shows us what's in Annabeth's camp trunk. The back of the book has crosswords, a word find, and other games.

I haven't read the series this book is based on, but I still enjoyed reading it very much, combining characters and beings out of Greek Myth with a sort of comic book sensibility. Percy is in constant troubles with the schools he's in, but when he's helping out the other Half-Bloods he's more focussed and helpful. It's not totally serious, either, because he likes Annabeth, and from her interview, she likes him, even if she calls him "Seaweed Brain".

This stories are also a bit more light-hearted than the series, as I understand it, but it's fun to read, and might offer kids a less intense way to get into the series and the characters. The book also includes some pictures of Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Ares, Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Chiron, along with some information about them. For example, Olympus is located on the 600th Floor of the Empire State Building or Ares' bumper sticker reads "I wasn't born in Sparta, but I got there as fast as I could".

This is a very well-written and humorous collection, and both kids and adults will find themselves enjoying the stories within. Highly recommended.