The Lightning Thief
By
Rick Riordan

Chapter 1: I Accidentally Vaporize
My Pre-Algebra Teacher pp1-15
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Vocabulary: disgorge, scythe, dyslexia, materialized, frieze, pulverize
Allusions: Kronos, Titans, Tartarus, Kindly One
Response:
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Keep a character chart throughout the story. List both physical and personality traits.
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What type of a character is Percy? Is he like people you know? If so, how?
Use evidence from the story to support your thinking.
Is Percy imagining things, or did the episode with Mrs. Dodds actual occur?
Keep a chart of allusions mentioned in the story. Make a connection between the story and the allusion.
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Also keep a list of similes and metaphors used throughout the story.

Chapter 2: Three Old Ladies Knit the
Socks of Death pp16-28
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Vocabulary: squall, confound, delinquent
Allusions: Chiron, Charon, Polydictes, Polydeuces
Response:
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What do you think Grover and Mr. Brunner were discussing about Percy?
Who were the three old ladies knitting at the roadside fruit stand? And, why does Grover get so nervous about seeing them?
What do you think the significance is of sixth grade?

Chapter 3: Grover Unexpectedly
Loses His Pants pp29-43
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Vocabulary: bellow, cloven
Allusions:
Response:
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Why do you think Percy’s mom, Sally Jackson, tolerates the negative marriage with Gabe Ugliano? Do you think he is the reason that Percy is sent away to different boarding schools every year? Add Sally and Gabe to your character chart.
What does the coming storm symbolize?
Who or what is Grover? Use evidence from the story to support your thinking.

Chapter 4: My Mother Teaches Me
Bullfighting pp44-56
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Vocabulary: lanolin, bleat, minions, faltered, lumbering, chassis, pummeling, satyr
Allusions: Fates, Pasiphae
Response:
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Percy’s mom told Percy not to say the creature’s name, that names have power. Make connections to other books or movies that have a similar concept.
What attacked Percy?
At the end of the chapter, who is the familiar looking bearded man? And, why does Annabeth say, “He’s the one.
He must be,”?

Chapter 5: I Play Pinochle with a
Horse pp57-74
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Vocabulary: reverently, recoiled, wistful, gingerly, pseudonym, metaphysical, incinerates, feigned, elongating, convergence, obliterated, facades, sinew, centaur
Allusions: Minotaur, Styx, Olympus, Zeus, Hera,
Apollo, Dionysus, Aphrodite, Prometheus
Response:
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How would you be feeling if you had just lost your mother, learned that Greek gods do exist, and discovered that your
Latin teacher was a centaur?
Add new characters to your character chart.

Chapter 6: I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom pp75-92
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Vocabulary: gable, mausoleums, hewn, barbaric, caduceus, sullen, dispel, primal, archetypes, ambrosia, sauntering, dousing
Allusions: Hercules, Hermes, Theseus, Fury, Hades,
Ares
Response:
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Describe how Percy is feeling about being the new kid at camp and discovering that he is a half-blood. Connect to your own experiences about being the new kid at some point in time in your life.
Who do you think Percy’s dad might be? Use evidence from the story to explain your thinking.

Chapter 7: My Dinner Goes Up in
Smoke pp93-106
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Vocabulary: forging, demigods, marred, prophecies, omen, brazier
Allusions: Oracle, Naiads, Athena, Aphrodite,
Demeter, Poseidon, Garden of Heperides
Response:
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Add any new characters to your character chart.
Thus far in the story, what is the main conflict?
What do you think the last sentence of this chapter foreshadows?

Chapter 8: We Capture a Flag pp107-126
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Vocabulary: carnage, befriended, warily, burly, maiming, liability, brandished, elated, trident
Allusions: Homer, Hephaestus, Artemis, Orpheus,
Houdini, Nemesis, Fields of Punishment
Response:
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Why do you think Percy is so interested in heroes who have gone on quests to the Underworld?
Why do you think Annabeth says that it is not good that
Percy is the son of Poseidon?

Chapter 9: I Am Offered a Quest pp127-148
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Vocabulary: kowtow, celestial, usurp, proverbial, prevail, domain
Allusions: Cyclopes, Mount Etna, Hestia, Ithaka, Circe’s
Isle, Land of the Amazons, Delphi
Response:
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How has the story changed?
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Analyze what the Oracle said to Percy. What do you think is going to transpire?
Would you have accepted the quest if you were Percy?
Explain why or why not.

Chapter 10: I Ruin a Perfectly
Good Bus pp149-167
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Vocabulary: drachmas, misnomer, propaganda, melancholy, careened
Allusions: Jason, River Lethe, The Illiad, Argus
Response:
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Do you think Annabeth and Grover suspect Percy’s real reason for accepting the quest? Does it matter?
What does Percy believe the Oracle is referring to when it said, “You will fail to save what matters most in the end,”?
Why didn’t Percy save himself when he had the chance?
What would you have done if you were in his situation?

