The Lightning Thief is the first book in Rick Riordan's series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians.  Percy who lives in NYC, is having problems at school and with controlling his temper.  After some exciting events occur, his mother tells him the truth about himself and he ends up at Camp Half-Blood, a training camp for demigods.  Percy finds out that the father he never knew is actually the god Poseidon.  He meets some other half-god friends and adventure ensues.

Other book titles in the series include The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and the final installment of the series, The Last Olympian.  They chronicle the further adventures of Percy Jackson and friends.  There is also The Demigod Files which is a Percy Jackson and the Olympians guide.

My kids enjoy the humor and dialogue as well as the action-packed storylines in this series.  We have tied the Greek mythology of the books in with our homeschool studies of mythology.  For us that mostly involves Greek and Latin root words for vocabulary.