When Disney Publishing first told me they wanted to do a Percy Jackson coloring book, I thought, Uh, why? Nothing against coloring, mind you. I used to let my students color pictures of Greek art while they listened to Greek myths. For some kids, it’s a helpful way of focusing, and it’s fun. I just didn’t understand how you could turn Percy’s story into a coloring experience.

Now that I have actually seen the page proofs for the coloring book, I get it. This is going to be AWESOME! The coloring book tells the entire story from the Lightning Thief in beautiful line art. It’s worth getting even if you never break out the crayons or colored pencils. I was blown away by the quality of the depictions!

The book comes out Aug. 15 of this year, in honor of Percy’s birthday (which is actually the 18th, but books always come out on Tuesdays, for reasons I don’t pretend to know, and the 15th is the closest Tuesday). To give you a sneak peek at what you’ll be getting, here is the scene with Percy fighting Ares!