The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

Book Jacket

Find the 39 Clues.  What would happen if you discovered that your family was one of the most powerful in human history?  What if you were told that the source of the family's power was hidden around the world, if the form of 39 Clues?  What if you were given a choice--take a million dollars and walk away...or get the first Clue?  If you're Amy and Dan Cahill, you take the Clue--and begin a very dangerous race.

Review

This series (The 39 Clues) was recommended to me by one of the kids in our Monday Book Talk.  I listened to the audiobook over the course of a week, and while I loved Riordan's trademark adventure with hilarity, I think I'm a little too old for the series?  Wow, I never thought I'd say that.

The thing is, I can believe 11-year-olds fighting monsters and saving the world when they are demigods.  But just regular old kids?  Dan and Amy are a little too awesome.  Not to mention their pre-teen relatives, who have no problem attempting to kill their cousins.  What kind of family is this!?  Maybe that is part of the plot, since their family apparently secretly rules the world.  I keep expecting to be disappointed there, though.  Is the end going to be that the Cahills are really just...the entire human race?  Is their secret to being awesome that...I dunno, they have imagination?  Or that the process of getting to the final Clue has made them world travelers and world changers?

I just don't see how the end can live up to the set up.  But maybe it will!

Despite all this complaining, it was a very entertaining book.  Riordan captures kids very well (aside from the aforementioned superhuman abilities), and he frequently makes me laugh.  The puzzles were interesting.  The danger sometimes felt very real.  And I am always a fan of books that take me all over the world, so big points there.

Three out of five catacombs.

Release Date: September 2008
Reading Level: Grade 3+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection: J39C