Readalikes: Percy Jackson.

Okay, so I have a new patron who has just discovered Percy Jackson, and is IN. LOVE. 

Knowing that he's blowing through the series at, like, MACH ZILLION, I threw this list of Percy Jackson readalikes together this morning at work:

• First of all, there's Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series, which is set in the same world as Percy Jackson, and features the same blend of humor and action and smarts as well as appearances by all of your favorite characters, but it stars a different trio of characters. 

• Also by Rick Riordan are the Kane Chronicles books, a trilogy about Egyptian gods suddenly released into the modern world, and the two siblings who are tasked with setting things to right.

• If you especially like Percy for the humor and action, you might want to try the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. Artemis is a twelve-year-old criminal mastermind who gets more than he bargained for when he kidnaps a fairy... who just so happens to be a cop!

• Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant isn't a cop, he's a detective... who is also a walking, talking, wise-cracking, nattily-dressed skeleton. Super funny, super exciting, super AWESOME.

• Jeff Smith's comic Bone ran for 13 years, and it's about the adventures of cousins Fone Bone, Phony Bone, and Smiley Bone. There's plenty of humor, especially at the beginning, but it's also an epic fantasy that deals with themes of friendship, family, heroism, and power.

• In the Fablehaven books, by Brandon Mull, siblings Kendra and Seth go to stay with their grandparents for the summer... and discover that not only is their grandfather the caretaker at a reserve for magical creatures, but that their grandmother is missing.

• The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott, is the first book in a series about Sophie and Josh Newman, fifteen-year-old twins who get pulled into an age-old battle between good and evil... but, according to an ancient prophecy, no one knows if the Newman twins will ultimately fight for or against the powers of Good. Like the Percy books, it's chock-full of magic, mythology, and adventure.

• In The Shadow Thieves, by Anne Ursu, trouble is a-brewing in the Underworld, and it's starting to affect our world. In order to stop a quickly-spreading plague, cousins Charlotte and Zee have to do battle to gain control of Hades and put things right. Like Percy Jackson, it's funny and fast-paced and exciting!

• If it's the Greek mythology that you love, try on Tobias Druitt's Corydon series for size: it features the gods and beasties you got to know in the Percy Jackson books, but it's actually set in ancient Greece!

• Carolyn Hennessy's Mythic Misadventures series is also set in ancient Greece. It starts with Pandora Gets Jealous, a frothy adventure about thirteen-year-old Pandy, who releases the Seven Deadly Sins out into the world, and is tasked by Zeus to recapture them.

• Although Cornelia Funke's Inkheart books don't deal strictly with Greek mythology, they do feature a similarly irresistible premise: twelve-year-old Meggie's bookbinder father has the power to read fictional characters to life! It's an adventure and a mystery, but it's also a story about the love of stories.

• Before The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins wrote Gregor the Overlander, the first book in a series about a boy who dives into a laundry chute after his little sister... and winds up in another world. Adventure, magic, epic battles, and an ancient prophecy: Gregor has it all.

• Lastly, as Percy Jackson is so often included on lists of Harry Potter readalikes, I'll do the same here: after all, both series start out with an eleven-year-old boy discovering that he not only has magical powers, but that he's fated to change the world... and both boys become best friends with a somewhat bumbling boy and a super-smart girl!

Since, as I said, I kind of threw it together, am I missing anything major?