Demigods and Monsters, edited and introduced by Rick Riordan

Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series, edited and with an original introduction by Rick Riordan (Benbella Books, 2009, 196pp).

There's a sadness, a melancholy not unlike a vegetable garden in October, when a favorite series comes to an end. Such a sadness is doubtless being felt by the many fans of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series who have just read the last page of the recently released The Last Olympian.

In this anthology of entertaining essays, authors of fantasy and science fiction for kids and teenagers (including two favorites of mine, Elizabeth E. Wein and Sarah Beth Durst) give readers a chance to revisit the series in a friendly, thought-provoking way, and tackle the tough questions that so many of us (?) have been asking.

From the back of the book:

"How are the Greek gods like your middle school principal?
Would you want to be one of Artemis’s Hunters?
Why do so many monsters go into retail—and why are they never selling anything a demigod really wants?

Find out:

· The pros and cons of having a god as a parent
· Why Dionysus might actually be the best director Camp Half-Blood could have
· How to tell a monster when you see one
· Why even if we aren’t facing manticores and minotaurs, reading myths can still help us deal with the scary things in our own lives"

There's also a glossary that provides a handy guide to the people, places and things of Greek mythology.

Reading a book like this is a great way to assuage the pain of the end of the series, showing, as it does, that good books make for good conversations, long after the last page is read and the cover is closed.