100 Word Summaries for differentiated instruction Individual chapter summaries written with English Language Learners and students with learning disabilities in mind. Summaries are detailed enough to allow scholars to follow along with the text and actively participate in class discussions but low enough of a reading level to allow struggling scholars to independently engage with the text. Each chapter summary is roughly 100 words and under a 5th grade readability if you remove Greek names and vocabulary. Can be used in conjunction with text or paired alongside whole chapter summaries for differentiation. Name: _____________________________ Date: ___________________________ Chapter 1 Percy Jackson is a 12 year old boy who goes to a school for troubled kids. Mr. Brunner, Percy’s favorite teacher, is always teaching about Greek Mythology. Percy’s friend, Grover, tries to keep Percy out of trouble. Mrs. Dodds, their algebra teacher seems to be out to get Percy. On a field trip, Percy gets in trouble for pushing someone into the fountain. Mrs. Dodds takes him aside and starts making weird noises. She turns into a falcon and starts attacking him. Mr. Brunner shows up and throws Percy a pen, but when he catches it, it becomes a sword! Percy slashes Mrs. Dodds and she vaporizes. When he goes back outside, no one knows who Mrs. Dodds is. Chapter 2 No one acknowledges Mrs. Dodds ever existed. Percy’s finds out he’s going to be expelled. Percy overhears Mr. Brunner and Grover talking about needing to keep Percy safe. Percy pretends he didn’t hear them. Percy and Grover wind up on the same bus home for winter break. The bus breaks down and they all have to get off on this empty road. There are three old women at the bus stop knitting a HUGE pair of socks. Grover tells Percy to get back on the bus, but Percy stays and watches the old women as the one in the middle cuts the yarn. Percy tells Grover what he saw, and Grover panics and makes him promise to let him walk him home. Chapter 3 Percy ditches Grover and heads to see his mom. He loves his mom but doesn’t like his stepdad who he calls Smelly Gabe. Percy and his mom plan to go to their special place. They have been going to this beach cabin for years. Percy asks about his dad – he knows this is where his mom and dad met. His mom is worried about next year. She says he has to go to the place his dad mentioned, but she hates the thought because it might be forever. Percy wakes up to a hurricane and Grover is there – except he’s half goat. Name: _____________________________ Date: ___________________________ Chapter 4 Ms. Jackson is driving when they are attacked. She says Percy will be safe if he reaches the huge tree. A big bull catches her and she explodes into golden light. Percy is furious. The bull turns toward Grover; Percy eggs the bull on and gets him to slam into the big tree. Percy can’t get out of the way. He jumps straight up and lands on the bull’s back. Percy pulls off a bull’s horn and stabs him with it. The bull disappears just like Ms. Dodds did. Percy wants to cry for his mom but Grover needs help. He hears someone say, “He must be the one” and then collapses. Chapter 5 Percy wakes up after two days and Grover tells him what he remembers is correct – his mom is gone, there was a Minotaur, Grover is a satyr. Grover takes Percy to meet Mr. D, the camp director, and Chiron, a centaur who is actually Mr. Brunner! They tell him the Greek Gods are real and should be respected. Mr. D thinks Percy is trouble but welcomes him to Camp Half-Blood, home of the children of gods and mortals. They send him to Cabin 11 to get situated. Chapter 6 Chiron shows Percy around the camp – the archery range, stables, woods, an arena. Everyone stares at him. Chiron says it was Grover’s to protect Percy – not the other way around. Percy feels guilty that Grover might be in trouble. Percy learns that there is a cabin designed after each of the gods. Cabin 11, is modeled after Hermes, the god of travelers. All new campers go there until they know which other place they belong. It’s crowded but his counselor, Luke, is nice. Annabeth is his new tour guide. They get stopped by Clarisse, a big, smelly girl who tries to give Percy a swirly. Percy feels something weird in his stomach and water shoots out of the toilet and hits Clarisse. Name: _____________________________ Date: ___________________________ Chapter 7 All the kids at Camp Half-Blood are half-bloods - one of their parents is a god while the other is human. Everyone is stuck in cabin 11 until their god parent claims them. There are a lot of half-bloods in the world. They usually stay in the human world until they are about 10 or 11 when monsters start to sense them and begin to attack. Some kids only stay for the summer if their god parent isn’t really important. However, if they attract a lot of trouble in the mortal world, they can stay all year. Everyone puts a portion of their dinner into the fire as an offering for their god parent. Percy makes a silent wish that his dad will claim him. Chapter 8 Luke teaches Percy to sword fight. He gets really hot and dumps some water on his head. He immediately feels better and beats Luke! Everyone is shocked! Grover tells Percy that their fates are sealed together until Percy gets a quest or an assignment from the gods. Grover teaches Percy about the Big Three – Zeus (god of the sky), Poseidon (sea), and Hades (underworld) and how they agreed not to have children because they were too powerful. Zeus had a daughter though and Hades killed her. She became the tree on the hill. They play a game and Clarisse’s friends attack Percy. He is able to fight them off when he steps into the creek. The water also heals his cuts. A trident appears above Percy’s head. He has been claimed – the son of Poseidon. Chapter 9 Percy moves into Cabin 3. Everyone avoids him except Luke, Grover, and Annabeth. Someone leaves a newspaper that makes it sound like Percy hurt his mom. Chiron says Poseidon and Zeus are fighting because Zeus thinks Percy stole it his lightning bolt. If the lightning bolt isn’t returned in 10 days, there will be an all-out war. Percy accepts the quest and the Oracle tells him: You shall go west and face the god who has turned You shall find what was stolen and see it safely returned You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend You shall fail to save what matters most in the end Chiron tells him that the Oracle’s words often have double meaning. Percy and Grover must confront Hades in the Underworld to find and return Zeus’ lightning bolt. Annabeth volunteers to go. Name: _____________________________ Date: ___________________________ Chapter 10 Luke gives Percy his magic shoes. Chiron says he shouldn’t use the shoes – they’ll make him fly which is too dangerous. Grover takes them. Chiron give Percy a gift from Poseidon. When in Percy’s hand, the pen becomes a sword that can kill any monster or half-blood. Chiron says it cannot be lost – it will always return to him. He names it “Riptide.” Grover tells him his mom married Gabe because he is so smelly that his human smell masked Percy’s half-blood aura. Grover sniffs the air and says something is wrong. The Furies are the three worst monsters from the underworld. They sit in the front row and block the aisle. The Furies come for Percy and he causes a bus accident to get away. Percy, Grover, and Annabeth run into the woods and escape. Chapter 11 They walk through the woods until they find a shop called “Auntie Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium.” Grover’s begs to go somewhere else. There something really strange about the statues they pass. Auntie Em asks them to pose for a picture before they leave. It’s a trap! Annabeth puts on her invisibility cap yells at them not to make eye contact. Auntie Em is actually Auntie M which stands for Medusa who will turn them into stone. They realize all of the statues around them used to be real people or animals. Medusa attacks Percy, but he lunges with Riptide and hears her disintegrate. They ship her head to Hades in the Underworld. Chapter 12 They find a place to rest for the night. Grover tells him how he hopes to one day find Pan, the god and protector of the satyrs. Grover says that Percy shouldn’t be so hard on Annabeth – she’s had a tough life. He won’t say any more. Grover and Annabeth think something is different about this quest. They noticed that the Furies held back a little. They point out that they were asking “where is IT” on the bus… not ‘where is HE.’ Percy has a strange dream where he realizes the Underworld and Hades are using Percy to climb out. They find a poodle who ran away and is willing to be returned for the reward money. They return the poodle and buy train tickets out west. Name: _____________________________ Date: ___________________________ Chapter 13 They spend two days traveling across the United States. Annabeth hears him mumbling in his sleep and asks about his dreams. Annabeth convinces them to go to the top of the St Louis Arch. When it’s time to go back down, they get separated. A fat lady shows her forked tongue, scaly skin, and snake eyes. Her dog becomes a chimera which has a lion’s head, goat body, and snake’s tail and is over 10 feet tall and breaths fire. Percy pulls out RipTide. Percy tries to stab Chimera but gets struck by the serpent tail – deadly poison rushing up his leg. Chimera breaths fire on Percy one more time and he falls out of the monument – on fire, flailing toward the water. Chapter 14 Percy tumbles into the river below. He realizes he’s dry and can breathe! He wonders why his father bothered to save him. He feels like a failure. A female figure appears to him - she says she’s a messenger and there is hope for his mom. She warns him not to trust the gifts... Percy is confused. He comes to shore about a block away from the Arch. He hears sirens and sees emergency vehicles swarming the area and knows he has to get away. As he tries to stay out of the way, Grover and Annabeth find him. They know they can’t stay in the area. Everyone is looking for Percy. They get back to the Amtrak station and catch the train to Denver. Chapter 15 They arrive in Denver. They use the mist and pay a Drachma (god’s money) to ask the goddess Iris to help get their message back to Half-Blood Hill. Luke answers; Percy tells him all about what just happened. They stop for food when a huge biker pulls up and sits with them. Percy realizes that he’s Clarisse’s dad, Ares, the god of war. Ares says he needs Percy to get his shield. They find the shield at the bottom of an empty pool along with Aphrodite’s, the goddess of love, pink scarf. Annabeth realizes that this trap must have been set by Hephaestus to catch his wife and Ares cheating. Percy channels