The Code Busters Club Series, by Penny Warner | Book Series Spotlight

The Children’s Book Review | October 19, 2014

About the Books

The Code Busters Club, Case #1: The Secret of the Skeleton Key

By Penny Warner

Cody, Quinn, Luke, and M.E. may be really different, but they all share one thing in common: they love playing around with codes. In fact, they love codes so much, they have their own private club, with a super-secret hideout and passwords that change every single day.

When Cody and Quinn notice what could be a code on the window of a nearby house, the one owned by their strange neighbor, the guy they call Skeleton Man, the club gets to work. And it is a cry for help!

Now the Code Busters are on the case—and nothing will stop them from solving the mystery and finding the secret treasure that seems to be the cause of it all!

This exciting interactive mystery offers more than fifteen codes for you to decipher, including the Consonant code, Morse code, and American Sign Language. Test your brain with the Code Busters and solve the mystery along with them. Answers are in the back, if you ever get stuck.

2011 Agatha Award Nominee

Ages 8-12 | Publisher: Egmont USA | Oct. 9, 2012 | ISBN-13: 978-1-60684-390-1

The Code Busters Club, Case #2: The Haunted Lighthouse

By Penny Warner

When Cody, Quinn, M.E., and Luke receive a cryptic message directing them to Alcatraz Island, the promise of a new adventure, and possible treasure, sets them on the trail to the famous prison to solve a decades-old mystery involving the Alcatraz lighthouse, a jewel thief, and his fabled missing haul. If the Code Busters can unravel the secret of Diamond Dave’s biggest theft, they could be in for a fortune!

Winner of the 2012 Agatha Award

Ages 8-12 | Publisher: Egmont USA | Oct. 8, 2013 | ISBN-13: 978-1-60684-455-7

The Code Busters Club, Case #3: The Mystery of the Pirate’s Treasure

By Penny Warner

A fun interactive mystery with a hunt for pirate treasure. Crack codes along with the multicultural cast of characters. Common Core and STEM connections make for easy classroom use.

Cody, Quinn, Luke, and M.E. are the Code Busters–clever clue hunters with a passion for puzzles. On a class trip to the Carmel Mission and the nearby Mission Trail Nature Preserve, the Code Busters learn about California’s only known
pirate and his missing plunder. Now they’re tracking a new prize: pirate gold! But with a fortune at stake, the codes are bound to be hard.

Will the Code Busters be able to follow mysterious maps and figure out the tricky riddles along the way, or will this mystery be too difficult for the friends to solve?

This interactive mystery features more than fifteen codes and puzzles for you to decipher along with the Code Busters, including the Orienteering code, Morse code, and the Trail Signs code. Answers are in the back, if you ever get stuck.

2014 Agatha Award Nominee and 2014 Anthony Award Nominee

Ages 8-12 | Publisher: Egmont USA | Aug. 5, 2014 | ISBN-13: 978-1-60684-517-2

The Code Busters Club, Case #4: The Mummy’s Curse

By Penny Warner

Egyptian secrets take center stage in this interactive mystery where boys and girls can solve codes and puzzles right along with the multicultural cast of characters.

Cody, Quinn, Luke, and M.E. love playing around with codes. In fact, they love codes so much they have their own club, with a secret hideout and passwords that change every day.

After learning about steganography, the study of concealed writing, the Code Busters discover that artists have been hiding secret messages in their artwork for centuries.

A clue hunt on a class trip to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum leads the Code Busters to an artifact that doesn’t seem to quite fit with the rest of the collection. Could it be a forgery? The Code Busters code-cracking skills and new knowledge of hieroglyphic messages will help them get to the bottom of this mystery, but they better think fast before the criminal tries to frame them!

Ages 8-12 | Publisher: Egmont USA | Oct. 14, 2014 | ISBN-13: 978-1-60684-459-5

About the Author

Penny Warner’s first book in the Code Busters Club series, The Secret of the Skeleton Key, was nominated for the Agatha Award for Best Children’s/Young Adult novel, and the follow-up, The Haunted Lighthouse, won the award the next year. She has also won both the Agatha Award and Anthony Award for her novel The Mystery of the Haunted Caves. Her books have received excellent reviews and have been printed in fourteen countries throughout the world.

Warner lives in Danville, California. You may visit her online at www.pennywarner.com, and brush up on your sleuthing skills at www.CodeBustersClub.com. The author lives in Danville, CA.