The Sea of Monsters

I'm reading the series with Max (8) and he loves it. I think they're okay, but I can't get over the Harry Potter connections. My problem with the Percy Jackson series isn't so much that, that it blatantly copies the format of Harry Potter, but that it doesn't do it nearly as well as the J.K. Rowling. They are undeniably similar though:

Parallels (Harry Potter / Percy Jackson):
UK / US
Witches / gods
Summer at home / school year at home
Boarding school / summer camp
Harry / Percy
Hermione / Annabeth
Ron / Grover

The same:
An evil antagonist, once dead, slowly restoring himself to power with the help of traitor gods/halfbloods/magicians
Confused teenager and his two close friends as the main characters
Main character has major issues with his parents
Gods/witches constantly hide their magical doings from humans through diversion and subtle tricks

Despite all that, the story isn't bad, the characters are actually decent, the greek god connection is sometimes fun, sometimes even educational and the writing isn't too bad.

Edit: Just found a review that better sums up the similarities between the two series than mine does: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50165597