Use these questions and the activities that follow to get more out of the experience of
reading
The Lightning Thief
by Rick Riordan.
1.Describe what kind of student Percy Jackson is. What troubles does he have in
school?
2.What is Percy’s relationship with his mother? Why does he think she has bad
luck?
3.What does Percy discover about the Greek gods at Camp Half-Blood? What do
they have to do with the camp?
4.Why is Percy more excited than scared about his upcoming guest to the
Underworld? What other feelings does he have about his assignment?
5.What clues do Percy and his friends have that all is not right with “Auntie Em”?
Why do you think they overlook the clues?
6.What does Percy’s fight with Echidna reveal about his character? What new
things does he discover about himself?
7.The god Ares says he loves America. He calls it “the best place since Sparta.”
What does he mean? Do you agree with his assessment of America? Why? Why
not?
8.At the Lotus Casino, Percy realizes that unless he gets out quickly, he will “...stay
here, happy forever, playing games forever, and soon I’d forget my mom, and my
quest, and maybe my own name. I’d be playing Virtual Rifleman with groovy
Disco Darrin forever.” What critique is the author offering of modern life? Do
you agree with it?
9.When describing the effects of Mist, Chiron says, “Remarkable, really, the
lengths humans will go to fit things into their version of reality.” How is this true
in the novel? In Greek mythology?
10.When Percy finally meets his father, Poseidon seems distant and hard to read.
Percy says that he is actually glad about this. “If he’d tried to apologize, or told
me he loved me, or even smiled—that would have felt fake. Like a human dad,
making some lame excuse for not being around.” Do you agree with Percy?
11.How does the last line of the prophecy--
you shall fail to save what matters most
in the end
—come true? What do you think of this ending? Did Percy make the
right choice?
12.Throughout the story, Percy is troubled by frightening dreams. In what ways do
those dreams increase the tension in the story? Is there menace completely
resolved by the end of the story?
13.After her return from the quest, Annabeth resolves to try again to live with her
father and her stepfamily. Do you think they will all get along better now? Why?
Why not? What do you predict will happen?
14.In the end of the book, do you sympathize at all with Luke’s feelings of betrayal?
Is there anything you can relate to about his point of view?
15.Percy’s learning difficulties become strengths in a different context. What seem to
be attention problems enable him to be aware of all sides of attack during a battle.
While he struggles to read English, he masters ancient Greek almost effortlessly.
What skills are valued most in today’s society? How might students who struggle
today have been successful in a different moment in history?

Note: These questions are keyed to Bloom’s Taxonomy as follows: Knowledge: 1-3;
Comprehension: 4-5; Application: 6-7; Analysis: 8-10; Synthesis: 11-12; Evaluation:
13-14.
Activities
1.
Imagine you have just discovered you are a half-blood. What cabin do you think
you will end up in at Camp Half-Blood? What are the possibilities? Write a
fictional essay describing your arrival and the discovery of your true parentage.
2.
This book is the first in a series. Luke is still at large, Cronos is growing stronger,
and Percy is about to step out into the world as the acknowledged son of
Poseidon. What will happen next? Like the Oracle, make four predictions about
the next book. What will happen in it? Share your predictions and the clues that
support them, and create a chart showing what you think are the most likely
upcoming events.
3.
World War II is revealed in the book to actually have been triggered by an epic
battle between the gods. How can a modern event be explained by the gods? Pick
a current event—an earthquake, a battle, or even a surprising celebrity love
affair—and explain how the gods were really behind it. You can present your
explanations as a television newscast!

Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker’s-book, went home to bed.  He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner.  They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again.  It was old enough now, and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the other rooms being all let out as offices.  They yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands. The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold.

1. What does Melancholy mean?
   
2. Why does Dickens repeat it?
3. What phrase shows personification of the weather?

Complete the 4 tasks and hand in - week commencing 17th October.

