39 Clues (Book 1): The Maze of Bones

We gave Geof (our 9-year old) a copy of the first book in the "39 clues" book-series by Scholastics publishing. He was raving about it, after hearing a representative from Scholastics gave a talk about the book-series in their school. While Geof was in school, I checked out the book.

The "Maze of Bones" was the first in the book-series (there will be 10 books in all) and is meant for those who are in the transition years (being a child to becoming a kid like Geof). I guess those who enjoyed Harry Potter would enjoy this too - although the Harry Potter book-series have a different appeal and hooks the reader from the start - this book has some of that element, but not as intense.

I find the book engaging. I only meant to read the introduction, and before I knew it, I was already in chapter 5. I had to stop myself from continuing since I still need to finish a lot of things. But a book-addict can't be stopped - interspersed with my work and research, I finished the book in 3 days.

The book chronicles the adventures of the Cahill family in their search for the '39 clues' (allegedly the key in unearthing great fortune and power), with the "bidas" (protagonists) Dan and Amy Cahill, the 10-year old and 14-year old orphans who had the least connection and resources, but had the most wits.

For those with kids who already appreciate reading pocket-book style books, this seems like a good investment - a copy costs about PhP500, and if there are 10 books in the series, you can do the math. At least the books come in installment (Geof said all 10 books will be out by 2010, after which they will make a movie.)

The innovativeness of this series is that it's not only a book but there's an interactive web-game, too. Only those who have the book are able to get the cards (embedded on the book-cover) where the codes are written. Without the codes, one cannot participate in the internet-based game/ treasure hunt.

Both Andy and myself have finished the book, and we recommend it to those with 9-14 year old kids.

(For those with kids who are just beginning to show interest in books, try the "Geronimo Stilton" books also by Scholastics - these are collections of adventures by Geronimo - a mouse - who's a newspaper publisher that gets embroiled with different kinds of problems/ adventures. The stories are simple, and the texts are interspersed with pictures/ drawings.)