New trilogy by 'Percy Jackson' author due out internationally in May

A new children's book series by Rick Riordan, author of the bestselling Percy Jackson books, is due out internationally in May, announced The Bookseller on March 15. The Kane Chronicles will "do for the Egyptian gods what Percy Jackson did for the Greek gods," according to Puffin marketing director Kirsten Grant.

In the Percy Jackson series, a 12-year-old boy diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD discovers he is the son of a Greek god and is sent to Camp Half-Blood, a camp for children with a Greek god as a parent, located off Long Island. In The Kane Chronicles, siblings Carter and Sadie Kane, decendants of Egyptian magicians, will battle Egyptian gods in the modern world after the gods are accidentally unleashed by an archeologist at the British Museum.

The first book in the planned trilogy is called The Red Pyramid, due out from UK publisher Puffin in May. Disney-Hyperion Books will release the title on May 4 in the US, according to a November 2009 press release. An additional book by Riordan, the Percy Jackson spin-off Camp Half-Blood, is due out in fall 2010, according to The Bookseller and Publishers Weekly.

Rick Riordan is an American author who worked as a schoolteacher for 15 years before becoming a best-selling author. His Percy Jackson series includes five titles published between 2005 and 2009; the first, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief was made into a feature film starring Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Catherine Keener, and Uma Thurman that was released internationally in February.