Bear Grylls’ Personal Life
Grylls was born in Donaghadee, County Down, Northern Ireland. He grew up in Northern Ireland until the age of four, when his family moved to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.
He is the son of Conservative politician Sir Michael Grylls, and Lady Sarah Grylls. Lady Grylls is the daughter of politician Patricia Ford,[11] briefly an Ulster Unionist Party MP, and cricketer and businessman Neville Ford. Grylls has one sibling, an elder sister, Lara Fawcett, a cardio-tennis coach, who gave him the nickname 'Bear' when he was a week old.
Grylls was educated at Ludgrove School and Eton College, where he helped start its first mountaineering club, and Birkbeck, University of London, where he graduated with a degree, obtained part-time, in Hispanic studies in 2002.
From an early age, he learned to climb and sail with his father, who was a member of the prestigious Royal Yacht Squadron. As a teenager, he learned to skydive and earned a second dan black belt in Shotokan karate. At age eight he became a Cub Scout. He speaks English, Spanish, and French. He is a Christian, and has described his faith as the "backbone" in his life.
Grylls married Shara Cannings Knight in 2000. They have three sons. In August 2015, it was reported that Grylls had deserted his young son, Jesse, on Saint Tudwal's Island along the North Wales coast, as the tide approached, leaving him to be rescued by the RNLI. The RNLI later criticised him for the stunt, saying its crew "had not appreciated" that a child would be involved.
EVEREST- THE BEGINNING
Aged eight, Bear’s father had taught his young son, Bear, to climb and to dream. Trained on the white sea cliffs on the small island he grew up on in southern England, the young Bear’s bedroom was covered in posters of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak. One day he vowed to climb the mountain – a dream Bear and his father nurtured together.
 
Every year the death toll on Mount Everest rises, and for every ten mountaineers who make it to the top, one will die.
Yet finally at 7.22am on May 26th 1998, after three grueling months climbing on the peak, Bear entered The Guinness Book of Records as one Everest’s youngest ever summiteers and returned alive.
He was only 23 years old.  one of Everest’s youngest ever summiteers.
 
The actual ascent took Bear over ninety days of extreme weather, limited sleep and running out of oxygen deep inside the ‘death zone’ (above 26,000 feet). On the way down from his first reconnaissance climb, Bear was almost killed in a crevasse at 19,000 feet. The ice cracked and the ground disappeared beneath him, he was knocked unconscious and came to swinging on the end of a rope. His team-mate and that rope saved his life.
The expedition was raising funds for the Rainbow Trust and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.
Previously, in 1997, Bear had become the Youngest Briton to climb the iconic Mount Ama Dablam in the Himalayas (22,500 feet), a peak once described by Sir Edmund Hillary as ‘unclimbable’.
Bear was beginning to distinguish himself in his field.
MILITARY SERVICE
Prior to the Everest Expedition, Bear, also a Karate Black Belt, spent had passed the gruelling UK Reserve’s Special Forces Selection process, where he went on to serve for three years with the British Special Air Service (21 SAS). He specialised as a combat survival instructor, and was also trained in evasive driving, parachuting, demolitions, trauma medic, unarmed combat and jungle warfare.
 
What makes his story even more remarkable is that during this time he suffered a free-fall parachuting accident in Africa where he broke his back in three places. After months and months of rehabilitation, focusing always on his childhood dream of Everest, he slowly became strong enough to attempt the ultimate ascent of the world’s highest peak.
BOOKS AND MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKING
Bear has a natural talent for communication and his speaking and TV shows has brought him worldwide acclaim. As a motivational speaker, he has addressed corporations all around the world on his experiences on Everest and how these can help us in our life and business environments. He is among the most in-demand speakers in the world. Bear’s first book, ‘Facing Up’, went into the top-10 best seller list, and was launched in the USA titled, ‘The Kid who climbed Everest’. Worldwide this book has touched people through its enduring honesty, courage and humility.
He has gone on to write 11 books, including four teenager fiction survival books titled Mission Survival, and adult books ranging from Scouting (Living Wild) to Born Survivor, Facing the Frozen Ocean and Great Outdoor Adventures. He has also authored a book written very personally for his three children on how to live a fulfilling life, titled With Love Papa.
 