Chapter 11: We Visit the Garden
Gnome Emporium pp168-187
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Vocabulary: emporium, curio, wistfully, chastised, writhing, modulated, menace, convexity, petrify, impertinent
Allusions: Medusa, Perseus, Red Baron, gorgon,
Persephone
Response:
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What clues in this chapter foreshadow danger?
In this chapter, you are reminded that Percy is still just a child, only twelve years old. Do you think you could leave your life behind and go on a quest at your age? Explain.

Chapter 12 We Get Advice from a
Poodle pp188-196
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Vocabulary: indignantly, pillaging, compelled, chasm
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Allusions: Pan, Ephesos
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Response:
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What do you think Percy’s dream represents?

Chapter 13: I Plunge to My Death pp197-211
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Vocabulary: accosted, berths, rabid, maw, plummeted
Allusions: Zephyr, Parthenon, Helm of Darkness,
Chimera, Echidna
Response:
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Why do you think Echidna challenged Percy to jump into the
Mississippi River far below to prove his bloodline? Why did she say he had no faith? Do you think Percy has faith?
Explain.
What clues foreshadowed Echidna’s and Chimera’s appearance?

Chapter 14: I Become a Known
Fugitive pp212-218
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Vocabulary: trundled
Allusions:
Response:
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What do you think the river spirit meant by Do not
trust the gifts?
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Do you think the gods are playing games with Percy?
Sometimes he seems to be helped by them and other times they threaten his very existence. Couldn’t they kill him if they really wanted to? So why is he still alive?

Chapter 15: A God Buys Us
Cheeseburgers pp219-241
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Vocabulary: temperamental, defunct, filament, dousing, capsizing, trajectory, hefted
Allusions: Iris, Sparta, Cupid, Romeo & Juliet
Response:
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Do you think Luke intended to implicate Annabeth of being invisible and stealing the master bolt? What would be his reason for doing so? Does it fit with what the Oracle said?
Do you think Ares will help Percy now that he has retrieved Ares’ shield? Explain.

Chapter 16: We Take a Zebra to
Vegas pp242-265
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Vocabulary: metamorphosis, trireme, dais, vagrants
Allusions: Arachne
Response:
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What do you think the dream represents? Who is the servant in the dream?
Who do you think created the Lotus Casino trap for the heroes? Explain.
Will the heroes be able to make it to Los Angeles before the solstice?

Chapter 17: We Shop for Water Beds pp266-282
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Vocabulary: shoals. compendium
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Allusions: Nereid, Procrustes
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Response:
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What trait did Percy use to get himself and his friends out of trouble this time? Is this a common trait for a hero? Explain by making connections to other hero quest stories.

Chapter 18: Annabeth Does
Obedience School pp283-299
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Vocabulary: barge, gilt, warbled, portcullis, queued, baleful, dissipated
Allusions: Charon, Erebus, Cerberus, Asphodel
Fields, King Minos, Thomas Jefferson,
Shakespeare, Fields of Elysium
Response:
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Do Annabeth and Percy have the right idea that everyone, even monsters, need a little attention once in awhile? Explain.

Chapter 19: We Find Out the Truth,
Sort Of pp300-319
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Vocabulary: impaled, obsidian, parapets, chided, predicament, portico, entrez-vous, lithe
Allusions: Sisyphus, Isles of the Blest
Response:
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Who do you think tricked Percy and why? Explain.
Which “friend” betrayed Percy?
Would you have left your mom behind in the Underworld?
Explain.
How will Percy get the master bolt back to Zeus in time?
And, who do you think took Hades’s helm?

Chapter 20: I Battle My Jerk Relative pp320-333
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Vocabulary: impeding, reconciliation, recede
Allusions: Ichor
Response:
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Why did Ares trick Percy
What do Percy and Annabeth think is in the pit at the entrance to Tartarus?
Who or what caused Ares to concede the fight to Percy?
Predict what will happen when Percy flies back to New York.

Chapter 21: I Settle My Tab pp334-353
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Vocabulary: odyssey, evade, decapitated, precariously, hippodrome, emanating, defers, impudence
Allusions: Golden Fleece, muses, Lemnos, Ouranos
Response:
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What range of emotions do you think Percy felt meeting his father for the first time?
Why didn’t Percy use Medusa’s head on Gabe? Would you have made the same decision? Explain.
Why do you think Sally didn’t leave Smelly Gabe right there and then?

Chapter 22: The Prophecy Comes
True pp 354-375
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Vocabulary: clamoring, constitution
Allusions: Nemean lion, George Washington, harpies
Response:
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In the prophecy it says “You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.” Has the prophecy been fulfilled like Percy thinks? Explain. How does Luke fit into the prophecy?
Annabeth once said, “The real world is where the monsters are. That’s where you
learn whether you’re any good or not.” Does this message have a deeper meaning?
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Would you have stayed year round at camp, or would you have made the same decision as Percy? Explain.
Look beyond the hero’s adventure quest. What themes were revealed throughout the story? Which theme do you think is the most important and why?