Today's Read and Giveaway: The Trials of Apollo: Book One by Rick Riordan

Imagine you are an all-powerful Greek god. You fly across the sky in your chariot, warming the earth with the sun. You drink wine, you play music, and you are immortal. Now think how you would feel if you were suddenly a regular human, stripped of your godliness. Poor Apollo is about to find out--firsthand.

My name is Apollo. I used to be a god.

In my four thousand six hundred and twelve years, I have done many things. I inflicted a plague on the Greeks who besieged Troy. I blessed Babe Ruth with three home runs in game four of the 1926 World Series. I visited my wrath upon Britney Spears at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards.

But in all my immortal life, I never before crash-landed in a Dumpster.

—The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan (Disney-Hyperion, 2016, p. 1)

Quick Facts

• Setting: modern times, New York City, Camp Half-Blood, and beyond
• Circumstances: Apollo, god of the sun, renown musician and archer, guardian of the Oracle at Delphi, is on the outs with his father, Zeus. As punishment, Apollo is transformed into a teenage boy, without any godly powers. If he has any hope of surviving and getting back in his father's good graces, he'll need a little help from his friends, especially from Percy Jackson.
• Genre & audience: middle grade fantasy with deep roots in mythology.
• Characters: Apollo, the god turned boy; Percy Jackson, a demi-god and son of Poseidon; Meg McCaffrey, a demi-god who befriends Apollow but who also needs help; familiar characters from the Percy Jackson universe and new people, gods, and creatures
• Thoughts: There are no ARCs (at least not for me), so I don't know much about the book. But if the excerpt is anything to go on, The Trials of Apollo promises to be full of Riordan magic.
• If you need more: You can download a very fun activity kit; follow Rick Riordan on Twitter; and search your social media sites for #TrialsofApollo (the official hashtag). 

The Giveaway

To celebrate today's publication of The Trials of Apollo, Disney-Hyperion is releasing five special editions, each with a unique extra, available only at specific retailers (see the scan; click to enlarge). The special inserts are a letter from Apollo to Zeus, an illustrated map, a bumper sticker; a bookmark, and a poster. Each is available only at the indicated store.

Thanks to Disney-Hyperion I can offer one of my readers (with a USA mailing address) a copy of one of these special editions. All you have to do to be entered for a chance to win is to fill out the following form. I'll pick a winner via a random number generator on May 16. Once the winner has been confirmed and his or her address has been passed along to the publisher, I'll delete all personal information from my computer. Which exclusive edition the winner will receive is a surprise! Good luck!