His latest book, his remarkable autobiography, Mud Sweat & Tears, stayed for nine weeks at No 1 in the Sunday Times Bestseller List in the UK. A feat that few books have ever achieved. It launches in the USA in May 2012.
TELEVISION
Bear first TV break came when he was approached to star in a ‘Sure For Men’ deodorant TV commercial. This featured the story of Bear’s Everest climb. The advert was awarded campaign of the year.
In 2003 Bear successfully completed another ground breaking expedition, leading a team across the freezing North Atlantic Arctic Ocean in a small open rigid inflatable boat. Suffering weeks of frozen spray and icebergs, the expedition was filmed for a documentary, and was raising funds for the Prince’s Trust charity. The book on this remarkable journey,’Facing the Frozen Ocean’, and was short-listed as Sports Book of the Year.
Bear was awarded an Honorary commission in the Royal Navy for this record-breaking feat.Bear was also used by the UK Ministry of Defense to head the Army’s anti-drugs TV campaign, and featured in the first ever major advertising campaign for the world renowned shop: Harrods.
His first major TV Series was for Channel Four, called ‘Escape to the Legion’, where he went through simulated basic training with Legionnaires in North Africa, to show what it is really like as a recruit in the French Foreign Legion. This TV series was a major hit worldwide and opened the door for the success of Man Vs Wild and Born Survivor.
Within months of the Foreign Legion Documentary airing, Bear was commissioned to present 12 x 1-hour programmes for a novel TV format called ’Man Vs Wild’ on Discovery Channel worldwide, commissioned as well for Channel Four in the UK, titled: ‘Born Survivor: Bear Grylls’. These programmes featured Bear being parachuted in to some of the most inhospitable deserts, jungles and mountains on earth and showing what you need to do to survive. No-one had any idea whether the format would work…
Man Vs Wild went on to become the No. 1 cable show in all of America, reaching a global audience of over 1.2 Billion viewers, in over 200 countries, making it one of the most recognized and watched programs on the largest TV network on earth.
To date the team have filmed over 75 x 1hr episodes, and six seasons around the world. Bear’s outdoor survival book Born Survivor, written for Channel 4 in the UK, stayed for 10 weeks in the Sunday Times Bestseller List.
OTHER EXPEDITIONS
In 2007, Bear lead an incredible attempt to return to Everest and become the first man to fly a powered paraglider to a height above the world’s highest peak. Sponsored by GKN, and along with his best buddy Gilo Cardozo, Bear achieved their aim and pulled off the impossible, soaring into the record books. The expedition was documented for Discovery Channel, titled: Bear’s Mission Everest and the team raised over $2.4million in the process for Global Angels and children’s charities worldwide.
He has lead teams to circumnavigate the UK on jetskis, raising funds for the Lifeboats, he has broken world records in high-altitude ballooning, skydiving and much more, including a world first for taking a rigid inflatable boat through the infamous, ice-strewn North West Passage.
2008 also saw Bear lead a small team to climb one of the most remote un-climbed peaks in the world in Antarctica. The expedition was using wind powered kite skiing, bio-ethanol powered jetskis, electric powered paragliders and good old footwork!
BRINGING SCOUTING AND ADVENTURE TO THE WORLD
Bear and Discovery Channel have released a Man Vs Wild X Box, playstation and Wii, he owns an outdoor adventure clothing company partnered with Craghoppers, as well as a line of survival kits, knives, multi-tools and other outdoor equipment with Gerber. Bear’s Ultimate Knife has become the biggest selling knife in the world.
He has fronted international advertising campaigns for the likes of Nissan, Dos Equis, Sure deodorant, Degree, Solo and Trail Mix.
On 17 May 2009, Bear was elected as the youngest ever Chief Scout to the Scout Association, becoming the figurehead to 28 million Scouts around the world. For Bear, this is his proudest post, standing up for young people from so many different cultures and countries, helping them realise their dreams, explore the world, help in crisis countries, and benefit from being part of a worldwide family. For Bear it is all about encouraging life values, outdoor skills and a sense of pride, belonging and camaraderie through adventure.

1. How old was Bear when his father taught him to climb and dream?
2. What posters covered his bedroom wall?
3. What mountain did Bear vow he would climb?
4. What was the date and at what time did Bear achieve his dream of climbing the mountain?
5. How long did the climb take?
6. What famous record did he achieve?
7. How old was he?
8. What point of the climb is the ‘death zone’?
9. Who and what saved his life?
10. What charities did his expedition raise money for?
11. What did Bear achieve in 1997?
12. Who described the peak as ‘unclimable’?
13. How long did he serve with the British Special Air Service?
14. What did he specialise in?
15. What accident occurred in Africa and what injury did he suffer?
16. Did this stop him from achieving his dream?
17. How many books has Bear written?
18. Can you name one of his titles?
19. How many children does he have?
20. What is his autobiography called?
21. What expedition did he accomplish in 2003?
22. What was his first major TV series called and on which channel was it aired?
23. How many viewers in how many countries did his series Born Survivor reach?
24. What did he become the first man to do in 2007?
25. How much money did he raise for charity?
26. What was he elected in 2009?
27. How many scouts are there worldwide?
28. What does he want to help young people to do?