Middle Grade Mini Reviews: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan & Agatha Mistery: The Curse of the Pharaoh by Steve Stevenson

The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson #2) by Rick Riordan

paperback, 279 pages

Published: April 1st, 2006

 Source: Purchased

 

 The heroic son of Poseidon makes an action-packed comeback in the second must-read installment of Rick Riordan's amazing young readers series. Starring Percy Jackson, a "half blood" whose mother is human and whose father is the God of the Sea, Riordan's series combines cliffhanger adventure and Greek mythology lessons that results in true page-turners that get better with each installment. In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book's drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come.

It's been a little while since I read the first book in the series but once I started reading the story started coming back really quickly and my forgetfulness turned out to not be an issue at all.   I feel like I'm missing something when I read these.  Well, this one anyway.  It didn't wow me.  I liked it well enough, but I just wasn't loving it. 

Percy is a brave kid, I'll give him that!  And I feel bad that he has to do so much when he's so young.  I wish more would back him and support him, but I guess where things go with that. 

It was a fun adventure but not one that I was always compelled to keep reading.  At times I grew a bit bored.  And I'm not sure why because it was pretty constant action.  In the end I decided it was good and I'll continue the series, but I'm not rushing to pick it up just yet.

 This book does not appear to have a cover up yet.  It's not on goodreads or on any of the searches I've conducted.  But the copy I have has a very cute cover with an illustrated picture of a girl on a camel.
Agatha Mistery: The Curse of the Pharaoh by Steve Stevenson
Expected publication: Feb. 2013
Source: Gift

Agatha Mistery is a fanciful and fabulous new mystery series about a headstrong girl detective who jets off on exotic and international adventures with the help of her hulking bodyguard and loyal cat named, aptly, Watson. The first mystery in this series sees young detective Agatha Mistery traveling to Egypt. Rumors of a mysterious tablet unearthed in the Valley of the Kings may be just the clue that Agatha needs to unlock the secret curse of an ancient Pharaoh.

This series is for the younger MG readers (8 and up).  It's an easy to read chapter book with slightly larger print (in the ARC anyway) and illustrations every several pages.  It's packaged very nicely and is adorable and the illustrations are eye catching and fun.

This is about Agatha Mistery and her cousin Dash.  Dash is in some spy school and is sent off to solve a mystery in Egypt.  It's a bit ridiculous to think of two kids running off to Egypt without parental permission and with just a butler, but that's the joy of children's books, we can just use our imaginations.    While it's Dash's mystery to solve it's Agatha doing all the work.  I'm not quite sure why Dash was in spy school, other than being technologically able, he was pretty useless.  Agatha was brilliant though and was a very fun character.  I suppose Dash lent some comedic moments for us though.

I read this at bed time to the kids.  I think they definitely liked it more than I did, but it was a cute read.  I think it's harder for me to enjoy these books for younger readers when they don't have some beautiful writing to entrance me.  And while it was good writing, it wasn't anything that blew me away. 

I think a lot of younger girl readers would love the book and I'd definitely recommend it to them.