Skip to main content

The Maze of Bones

By

THE MAZE OF BONES, Book One in the 39 Clues series; Rick Riordan; New York: Scholastic, 2008. 220 fast-moving pages. Fiction

The 39 Clues series (inevitable echoes of John Buchan/Alfred Hitchcock's classic "The 39 Steps arise) should be yet another cash cow for Scholastic books. Going beyond the books themselves (by Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, and Peter Lerangis, respectively), there are clue cards for sale, an Internet link, and a grand prizes amounting to 100 grand or so. Fortunately, it's a quality product they are selling. Rick Riordan's first book is a slam bang adventure featuring Amy and Dan Cahill, a brother and sister team who compete against teams of unsavory relatives to find the Cahill treasure described in their grandmother's will. Their parents are long-gone in a car crash, so the kids are on their own except for their au pair, Nellie, who accompanies to provide the appearance of adult supervision as they chase a clue from Poor Richard's Almanac which leads them eventually to the catacombs of Paris. The puzzle is hard enough, but when you mix in the other teams trying to follow them and then do them in, you have a high-octane read for young (and especially reluctant) readers. Well done! I am looking forward to the next one.
Labels:

Comments

loo said…
This is a wonderful, exciting book for both boys and girls. I just can't wait for the next one to come out. Rick Riordan is a genius and I hope that the next author does just as well.
October 16, 2008 at 11:34 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The New Girl

By
The New Girl By Cassandra Calin New York: Graphix, 2024. Comic. 261 pages. 12-year-old Lia and her family have just moved from Romania to Montreal, and she's doing her best to keep up with the changes. But, she's homesick. She misses the rest of her family, her friends, and her favorite Romanian treats. She doesn't speak French and her English is shaky, which makes it hard to make friends, even in her international immersion class. And she's dealing with super painful menstrual cramps every month. But before long, Lia starts to hit her stride. She befriends the other bilingual girls in her class, she gets a spot as the artist for her school's magazine, and even has a new crush -- Julien. Though she may be the new girl, Lia is starting to fit in. This slice of life graphic novel is an adorable choice for middle grade readers and young teens. Lia is a likable protagonist and readers will have little difficulty relating to her adjustment to school. The text speaks to a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Five Favorite Aunt and Uncle Books

By
  Aunt and Uncle Day I discovered a new holiday. Apparently, July 26th is National Aunt and Uncle Day! In order to celebrate this day, I am sharing my five favorite middle grade books that have stellar aunts and uncles. Now, due to a lot of various circumstances, these books have a lot of hard things (death of a parent, parental neglect, and one case of good parents sending their child off to visit an uncle during summer vacation). So, be aware that these titles not only showcase some amazing aunts and uncles, but they also open the door to talk about hard topics.  Closer to Nowhere  By Ellen Hopkins  Putnam’s Sons, 2020.  This book is actually told from two different points of view—Hannah and Cal’s; however, the two protagonists are cousins. Cal comes to live with Hannah’s family and Hannah’s mom—Cal’s aunt—becomes Cal’s support and champion. Cal’s mom died and his dad is in prison. Cal is in a family foster care situation and doesn’t feel like he belongs. Hann...
Post a Comment
Read more