Trials of Apollo

Trials of Apollo book 1 review:

Apollo - the god of music and the sun - is stuck in New York with nowhere to go. He has been stripped of his godly powers and reduced to a mere mortal: Lester Papadoulos - a skinny, acne infested sixteen year old. Lester is found by Meg Mcaffrey, who is an orphan on the streets as he later finds out. When Meg wipes out a gang of street bullies with just floating fruit, Apollo comes to the conclusion that Meg is a demigod: half human and the son or daughter of a god. As of this, Lester takes Meg to Camp Half-blood - a safe haven for demigods. The leader of the camp - Chiron the centaur - confirms Apollo’s suspicions. Meg settles in to camp and is claimed by Demeter - the goddess of the harvest and the farm. In a competition, Meg and Apollo go on a three-legged race in the Labyrinth, but get lost in the endless coils of the maze. The plot thickens when they hear Apollo’s main adversary, Python - the great snake of Greece - talk with an Emperor of Rome about how to overthrow the camp, because the emperor wants to recruit the demigods to his legion. Back at camp, destruction is at large, for the emperor has launched an attack on the camp. Apollo and Meg go to the Grove of Dodona, to combat the Emperor Nero - the mastermind behind the attack. They manage to defeat him and when the monsters lose their leader, they scatter. At the Grove of Dodona a prophecy is given to Apollo, about the next adversary to overcome to fulfill his duty (I can not reveal the contents of the prophecy because it is too much of a spoiler).

Recommendations:

I recommend this to young readers, because of its simple language and entertainment value. The violence in this book is minimal and is described in very little detail so will not give the readers nightmares. It also has a bit of culture which is valued in a book. To specify, I recommend this to readers aged 7-9.