Rick Riordan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rick Riordan
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Riordan in 2018
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| Born | Richard Russell Riordan Jr. June 5, 1964 San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Alma mater | University of Texas at San Antonio |
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| Years active | 1997–present |
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| Spouse |
Rebecca Klahn
(m. 1985) |
| Children | 2 |
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Rick Riordan (born June 5, 1964) is a famous American author. He is best known for his exciting fantasy books, especially the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles series. This series includes the popular Percy Jackson & the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, and The Trials of Apollo books.
Riordan's books are loved by many and have been translated into 42 different languages. Over 30 million copies have been sold in the United States alone! His Percy Jackson series has even been turned into a TV show on Disney+, which started in 2023. Rick Riordan helped create this show and is an executive producer. He has won two Emmy Awards for his work on the TV series. Besides the TV show, his books have also inspired graphic novels and short story collections.
Rick Riordan's first full novel was Big Red Tequila. But his big success came with The Lightning Thief in 2005. This was the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It tells the story of modern-day kids who discover they are connected to Greek mythology. Since then, Riordan has written more series based on different mythologies. These include The Heroes of Olympus (a sequel to Percy Jackson), The Kane Chronicles (about Egyptian mythology), and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard (about Norse mythology). He also helped create The 39 Clues series and wrote its first book, The Maze of Bones. In 2021, he published Daughter of the Deep, and in 2023, he co-wrote The Sun and the Star.
Rick Riordan's Life and Writing Journey
Rick Riordan grew up in San Antonio, Texas. He went to Alamo Heights High School. At first, he wanted to be a guitarist and studied music. Later, he changed his mind and studied English and History at the University of Texas at Austin. He then became a teacher, teaching English and Social Studies for eight years in San Francisco.
Rick married Becky Klahn in 1985. They have two sons, Haley and Patrick. In 2013, they moved to Boston.
How Percy Jackson Began
Rick Riordan got the idea for the Percy Jackson series from bedtime stories he told his son, Haley. Haley loved hearing about ancient Greek heroes. Haley was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. This inspired Riordan to make the main character, Percy Jackson, also have ADHD and dyslexia. Riordan published The Lightning Thief in 2005. Four more books followed, ending with The Last Olympian in 2009.
Before Percy Jackson, Riordan wrote a mystery series for adults called Tres Navarre. This series won several awards, like the Shamus Award and Edgar Award.
Expanding the Mythological World
The Percy Jackson & the Olympians series is about a twelve-year-old boy who finds out he is the son of the Greek god Poseidon. After the huge success of Percy Jackson, Riordan created The Kane Chronicles. This series features two siblings, Sadie and Carter Kane, who discover they are connected to Egyptian mythology. Riordan also wrote a sequel series to Percy Jackson called The Heroes of Olympus.
Riordan also helped create the popular children's book series The 39 Clues. He wrote some of the books in this series, including The Maze of Bones. This book became a number one best-seller on The New York Times list in 2008. He also wrote the introduction for a classic book called Tales of the Greek Heroes, which he said helped inspire him to write his own Greek mythology series.
Rick Riordan and the Disney+ Show
In 2022, Rick Riordan helped write the first episode for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series on Disney+. He is also an executive producer for the show. Disney bought Fox in 2019, which allowed them to make the TV show. Riordan won an Emmy Award as an executive producer when the show's first season won for Outstanding Young Teen Series. He won a second Emmy as a writer for the pilot episode.
Mythology in Rick Riordan's Books
Rick Riordan's books for kids are all about adapting mythology for modern readers. He uses Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse myths in his different book series. While he adds his own unique twists, his stories are largely based on real myths. He often shows how gods and humans interact and uses English versions of mythological names.
Here are his main series and the mythologies they use:
- Greco-Roman mythology: These series are part of the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles.
- Percy Jackson & the Olympians
- The Heroes of Olympus
- The Trials of Apollo
- The Nico di Angelo Adventures
- Egyptian mythology: The Kane Chronicles
- Norse mythology: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard
Riordan has mentioned in interviews that his love for mythology started when he was a child. He read many books about Norse mythology and classics like The Iliad and The Odyssey. He also credits Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green for inspiring his Greek mythology series. For checking facts, he uses modern sources like The Theoi Project.
Rick Riordan's Awards
Rick Riordan has won many awards for his books. He has been the Goodreads Choice Award champion since 2020. He won the Goodreads Choice Award in the Middle Grade and Children's category every year from 2011 to 2021, collecting 11 awards in total.
Some of his notable awards include:
- In 1998, he won the Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel for Big Red Tequila.
- In 2008, The Lightning Thief won the Mark Twain Award.
- In 2011, The Red Pyramid won the Children's Choice Book Award for 5th–6th Grade Book of the Year.
- In 2017, The Hammer of Thor won the Stonewall Book Award for Children's Literature.
- In 2024, The Chalice of the Gods won the Geffen Award for Best Young Adult Book.
- In 2025, the Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series won two Children's and Family Emmy Awards: Outstanding Young Teen Series and Outstanding Writing for a Young Teen Series for its pilot episode.
Rick Riordan Presents
In 2016, Disney announced a new book series called "Rick Riordan Presents". This series started in 2018. Rick Riordan's editor, Stephanie Owens Lurie, leads this project.
Rick Riordan's role in "Rick Riordan Presents" is like a curator. This means he doesn't write the books himself. Instead, he helps find and recommend other great authors who write about different mythologies. The goal is to highlight "diverse, mythology-based fiction by new, emerging, and under-represented authors." This way, fans of Riordan's books can discover new stories and authors who explore different mythologies.
See also
In Spanish: Rick Riordan para niños
