Tuesday, December 09, 2008

The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues Book 1) by Rick Riordan

Grace Cahill dies and leaves her relatives a choice—take a million dollars or a get a clue to the family secret. It turns out that the Cahill family is the most powerful family in world history but they have lost the source of their power and there are 39 clues that need to be found. The main characters are orphans named Dan and Amy, and they are competing against several other nasty groups of distant Cahill relatives who choose the clue. The first clue is pretty vague but leads them to researching Ben Franklin. First they go to Philadelphia then they end up in Paris. The competitors are cutthroat and there are fires and explosions that threaten to kill Dan and Amy. This book reminded me of The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure because of the complex historical clues that send the characters to some pretty amazing places. I thought I would love this book but I really didn't. Some of the supporting characters were stereotypical and completely unbelievable and I thought that no real kid in the world could ever have figured out the complex clues that Dan and Amy solve. If you can get past my complaints it is a story with lots of action and history. I'm sure lots of kids will love it and enjoy playing the online game that goes along with it. It has received great reviews and Rick Riordan is a good author, so read the book and convince me I'm wrong!

3 comments:

Ms. Yingling said...

You are absolutely correct. It was okay, reminded me of National Treasure, but I am intrigued that the series will have books by some of my favorite authors. That is also part of the problem-- they were probably told a bit what to include. Still,students do like it, and it won't hurt them.

Nameless said...

I don't think that The 39 clues will be the next Harry potter, but there still is that possibility. I only have red the first 2 but they are action packed and full of suspense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

calebofva said...

i know when u look at this comment u think woah thats way to long and i know it is but please read all of it!!!!anyways...ive read all the books so far in the 39 clues seires and heres my ratings for each of the books.....

1~5 stars
2~3 stars
3~4 stars
4~5 stars
5~5 stars
6~5 stars
7~5 stars
book 1 was great!!!!!! not like any other book!!!!! very good ideas!!!
book 2 was disipointing...hard to follow,not interesting,but i guess it had an okay ending...book 3 got a bit better but i think it still moved way to fast!!!!!!but book 4 was totally diffirent!!!!!it still moved a tiny bit fast...but i guess thats what u get with a book that has a ton of action in it but with very few pages... book 5 was great and full of suprises... i think in this book they slowed down a bit... but in book six they sped back up... but for some reason i still liked it!!!!!!in fact, its my favorite book yet!!!!!!!CAUTION!!!!!IF U HAVE NOT READ THE 6TH BOOK YET DO NOT READ ANY FARTHER!!!!!!i mean irina dying was a HUGE suprise!!!!!! i never would have guessed she was good enough to sacrifice herself... although it was a bit sad that she had to go... she was a cool character...the 7th book was cool... although it kinda seemed a bit obvius that they were gonna be madrigals...they dont fit in any one catigorie together!!!!!! and they have to be in the same catigorie if theyre brother and sister... i was actully gonna give this book a 4 star because it had some of the same qualities as the second book... but unlike the second book they ended up explaining everything in the end. for instance...they didnt really make it clear that they were going to the cooridents in the code when they were going to the tomas stronghold.but once they were inside for awhle they explained. that was alright with me.but for some 8,9,and 10 year old readers of these books(im eleven) might be discouraged by all theyre confusion and quit the book!!!!!!!but the 7th book was good, ill admit it...about the 8th upcoming book...i hope gorden kormen has learned his lesson about explaining what hes writing but i think its almost impossible to write a bad book in the position of a book hes supposed to write.