Riordan, Rick.
THE SEA OF MONSTERS
New York : Miramax Books/Hyperion Books for Children, 2006
IL 5-8, RL 6.5
ISBN 0786856866

(2 booktalks)

Percy is looking forward to another summer at Camp Half Blood but little can he know what is in store for him this summer.  Having disturbing dreams about his friend Grover, he is sure that something is wrong.  And then his school is attacked by monsters and he learns that his new friend, Tyson is actually a cyclops.  Things are not going well at camp either.  The tree that protects the camp has been poisoned and is dying.  This does not bode well.  The only cure for Thalia's tree is the Golden Fleece!  But Percy also needs to save Grover who is being held by a giant cyclops who mistakenly thinks that Grover is a beautiful woman.  So the quest is on.

Booktalk #2

I’d made it through an entire school year without being kicked out. Until the last day of school. That’s when coach Nunley set us up to play dodge ball. What he didn’t realize was that the other team was NOT students at the school. Nope, were monsters, and they were throwing fiery metal balls at us. My new friend Tyson, however, actually caught two of them and sent them back towards their owners. Then he knocked one aside into the bleachers. 
Suddenly Annabeth appeared out of nowhere and told us to meet her outside. Of course, WE, Tyson and I, got blamed for all the destruction. I don’t think I’ll be invited back. 
We escaped and returned to Camp Half-Blood with Tyson in tow to discover that the Tree, Thalia, had been poisoned and was dying, the border was weakening, Chiron had been fired and replaced by a creep named Tantalus, and that Tyson was a Cyclops and my half-brother. Oh, and that someone had to enter the Sea of Monsters and recover the Golden Fleece to save the Camp and prevent war among the Gods.
(Sam Marsh, Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award Nominees 2009)