the water to escape. Grover uses his flying shoes to slow their fall. Name: _____________________________ Date: ___________________________ Chapter 16 They return Ares’ shield to him at the diner and he admits he knew it was a trap. He arranges a ride for them to Las Vegas. Grover says Luke and Annabeth were the other two half-bloods there the night Thalia died. Annabeth says Thalia sacrificed herself for them. Thalia is in Percy’s next dream but it doesn’t make sense. The truck stops and they wander into the Lotus Hotel and Casino. They sleep, shower, eat, and find the game room. Someone else uses really old words and Percy figures out people get stuck here. By the time they get back outside, they realize it’s been a week already! They only have one day left to complete the quest.. Chapter 17 They take a taxi straight to Santa Monica Pier. Percy walks into the ocean where he sees a spirit of the sea who gives him three pearls. They try to find the entrance to the Underworld and wind up in a mattress store. Ropes spring up from all sides and tie Annabeth and Grover to the bed. Crusty says he has to make them fit. Percy realizes that Crusty is the stretcher – he kills people by stretching them out. Percy outsmarts Crusty, the Stretcher, by tricking him into laying down in a bed of his own. When Crusty lays down to “prove how comfortable it is,” the ropes hold Crusty still and Percy cuts off whatever hangs over the edge (Crusty’s head). He rushes to release Grover and Annabeth. They are right around the corner from DOA Recordings. Chapter 18 They arrive at the DOA Recording Studios. They tell Charon, the door keeper, they want to go to the Underworld and give him a few drachmas. Charon agrees to give them passage to the Underworld. They see something that looks like airport security with three lines, one marked EZ Death. They see Cerberus – the three headed guard dog of the Underworld. People walk right underneath him without bending over. Cerberus who can smell the living and knows they are there. Annabeth comes up with another plan and distracts Cerberus with a ball. Name: _____________________________ Date: ___________________________ Chapter 19 Grover’s magic shoes sprout wings and drag him toward dark pit Percy’s seen in his dreams. The pit is actually the entrance to Tartarus. They manage to stop Grover and get away from the pit. They go to Hades’ Palace and ask him to return the lightning bolt. Hades is furious and accuses Percy of stealing his Helm of Darkness too. Percy unzips his backpack and finds the lightning bolt! Hades thinks the real reason Percy is in the Underworld is to get his mom. Percy knows he cannot save his mom. He makes a deal with Hades to return his Helm of Darkness in exchange for his mom. They smash the pearls from the water spirit and float back up to the Santa Monica Bay. Hades causes an earthquake he’s so mad. Chapter 20 Ares shows up and Percy accuses him of stealing the Lightning Bolt and the Helm of Darkness. Ares admits to trying to start a three way war between Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades and planting the lightning bolt in Percy’s backpack. Ares and Percy fight. Percy summons the water and sends a wall of sea water to splash Ares in the face. This catches him off guard and Percy is able to strike his heel. Ares realizes he has been beaten. He tells Percy that he has made an enemy. Percy gives the Helm of Darkness to the Furies who have been watching. He tells them to tell Hades to call off the war. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover know they have to get to New York to return the lightning bolt immediately. They will have to fly. Name: _____________________________ Date: ___________________________ Chapter 21 The news blamed almost everything bad on this crazy man (Ares) who took advantage of these poor kids. Percy fake cries and says all he wants to do is go home. Once back in New York, they go to the Empire State Building. Percy gets to the 600th floor and arrives in front of Zeus and sees his father for the first time. Poseidon looks like a surfer dude. Zeus is clearly very upset but Poseidon makes him listen to Percy. Percy tells them about Ares. Poseidon tells Percy that his mother is safe. Percy goes straight to his mom’s. She is thrilled to see him. Percy realizes JUST how bad Gabe is toward his mom. Poseidon sent Medusa’s head to Percy’s mom. Percy agrees to leave the box with his mom but let her decide how and when to use it. He leaves for Half-Blood Hill. Chapter 22 They return to camp as the first to return from a quest since Luke. Percy’s mom sells a life-size concrete sculpture, and her troubles with Gabe were over. Grover is awarded his searcher’s license and is going on his own quest. Percy thinks back to the Oracle. Most of it makes sense but what did it mean when it said he’d be betrayed by a friend. Luke comes to say goodbye and tells him that he serves Kronos and he was the one who stole the lightning bolt. Luke admits that he cursed the shoes and they were supposed to take Percy into Tartarus. Luke sic’s a scorpion on Percy and disappears. The scorpion stings Percy and he has 60 seconds to get help. He wakes up to Annabeth nursing him back to health. He tells Chiron what happened. As everyone says goodbye, Percy makes up his mind to go home too. They make a pact to come back next summer and hunt Luke down.
