My granddaughter didn’t like to read. Eleanor is a curious, quick-minded kid who loves math, technology, and science, but she has ADHD and a form of dyslexia, so reading was a slog. Books just didn’t grab her the way the way playing Minecraft with her friends did.

That all changed when her mother, my brilliant daughter-in-law, handed her The Lightning Thief, the first book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Almost overnight, Eleanor went from reluctant to voracious reader. The more she read, the more skilled and confident she became, and now she reads easily and eagerly. It warms this word nerd's heart.

At 12, she has torn through all the Percy Jackson books and is impatiently awaiting Wrath of the Triple Goddess (coming September 2025). For the first time, she’s experiencing what it’s like to fall in love with a story and is excited to share the experience with her bookish grandma. So now I'm reading Percy Jackson, too, because she insists on it, and it's a joy to be able to talk books with my granddaughter. It's also worth noting that Riordan sure knows how to spin a tale, and I'm learning a lot about middle grade fiction by reading his work.

I've loved stories since I was a fetus and have tried to encourage the same in my granddaughters from the time they were teething on board books. Eleanor and I have made up characters, written poems, and created illustrated mini books together. One of her poems was even published in a Young Writers anthology. But nothing stoked her love of reading like the Percy Jackson books.

Eleanor is still a STEM kid through and through, but now she's a confident reader working on a book of her own (a collection of short stories). Maybe those early story sessions planted something. Maybe they helped her believe she had something worth saying and people around her who would listen. I'm convinced, though, that her transformation wouldn't have happened if a certain teenaged demi-god hadn't lit up her imagination.

I’m deeply grateful to Rick Riordan and the other writers who write for all kinds of readers and understand that the right story, told the right way, can kick down a door that once seemed closed. Maybe you're one of them.

Photo by Jaredd Craig on Unsplash