I have absolutely adored all of the Rick Riordan Presents books, and I am extremely excited about the books that have been announced for the second round.

The Storm Runner series, however, has a very special place in my heart.

When I was getting my masters in theology, I was lucky to be able to take a class with Doctor Davíd Carrasco, an expert on Aztec history and mythology. (Yes, I know, Aztec, not Maya, the latter of which is the culture upon which J.C. Cervantes focuses Zane’s story. Bear with me). I’ve always been interested in mythology, but coming from the States as I do, my education had focused on the standard Roman and Greek varietals with expansion into Eastern European and Old Testament and Jewish legends at synagogue and Hebrew School, which I attended until I was 16. I majored in religion and art history in college and expanded my horizons into India, China, Japan, and the Middle East.

And yet, somehow, early Mezo and South American mythology remained footnotes until Dr. Carrasco’s class during my time at Harvard. (Yes, I went to Harvard. Go ahead, make the snob jokes, someone always does. Apparently, I’m supposed to be ashamed of working really hard and earning a spot in a relatively prestigious graduate program. Who knew?) After the class ended, I went looking for more.

Alas, there isn’t much out there beyond the typical “dictionary of gods and legends” type stuff, which is great but isn’t greatly detailed – and it isn’t stories.

And I wanted myths and legends. I wanted stories.

Some of you might be tempted to dismiss The Storm Runner books because they’re aimed at a YA audience. At one time, I may have made the same mistake, and – as I’ve learned in the past few years – it would have been a mistake because not only are they wonderful books, but both The Storm Runner and the new installment to be released by Disney-Hyperion on September 17th, The Fire Keeper, are wonderful stories.

Both novels (and an as yet untitled third) center on Zane Obispo, a teenager growing up in New Mexico with his mother, his uncle, and his dog Rosie. Zane has never quite fit in and is often picked on for his disability – one of his legs is shorter and weaker than the other and he walks with a limp, which lands him in a lot of fights and a lot of trouble at school.

Things get even stranger and more fraught when Zane finds out he’s the son of a Maya god and that he isn’t supposed to exist. The Maya gods took a sacred oath not to have any demigod children and his father broke that promise. Now that the gods know Zane is alive, they’re hunting him and don’t plan on letting him live.

Giants, deals with death gods, and nawals abound in the first installment and, in The Fire Keeper, the adventure continues when Zane, now in hiding, finds out there are other godborns who need his help. But so does his father, who’s about to be sacrificed for revenge or, if the enemies of the Maya gods have their way, an even greater evil.

I know, right?

I adore the way Cervantes weaves mythological themes and characters into her coming-of-age narrative so seamlessly. Sometimes, when authors make an attempt to do both, the reader is left with two parallel narratives about the same character that never actually come together into a cohesive whole. I also love knowing that, while reading fiction, I’m learning more about Maya mythology and history, which I’ve been trying to do since 2002 – AND that my kids are getting that education while still in elementary school. They’ll have resources I didn’t have, and they’ll have the chance to learn and think so much more widely so much earlier in their lives than I did. It’s so exciting to have them asking for books on Maya mythology from the library (yes, we’re going on a quest) for “research.”

All this and my 9-year-old son’s eyes huge and his mouth wide open after I’ve been reading out loud for an hour and come to the end of chapter and he begs, “Come on, Mom! One more? Please?”

When we were reading The Storm Runner out loud, we were also watching Avatar: The Last Airbender. My kids, as so many kids are wont to do, absorb whatever we’re reading and watching into their play and were acting out something from Avatar that involved them declaring their avatar powers. My daughter (7) shouted, “I’m an Airbender!” to which the boy responded, “Well, I’m a Storm Runner!”

And if that doesn’t convince you, nothing will.

Jamie and I interviewed Jen last year if you’d like to hear her talk about writing, mythology, and Rick Riordan Presents.