A magical story; a Penguin best seller, promising to be a block-buster thanks to Twentieth Century Fox; once again in the children’s fantasy genre that seems to be rocking the planet in these recent years with the re-emergence of The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia, and the latest favourite, the Harry Potter series, the protagonist this time is Percy Jackson, a dyslexic kid suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), who discovers that he is not just a kid, or a “problem child” for that matter, but a demigod, son of a Greek god who now resides atop the Empire State Building, the modern location of Mount Olympus!

Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? It is! The Lightning Thief is compelling to readers of all ages, who will learn a thing or two about Greek mythology in the process of following Percy through his adventures in modern day dealings with the gods.

What is even more fantastic is that parents and children alike will have the opportunity to meet the author of this book throughout the coming week, sponsored by Merlin Library and Penguin Books. Every year, Merlin invites an author from the international scene, usually from the UK, to form part of a non-profit campaign aimed at promoting literature and literacy. In previous years the Maltese public has been honoured with visits by the likes of Lynne Reid Banks and Tony Ross, since Merlin’s focus is always on children’s books. It is believed that if an interest in reading is developed at an early age, this will persevere into adulthood.

This year, Rick Riordan, author of The Lightning Thief, and who is currently launching his second children’s book The Sea of Monsters, will be visiting two schools a day from Monday to Friday, and signing his books in various book shops in the evenings. Since this incentive is meant to promote the idea that reading is fun, and this message is being targeted to as many people as possible, Merlin Library is working in collaboration with other well known book outlets to enable a larger portion of the public to have the opportunity to meet this author in a selection of locations.

Another event will take place at St James Cavalier on Saturday, 25 March. One hundred children invited via replies to a Wizard’s Club competition found on the Merlin website www.merlinlibrary.com will also have the opportunity to meet Rick Riordan.

Rick Riordan is an established writer who has a long experience, both in writing books as well as dealing with children, as classroom teacher! For the first time he combined the two and the result is a series of children’s books to run alongside his well established adult collection. I had the pleasure of probing a little into Mr Riordan’s thoughts on the subject…

You have been an adult writer with the Tres Navarre series in conjunction with being a middle school teacher for several years... what impelled you to write a children’s story and finally give up teaching to become a full-time writer?

My students had been telling for years that I should write a book for them, but I didn’t have a good idea until my own son began studying Greek mythology and asked me to tell him some of those old stories. The original idea for Percy Jackson came from the bedtime stories I would tell him. Once The Lightning Thief was sold, I realised I would now have to write two novels a year – one for adults and one for kids. At that point, it became clear to me that I would have to stop teaching in order to meet my deadlines. I miss the classroom, but I still get to visit numerous schools as a guest author, so I feel like I am still a teacher in many ways.

Now that you have been contracted to write a series of five Percy Jackson books, how does writing spontaneously from inspiration differ from writing because you must meet a deadline?

Deadlines are wonderful. They keep me producing work. Writing spontaneously is nice, but it’s all too easy to find excuses “not” to write if you don’t have anyone waiting to see the manuscript. I don’t find that having a contract cramps my style at all. On the contrary, it inspires me to get more done.

How is writing for children different from writing for adults? Do you feel the necessity to refer back to reliving a child’s perspective of the world?

Writing for children isn’t really all that different. If anything, I’ve learned how to be a better adult writer by writing for kids. Kids expect clarity. They expect a plot that won’t bore them and characters they can relate to. They don’t like extraneous details or needless wordiness. These are guidelines that many adult writers could benefit from. In terms of seeing the world from a kid’s perspective, my wife will be the first to tell you that I’ve never grown up! Aside from that, I’ve spent most of my adult life in the classroom, working with children, so I’m very familiar with how kids think, what they find funny, and what they enjoy to read.

How does it feel that The Lightning Thief and subsequent books are likened to the Harry Potter series? Do you see this as a positive thing, or that Percy might live in Harry’s shadow?

No children’s book published today can avoid Harry Potter’s shadow, especially not if it’s a fantasy. I think most readers, once they’ve read The Lightning Thief, will see that Percy Jackson is definitely not Harry Potter. Still, there are similarities between the series. Both draw from the same well of fantasy and mythology. I don’t have a problem with the comparisons, because usually the comparisons are quite favorable. When a child tells me, “This is the best book I’ve read since the first Harry Potter book!” I’m certainly not going to complain!

Your first children’s book is a best seller in the UK, while Twentieth Century Fox have bought the rights to it, and are currently making The Lightning Thief into a movie. Would you like to share how that evolved?

The book is under option and the signs are positive that the film will get made. The script is done and the producers are securing funding. I’ve been assured the film will happen sooner rather than later, but I don’t know exactly what that means and I’m not directly involved in the project. How Hollywood got the manuscript was a fluke. We did not submit it for consideration. It just got passed from someone in New York to someone in Los Angeles and my agent began getting calls out of the blue.

I understand that it is too early at this stage to know when the movie will actually be on the big screen, however, are you anxious to see the resulting movie version compared to the actual book?

I think most authors await the movie versions of their books with a bit of trepidation. You never know if the story will translate well, or if Hollywood will mangle it. From what I’ve seen so far, The Lightning Thief is in good hands, but it’s probably a good thing I’m not directly involved. I’m able to emotionally divorce myself from the film to some extent. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about when or if the movie will get made, though I do get a steady stream of questions from fans about this topic.

Previously, your connection with children, apart from your own son, revolved around teaching them in the classroom, whereas now you influence them on a larger scale through your books. How do the school visits as an author affect your relationship with children, and guide you on what you wish to convey to them?

I’ve always felt energized by working with children. They have so much enthusiasm and so many good ideas if adults will only listen to them. I do miss having my own classroom, but I love speaking to school groups and getting to know kids in many different countries. They often ask wonderful questions and even volunteer great ideas about where the series should go next.

The launch of your second Percy Jackson book, The Sea of Monsters, coincides with your visit to Malta. Would you kindly tell the readers a little about this new adventure and what they may look forward to in the next three books in the series?

In the second novel, Percy has to save a magical tree which protects the borders of Camp Half-Blood. The tree has been poisoned, and only one magic item, the Golden Fleece, is powerful enough to counteract the venom. To find the Fleece, Percy and his friends have to sail into the Sea of Monsters, a treacherous sea all the heroes of Greek mythology had to sail through. In olden times, this was the Mediterranean, but in my world, it has shifted west to an area mortals now know as the Bermuda Triangle. Along the way, Percy has to save his old friend Grover from a great deal of trouble. Percy also finds out a deep dark secret about his own family. As to the next three books, they are plotted and I’ve begun writing them, but it’s too soon to give away any details!

So come on, what are you waiting for? Find out for yourself…!