62 pages • 2-hour read
The Last Olympian
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During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
CHAPTERS 1-4
Reading Check
1. What is the Princess Andromeda?
2. Whose underwater palace does Percy find himself in?
3. Who is Silena Beauregard?
4. Why are the Apollo cabin and Ares cabin fighting?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Who is Charles Beckendorf? How is he killed?
2. How does Percy interpret the Prophecy he gets from the Oracle of Delphi?
Paired Resource
“A Day in the Life of the Oracle of Delphi”
- This short Ted-Ed video explores the daily tasks and responsibilities of the Delphic oracle.
- This connects to the theme of Predestination Versus Free Will.
- Why was the Oracle of Delphi so important to the Greeks? How is the oracle portrayed in Riordan’s novel?
CHAPTERS 5-8
Reading Check
1. With whose ghost has Nico been speaking?
2. What is the Door of Orpheus?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Percy go to Westport, Connecticut?
2. What is the deal Nico made with his father Hades?
3. What does the ghost of Achilles tell Percy?
Paired Resource
“Achilles”
- This student-facing resource introduces the mythology of Achilles.
- This connects to the theme of The Hero’s Journey.
- What are some parallels between the myths of Achilles and Percy’s choices and actions in the novel?
CHAPTERS 9-12
Reading Check
1. Whom does Chiron put in charge of the campers at the Empire State Building?
2. Who does Annabeth say came to see her in San Francisco?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is the vision Hestia shows Percy?
2. Why does Percy split up the campers?
3. Why is Percy able to defeat Kronos’s army so easily?
4. Why does Annabeth think the war is her fault?
CHAPTERS 13-16
Reading Check
1. Who tries to convince Percy to join Kronos?
2. Whom does Kronos interrogate?
3. What is the meaning of the Greek writing Percy saw in the sand?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Percy learn from his second vision about Luke’s past?
2. Why is Percy concerned about Annabeth’s role in the coming battle?
Paired Resource
“Pandora: Hesiod, Works and Days 53-105”
- This resource includes a translation of Hesiod’s account of the Pandora myth.
- This connects to the theme of Otherness Versus Interconnectivity.
- What is Pandora’s jar? How do you interpret this myth and why?
CHAPTERS 17-20
Reading Check
1. Who is revealed to have been Kronos’s spy?
2. Which god arrives from the Underworld to challenge Kronos?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Percy leave Pandora’s jar with Hestia?
2. Why does Ethan attack Kronos?
3. How does Annabeth beat Kronos?
4. What does Percy ask from Zeus as a reward for saving Olympus?
Paired Resource
- This article by playwright Elizabeth Robins discusses the role of evil in Greek mythology.
- This connects to the themes of The Hero’s Journey and Otherness Versus Interconnectivity.
- How was “evil” defined in ancient Greek mythology? How did gods and heroes fight against evil?
CHAPTERS 21-23
Reading Check
1. Who has taken Percy’s Pegasus Blackjack?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Rachel “dump” Percy?
Recommended Next Reads
The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
- The first novel of Riordan’s Trials of Apollo series follows a powerless version of the god Apollo, who finds himself in the body of a teenage boy after he angers Zeus and is cast out of Olympus.
- Shared themes include Predestination Versus Free Will and Interconnectivity Versus Otherness.
- Shared topics include mythology, fantasy, and self-acceptance.
- The Hidden Oracle on SuperSummary
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- The first novel of the Hunger Games trilogy follows 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen and her struggle for survival as she volunteers to fight in a televised death match in her younger sister’s place.
- Shared themes include The Hero’s Journey and Interconnectivity Versus Otherness.
- Shared topics include fantasy, sacrifice, and conflict.
- The Hunger Games on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
CHAPTERS 1-4
Reading Check
1. A cruise ship and Kronos’s headquarters (Chapter 1)
2. Poseidon’s (Chapter 2)
3. Charles’s girlfriend (Chapter 3)
4. The members of the Ares cabin believe that the Apollo cabin stole their chariot. (Chapter 4)
Short Answer
1. Charles Beckendorf is a young counselor at Camp Half-Blood. He is killed while helping Percy blow up Kronos’s headquarters on the cruise ship Princess Andromeda. (Chapter 1)
2. The Oracle of Delphi gives Percy a Prophecy that, in Percy’s interpretation, states that he must choose whether to help the Olympians. If he does not help them, Olympus will be destroyed, but if he does help them, he will die. (Chapter 3)
CHAPTERS 5-8
Reading Check
1. Charles’s ghost (Chapter 5)
2. A portal to the Underworld in Central Park (Chapter 7)
Short Answer
1. Percy goes to Westport to learn more about Luke’s childhood from his mother May Castellan, who lives there. (Chapters 5-6)
2. Nico agreed to bring Percy to Hades to talk with him in exchange for information about his mother and his past. (Chapter 7)
3. When Percy is in the Underworld, the ghost of Achilles appears and tells him that bathing in the River Styx will make him powerful but also more vulnerable. (Chapter 8)
CHAPTERS 9-12
Reading Check
1. Percy (Chapter 9)
2. Luke (Chapter 12)
Short Answer
1. When Percy comes to Mount Olympus, Hestia shows Percy a vision of Luke, Thalia, and Annabeth as children after they have run away from home. (Chapter 9)
2. Percy sees that Kronos’s army is attacking from several directions, so he splits up the campers to protect all the entrances to the city. (Chapter 10)
3. Percy’s bath in the River Styx made him more powerful, enabling him to easily defeat Kronos’s army. (Chapter 11)
4. Annabeth believes that if she had gone away with Luke, she might have been able to either change his mind or kill him. (Chapter 12)
CHAPTERS 13-16
Reading Check
1. Prometheus (Chapter 13)
2. Ethan Nakamura (Chapter 14)
3. “Perseus, you are not a hero.” (Chapter 16, Page 278)
Short Answer
1. Prometheus gives Percy another vision about Luke’s past. In it, Percy sees Luke’s first encounter with his father Hermes and realizes that Hermes knew Luke would turn evil and be overtaken by Kronos. (Chapter 13)
2. Percy is worried that Annabeth will not be able to face Luke in battle because of their history. (Chapter 15)
CHAPTERS 17-20
Reading Check
1. Silena (Chapter 17)
2. Hades (Chapter 18)
Short Answer
1. Before leaving Mount Olympus, Percy leaves Pandora’s jar with Hestia so that he will not be tempted to open it. (Chapter 17)
2. Ethan attacks Kronos after Percy convinces him that he was mistaken to follow Kronos, and that this is not what his mother Nemesis wants. (Chapter 19)
3. Annabeth connects with Luke by talking to Kronos, convincing Luke that the Prophecy is about him, not Percy, and that he alone can vanquish Kronos. Luke stabs himself in his vulnerable spot and dies, effectively killing Kronos. (Chapter 19)
4. Percy asks Zeus to have all gods recognize and claim their children by age 13, and to have the children of minor gods recognized at Camp Half-Blood. (Chapter 20)
CHAPTERS 21-23
Reading Check
1. Rachel (Chapter 21)
Short Answer
1. After Rachel decides to become the new Oracle, she tells Percy that she cannot be with him anymore, because he would be a distraction. (Chapter 22)
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