Dear Book Diary
DISABILITIES BECOME SUPERPOWERS
The Lightning Thief is the first book in Rick Riordan’s series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It has an offshoot series called the Lost Heros that has some of the same characters as the Olympians. Altogether, these series have ten books, two movies, and a few short stories. I would say the reason that the books are so popular is because of the characters. We are first introduced to Percy Jackson, one of the main characters of both series, at a sixth grade field trip. He gives the readers some background to his school history. Percy was expelled from every single school he attended since first grade (Riordan 2005 p. 2). He also tells us that he has been diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD (Riordan 2005 p. 7). In part, these disabilities are what he blames for his problems. Throughout the book, we are shown that these “disabilities” are characteristics of hero and the children of the gods. These are not handicaps, but superpowers that end up saving his life. In the beginning of The Lightning Thief, the readers see a poor sixth grade boy who is diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD, but by the end, Rick Riordan shows that these disabilities are superpowers.
There are many different reader response theories, but something they can all agree on is that everyone has a different response to a book. This means that readers will interpret, remember, connect, and reflect on the same book differently (Kiefer & Tyson 2014 p. 49). Also, one reader’s response will be different from the people sitting next to him, as well as if he reads the same book five years later. You will always get something new and different when you re-read a book. This is something I firmly believe in. I re-read books that I love over and over again to fall in love with the story and characters all over again, and to pick up on different themes, jokes, or concepts that I may have missed before. Being that it is one of my favorite books, I have read The Lightning Thief many times. The first time I read it, I was in fourth grade and I responded completely different from this latest time I read it. Just a few months prior to reading The Lightning Thief again, I completely one of my classes on different special needs. This new experience gave me a new approach to reading The Lightning Thief that I never had before.
Within the first few pages of The Lightning Thief Percy shares with the readers that he has dyslexia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (Riordan 2005 p. 7). Both are classified and defined as disabilities under IDEA. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is classified as a subcategory under other health impairments and is defined as inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity that interferes with a student’s development and functioning in multiple settings (Turnbull 2016 p. 168). Some of the symptoms of ADHD are difficulty following instructions or finishing tasks, keeping track of necessary supplies, and staying still or in one’s seat (Turnbull 2016 p. 169-170). Percy describes having ADHD like this, “I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I’ve missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it.” (Riordan 2005 p. 11) Percy feels like he is missing things that everyone sees.
Dyslexia is a learning disability, and it is more commonly called reading disability (Turnbull 2016 p.105). It is defined as the condition of having severe difficultly in learning to read (Turnbull 2016 p. 369). This very difficult disability to have seeing how every single activity and subject in school has reading as part of it. Having dyslexia coupled with ADHD is very difficult since dyslexia forces students to concentrate and have patience with reading, but students with ADHD have trouble with paying attention and staying on task for long periods of time. Readers see this a few pages later when Percy is trying to study, “The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.” (Riordan 2005 p. 18) For Percy, the combination of dyslexia and ADHD has only brought him frustration and gotten him in trouble and kicked out of school.
But Rick Riordan does not leave the readers feeling bad for Percy. He then turns Percy’s disabilities into something to be proud of, and his disabilities end up saving his life. Dyslexia and ADHD are the main signs for being a demigod, a child of a Greek god or goddess. Annabeth explains it to Percy like this, “Taken together, it’s almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read right? That’s because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you’re implosive, can’t sit still in a classroom. That’s your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that’s because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal’s.” (Riordan 2005 p. 88)
Percy discovers that something that has made his life so hard, is actually a gift and special ability that not everyone has. Dyslexia gives him the ability to read ancient Greek without too much trouble. “I discovered that Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn’t that hard for me to read.” (Riordan 2005 p. 107) Percy also uses his ADHD to stay alive in a fight against Ares, the war god. “My senses were working overtime. I now understood what Annabeth had said about ADHD keeping you alive in battle. I was wide awake, noticing every little detail.” (Riordan 2005 p. 329) Rick Riordan took disabilities that made children like Percy feel broken and got them into trouble, and then turned them into abilities that saved Percy’s life and gave him the power to do things he never imagined he could do before.
Books like The Lightning Thief have taken a new approach to literature that have children with disabilities. Instead of children and students to be pitied, they are now the heroes whose disabilities are no longer something to be ashamed of, but something to be proud of. The inspiration for writing The Lightning Thief came from Riordan’s son Haley (Williams 2010). When Haley was nine years old, he refused to read and hated going to school because of his ADHD and dyslexia (Williams 2010). He would sit under the table and cry if he was forced to go to school (Williams 2010). The only subject that Haley was interested in was Greek mythology, so his father would tell him Greek myths for his bedtime stories (Williams 2010). Once he ran out of myths, Haley asked him to make up ones (Williams 2010). So Percy, the twelve year old diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD, was created became the greatest demigod hero of all in Haley’s eyes. These stories changed Haley’s life (Williams 2010). He said, “You read a lot of books and none of them have a hero who is dyslexic or has ADHD - it’s always perfect people in a perfect world doing perfect things. Percy is, in fact, very flawed and he has to fight against that and at the same time fight monsters.” (Williams 2010)
Characters like Percy who have disabilities make other children who have disabilities feel more confident, and like they too, can do anything. Rick Riordan shared a story of a little girl who wrote to him about how before the Percy Jackson books, she felt ashamed of her dyslexia, now she wears it like a badge (Williams 2010). Riordan said that this was the whole point of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series; “There are so many other children out there like my son who are struggling with these issues and feel there is something wrong with them, and there's not. It's simply a different way of processing information.” (Williams 2010) Books like The Lightning Thief are not only great stories of adventure and mystery, they are stories of overcoming struggles and winning despite all the challenges put in one’s way. They are encouraging to those who are ashamed of themselves, and they give hope to those with disabilities that they too can do anything and become a hero. That is what makes The Lightning Thief worth reading. It takes a young boy who is struggling with and ashamed of his disabilities, and turns him into a hero that saves the world.
The Lightning Thief is only the first book in the series about a boy with dyslexia and ADHD who struggles with his identity and confidence. In this story, the reader sees Percy go from someone who is insecure with his own abilities turn into a hero. Rick Riordan’s whole purpose of this story is to show his son that just because he has a few disabilities, doesn't mean that he can’t still be a hero. This message has resonated with readers from all walks of life whether or not they have a disability. But it is incredibly important for children with disabilities to read stories like The Lightning Thief because it can give them hope and encourage them to not be ashamed of their disability. Rick Riordan gives us a great story that takes a hero with disabilities and turns them into his superpowers. Every child, disabled or not, needs to have that hope.
References
Kiefer, B., & Tyson, C. (2014). Charlotte Huck's children's literature: A brief guide ( Second ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Riordan, R. (2005). The Lightning Thief. New York, New York: Hyperion Books for Children.
Turnbull, A. (2016). Exceptional lives: Special education in today's schools (Eighth
ed.). Pearson Education.
Williams, S. (2010, February 8). Percy Jackson: My Boy's Own Adventure. Retrieved January 18, 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/feb/ 08/percy-jackson-rick- riordan.