By Rick Riordan
All five Percy Jackson books in one box, a wisecracking demigod's whole war with the Greek gods, start to finish.
Percy Jackson has been kicked out of every school he ever attended. He cannot focus, he cannot sit still, and words swim on the page. Then a teacher turns into a winged monster and tries to kill him, and Percy learns the truth: he is a demigod, the son of Poseidon, and his ADHD and dyslexia are the leftovers of a brain wired for battle and ancient Greek. That is book one. This box holds all five, a single quest that grows from one stolen lightning bolt into a full war for Mount Olympus. Percy crosses America, sails a sea of monsters, walks a shifting labyrinth, and finally defends Manhattan itself, alongside Annabeth, daughter of Athena, and Grover the satyr.
A strong nine- or ten-year-old falls into book one and there are four more waiting in the same box, one long story that builds all the way to a war for Olympus. What makes it land beyond the monster fights is that Percy's ADHD and dyslexia, the things that made him feel broken at school, turn out to be his powers, and a child who has ever been the one who cannot sit still will feel that in their chest. The jokes are funny, the pace never lets up, and a whole education in Greek myth slips past while it feels like nothing but fun. After these five there is shelf upon shelf of spin-off series, so a hooked child is set for a very long time.