The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

Book #3 of the Heroes of Olympus series
Read #1 The Lost Hero
and #2 The Son of Neptune

Rating: Cleaner

Audience: Fourth grade and up. As always, it depends on the child.  There is a good dose of violence, and the complexity of the myths can be hard to follow.

Plot: Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Leo, Jason, Hazel, and Frank leave Camp Jupiter in a hurry after a happy reunion, an awkward banquet, and the accidental start of a civil war between the Greeks and Romans. (Only Rick Riordan can stick all of that in the first few chapters!) Their flying ship is damaged, and they know they have to figure out the rest of the prophecy before the two camps destroy each other.  The plot is super complex and I don't want to accidentally give any spoilers so I'm going to leave it at that for now...

Favorite parts:

1. Any moment between Annabeth and Percy, but especially their hilarious reunion scene

2. The chapter where they visit my home turf at the Great Salt Lake.

Warning: This book has a killer cliff-hanger ending, so be prepared to go out and buy book four as soon as you finish book three.  I'm so excited!!!