The Lightning Thief -- Rick Riordan

Suppose the Greek gods were real. Now suppose that they're still around. (They're gods, after all.) Wouldn't they be up to their usual shenanigans, fooling around with mortals and leaving a few offspring behind, and wouldn't those offspring be demi-gods like the heroes of old? Sure they would, and one of them is Perseus "Percy" Jackson, whose discover of his parenthood and of a conspiracy against the immortals is the story that unfolds in The Lightning Thief.

This is a YA novel, but I've said before that some of the best writing around is in YA novels. Here's another cas in point. Rick Riordan is a much-lauded writer of mysteries for adults (and deservedly so), but this book has won more awards than all his mysteries put together. If you're looking for action, adventure, great characters, and a few laughs, not to mention a fine short course in Greek mythology, look no further. This is a book that kids and their parents can both enjoy, and it should give the Harry Potter novels a run for their money. The movie will be out next year, and the Percy Jackson books will no doubt be launched into the stratosphere, if they aren't already there.

I'm a little late to the party, since book two is already out, with book three coming along in May, but you can bet I'll be catching up. Check 'em out for yourselves.

Rash -- Pete Hautman

A lot of the best writing around these days is in YA novels. If you don't believe me, read one. Try Nancy Werlin, for example, or Pete Hautman.

Bruce Taylor might not have a high opinion of Steve Stilwell's movie IQ, but surely he'd never argue with him about writers. It was Steve who told me several years ago about Hautman's first YA novel, Mr. Was, a wonderful book. And last year Hautman won the National Book Award for Godless.

Hautman's also the author of a number of fine, funny adult crime novels. I don't know how that career's been going, but I get the impression that the books haven't sold as well as they should have. Doesn't matter, I guess, in one way, since the YA career's going so well.

Rash is Hautman's latest. It's set a toward the end of this century, in the USSA (the United Safer States of America), where no one takes a risk, where anything that might endanger you or someone else has been outlawed, where you can go to prison for dropping an apricot on the ground if someone slips on it. Bo Marsten is from a family of criminals. Both his father and his brother are in the pen, and Bo seems highly likely to join them.

Sure enough, he does, and the book becomes something different from what you might have been expecting. It's sort of a cross between The Longest Yard and Holes, but it's really nothing like that. It also doesn't offer a lot of easy answers. Plus it has laughs. No wonder Hautman keeps on winning awards and piling up the readers. Check it out.