The Children’s Book Review | October 6, 2009
Written by Rick Riordan
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 220 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1st edition (September 9, 2008)
What to expect: Mystery, Action, Suspense, Babysitter, Brothers and Sisters, Family, Orphans
Calling all reluctant readers! Action, mystery, suspense, and orphans, all mixed into a well-balanced, fast read. Not to mention the interactive website and collectible clue cards. Maze of Bones is the first book of a ten-book series written by ten different well-known authors. Rick Riordan (author of The Lightning Thief) has set the pace well, creating a suspenseful adventure and scattering it with secretive clues. Riordan has outlined the rest of the series, but it will be completed by the 9 other authors.
Amy and Dan Cahill, sister and brother, are orphans who have found themselves in a 39 clue hunt for the power to change the world. Their competitors … vanity struck, greed-driven, family members who all happen to be distant relatives of Benjamin Franklin. What happens when the people you are supposed to turn to for help could be working against you? As far as siblings go, they have a pretty good relationship considering their unique personalities, so, at least they have each other and their uber-cool au-pair (a nose pierced-iPod-using-linguist). Collecting all 39 clues will lead to the fortune, along the way, Amy and Dan will also learn about their parents while traveling the world and learning some interesting historical facts. A witty and exciting read with interesting characters, which ends with a big question mark. Fun stuff!
Publisher’s synopsis: Minutes before she died Grace Cahill changed her will, leaving her descendants an impossible decision: “You have a choice – one million dollars or a clue.”
Grace is the last matriarch of the Ca hills, the world’s most powerful family. Everyone from Napoleon to Houdini is related to the Cahills, yet the source of the family power is lost. 39 clues hidden around the world will reveal the family’s secret, but no one has been able to assemble them. Now the clues race is on, and young Amy and Dan must decide what’s important: hunting
clues or uncovering what REALLY happened to their parents.
The 39 Clues is Scholastic’s groundbreaking new series, spanning10 adrenaline-charged books, 350 trading cards, and an on-line game where readers play a part in the story and compete for over $100,000 in prizes.
The 39 Clues books set the story, and the cards, website, and game allow kids to participate in it. Kids visit the website – the39clues.com – and discover they are lost members of the Cahill family. They set up on-line accounts where they can compete against other kids and against Cahill characters to find all 39 clues. Through the website, kids can track their points and clues, manage their card collections, dig through the Cahill archives for secrets, and “travel” the world to collect Cahill artifacts, interview characters, and hunt down clues. Collecting cards helps: Each card is a piece of evidence containing information on a Cahill, a clue, or a family secret.
Every kid is a winner – we’ll give away prizes through the books, the website, and the cards, including a grand prize of $10,000!
Add this book to your collection: The 39 Clues: Book One: Maze of Bones
Visit the website: www.the39clues.com
Have you or your children been reading and playing along? Let us know what you think, leave a comment below.