Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters hit theaters last Wednesday. I personally enjoyed the movie, but being an avid fan of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians books, I could not watch the movie without noticing differences between the movie and the books.

1) Grover did not go searching for Pan

In The Lightning Thief, Grover earns his searchers license when he, Percy, and Annabeth successfully complete their quest to find Zeus’ lightning bolt. At the beginning of the Sea of Monsters book, Grover is on Polyphemus’ island, and is able to communicate with Percy through dreams because of their empathy link. In the movie, Grover sneaks out of camp on the quest with Annabeth, Percy, and Tyson and is abducted by Luke’s minions, and sent to the cyclops’ island.

2) Chiron is not fired from Camp Half-Blood

Chiron, our favorite centaur, is fired from his position at Camp Half-Blood at the beginning of Sea of Monsters because he is believed to be assisting his father, Kronos, by poisoning Thalia’s tree. Therefore Tantalus, Chiron’s replacement, was not in the movie, which I was personally okay with.

3) Percy meets Hermes in the UPS shop

This is one of the changes I enjoyed. Instead of Percy meeting Hermes on the beach, Percy and his friends find Hermes (who was totally awesome) at the UPS or OPS store. I am sure the book fans were happy about George and Martha’s appearance in the movie.

4) The Party Ponies

I have to say my favorite part of the book was when Chiron showed up to save Percy with his centaur friends, the “Party Ponies.” Although this was not a huge event in the book, I still would have enjoyed to have seen it in the movie. With Chiron still working at Camp Half-Blood, it was not really possible.

5) The Golden Fleece being used for people other than Thalia

The Golden Fleece, in the book, was taken back to Camp Half-Blood immediately by Clarisse. In the movie, the fleece is stolen by Luke and used to momentarily resurrect Kronos, but Percy takes the fleece and defeats Kronos (for now). Also the fleece is used to save Annabeth when she is poisoned by one of Luke’s monsters.

6) The hyrdra, the Sirens, and CC’s Spa and Resort

These were not major plot points in the Sea of Monsters book, but I would have liked to see Annabeth’s dream of saving Luke and rebuilding New York City and Percy being turned into a guinea pig. The hydra was not a huge deal because the monster made it’s way into the first movie instead. They did include Circe by naming the amusement park on the cyclops island (another minor, but interesting change) Circeland.

These are just some of the differences I noticed while watching Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. I am looking forward to reading the book-to-movie changes you saw in the comments!