The Kane Chronicles #1: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

This book is the first in a series, and I gave it a rating of four out of five. Brother and sister, Carter and Sadie, discover they are descendants in a long line of Egyptian magicians and pharaohs. Their father releases five gods, and the children must discover their powers and stop the gods from unleashing chaos into the world. The House of Life, an organization of mortal magicians, are fighting to keep the gods imprisoned. They see Carter and Sadie as serious threats, because Carter is partially possessed by the god Horus, and Sadie is partially possessed by the goddess Isis. The children struggle to control their own minds with these supreme beings even as they battle other magicians, giant alligators, swarms of bats, and other gods. The children meet many friends and enemies, almost all of them magical, and discover that they're never sure who they can trust.

The idea of the book is that it was created based on a tape recorded by Carter and Sadie, so the chapters were written from each of their points of view. I enjoyed how the children needed to learn about their own powers, and I thought the internal conflict of the gods in their heads was unique. The conflict and plot created a great deal of suspense, and there was quite a bit of action. The main thing that bothered me was the number of different characters introduced and the number of terms from Egyptian mythology. It might just be a pet peeve of mine, but I thought it made things a little confusing at times. However, the book is very popular among our students.