by Iris Williams

In early 2010, I decided to pick up Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thiefafter seeing the movie with my sister. I had actually started it before seeing the movie and then put it down again. The second time around I finished the book quickly and continued on through the series. (I decided then and there that the movie could be ignored.) After finishing the Percy Jackson series, I felt confident enough to begin reading larger books. Whole worlds were opened up to me because I started reading more.

My delight continued when Rick Riordan published the first book in a new series about a new mythology. The Kane Chronicleswas the next book series I obsessed over. This series is especially impactful because I got to meet Rick Riordan while he was on tour for the second book in the series, The Throne of Fire. By this time, he had already written the first book in the Heroes of Olympusseries and I was impatiently waiting for the second book to be released. One of the best moments of my life and one that I will always remember is when Riordan looked at me and said, “Oh! Your name is Iris? You have a big part in the next book!” I was too busy fangirling to say much, but I always remembered that. And he was right; Iris, the goddess of rainbows, did have a big part in the next book. I did have to wait several months for it to be published, but it was worth it because while I was reading it, all I could think about were his words to me.

Not only did his books open me up to the world of reading, but they also helped me learn some things about myself. Throughout my life, I have always struggled with who I was. I projected certain personas wherever I was. I felt like I had to be a certain person to impress the people around me. It dawned on me that none of that mattered while I was watching an interview of Riordan when he said something very profound. He was talking about his son, Haley, and how he helped him fit in. The advice given did not actually advise people to fit in. He simply said, “It’s not a bad thing to be different.” For me, I was always singled out as “the smart one” or “the nerdy one”. I did not realize that it was OK just to be me. I found myself inside of Riordan’s books.

“Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.” With these words, Rick Riordan started the process of reshaping young adult literature and representation in it. All of his books shed a spotlight on one or more unconventional attributes in his characters. Some of his books highlight ADHD and dyslexia, while others feature characters who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community. His newest endeavor, Rick Riordan Presents, an imprint of Disney Hyperion, is showcasing overlooked cultures and mythologies. However, when he started telling the story of a twelve-year-old kid who had dyslexia and ADHD fourteen years ago, becoming a world-renowned author was the farthest thing from his mind.

Rick Riordan was originally from Texas but now resides in Boston. He came up with the idea for Percy Jackson and the Olympiansthanks to Haley, his son. Haley used to ask about Greek mythology and Riordan eventually ran out of myths to tell as bedtime stories. This is where Percy Jackson came in. Riordan made up Percy on the spot. His son pushed him to write Percy’s story down as a book. It took Riordan a year to finish the work that would eventually become The Lighting Thief.

Since June of 2005, Riordan has published over twenty books in what is now called the Riordanverse. These books span several different series and three different mythologies. Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, and The Trials of Apollo all relate to Greek or Roman mythology. The Kane Chronicles portray Egyptian mythology while Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgardrevolves around Norse mythology.

Each of Riordan’s series hosts a number of diverse characters. In Percy Jackson,readers are introduced to characters who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, people with different religions, and people who have ADHD and dyslexia. There are also friendly monsters and other mythical creatures that help Percy and his friends on quests. Magnus Chase and The Kane Chronicle host such characters as well.

Riordan spent time researching the different types of characters that appear in his universe. As more books came out, so did his characters. In The Titan’s Curse, Nico di Angelo, a son of Hades, is introduced. Five books later, readers find out that he is gay. At the conclusion of The Heroes of Olympus series, Nico is in his own relationship with a character named Will Solace, a son of Apollo. Magnus Chase, one of the main characters, discovers that he is a part of the LGBTQ+ community over the course of the series. Magnus’s discovery begins with the introduction of his love interest, Alex Fierro, a genderfluid child of Loki who has Mexican heritage. This was Riordan’s first time placing an LGBTQ+ character as the lead in a series.

Magnus Chasealso centers on a character who is Muslim. Samirah al-Abbas is a demigod daughter of Loki. She is Arab-American and actively practices her religion throughout the series. She wears a magical hijab that allows her to camouflage anything that she places it over. She is also a Valkyrie, one of Odin’s chosen warriors.  When she finds out who her father is, she must come to terms with both her religious side and her magical side. Sam explains all of this to Magnus so that readers can gain understanding.

The Kane Chroniclescenters around a pair of biracial siblings. They look nothing alike, and many characters throughout the book series find it hard to believe they are related. In the Heroes of Olympus series, Hazel, a daughter of Pluto who was lost in time and originally from the 1940s, struggled to accept that it was a normal occurrence for people of different races to be in a relationship. Frank, a son of Mars and her eventual boyfriend, helped her through the stigma. Frank is Chinese-Canadian while Hazel is Cajun and African-American. Reyna, a daughter of Bellona who holds a position of power and prestige, is Latina. Riordan continues this pattern throughout his books. He is open to diversity and actively works to make have his books include more dicersity. “I have made a conscious effort to expand on the representation in my books because I want all kinds of kids to find themselves in these stories and know that they too can be heroes,” said Riordan in a Books-A-Million interview in April 2017.

Something very close to Riordan is that most of his Greek and Roman characters have dyslexia and/or ADHD. His son had to deal with dyslexia and wanted to know why there were not more characters like him in books. Riordan had a solution to this. Demigods have dyslexia because their brains are hardwired to read and understand either Greek or Latin. They have ADHD so that they can survive in the extremely fast pace of a battle. Riordan felt that kids of all kinds should be able to find a character whom they can relate to. “Seeing himself in the story as Percy, seeing somebody like him who could do amazing things – that meant a lot to my son. That’s what representation is all about,” stated Riordan in a June 2018 interview with Just Love.

Many fans constantly ask him to write about more mythologies. He jokingly says that one man cannot possibly write about all of the mythologies in the world. His solution to this dilemma was to create an imprint that would allow him to partner with authors who are already writing about different mythologies. This new imprint, called Rick Riordan Presents, has so far released books about Mayan, Korean, Cuban, and Hindu mythologies. This was his solution to bringing more mythology to the public without having to research and write all these books himself.

Often times, his books are labeled “the Harry Potter of this generation”. He has managed to do what few other authors could do. He, like J. K. Rowling, has captured the imagination of a generation. His books have set their own standard of how to diversify characters. He also manages to keep a balance between diversity and relatability. Fans of his books have said again and again that the characters are very relatable. Of course, none of his fans have godly parents or magical powers, but the characters do experience things in their lives that real people do. Some of them have to deal with dyslexia or ADHD, while others are struggling to come to terms with their sexuality.

These books really changed my life and how I choose to view the world. I stopped focusing on trying to make myself into what society thinks is “normal”. All of Riordan’s characters have to make this journey themselves. They come to realize that they are not normal and that it is ok to embrace it. He uses diversity as a tool of empowerment rather than ignoring it. His celebration of characters that are not “normal” is one of the best things that has come out of young adult literature in a very long time. Harry Potterwill still be many people’s first love, but there is a special kind of author that can make a twelve-year-old kid seem normal in a world where everyone thinks he isn’t.

Riordan will always be my favorite author (if I had to pick one) because of his representation and his engaging writing style. If I had started with Harry Potter, that could have been my favorite series but I picked up Percy Jacksonfirst. Riordan truly is the J. K. Rowling for a new generation. His books are meant for middle and high school readers, but I have met many adults who say they can find themselves in the stories as well. His books are so influential that they have become beloved stories for people of all ages. Riordan is still writing and I believe that he will continue to be an advocate for representation in books and he will continue to inspire the next generation of young readers.