Because I am dyslexic, I understand what it feels like to be invisible. Unlike some other disabilities, a person does not know whether or not someone has dyslexia just by looking at him or her. While one might assume that would make dealing with dyslexia easier, sometimes as a child I wished someone would just make me wear a sign that said, "different." People were always surprised when the teacher asked me to read out loud in class, and I would clam up. Even though I had no trouble with math, any time I had to read I just could not do it. Even without a sign, it did not take other students long to figure out that I was different. They called me stupid, and, for a time, I believed them. When I watched movies and (after much toil) read books as a child, I never saw an example of someone like me who had trouble reading but could still succeed.
             "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" was just the example I needed. In both the book and the movie, based upon it, the story's main character, Percy Jackson, deals with both being dyslexic and being the son of a Greek god. Chris Columbus' movie uses visuals to offer graphic representations of the different realities of living with dyslexia. Through these visuals, the audience of the film (hopefully children) learns that dyslexia does not make someone less than the norm; it just makes them different, and perhaps in some ways, even better than the norm.
             Just after the beginning of the story, the movie introduces the main character with a montage of him and his best friend walking through their high school hallway. As they pass a pair fighting in the hallways, Grover, Percy Jackson's friend, says, "Not exactly high school musical"(Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief). This quick joke shows the viewer that Percy Jackson's high school represents a "normal" high school, not the caricature that is often seen in mov...