Whoever thought of the concept for the 39 Clues in a Scholastic headquarters backroom was a genius. Not a literary genius, mind you. A marketing genius. Not only can Scholastic churn out books quickly using a variety of famous authors, they can sell trading cards. Tough begonias, libraries, e-readers, and used bookshops! If you want the full 39 Clues experience, you have to buy it new. But there is one method they haven't accounted for: Wikis for all your spoiler needs. Then again, it is as predictable as an hour-long TV drama, so you can probably guess them yourself anyway.To Scholastic's credit, the plot is comprehensible, if silly. Grace Cahill, the matriarch of the Cahill clan, is about to croak and swaps out her will within five minutes of expiring. Even with a lawyer at hand, wouldn't you have to process it at court or take some other time-consuming legal action to make it valid? Then again, I don't have a law degree. Cahills from all over the world are summoned to attend the funeral at her estate. She must have had some shady dealings in her backstory, because only Dan and Amy Cahill, her grandchildren, seem to like her at all. The plot begins when everyone finds out just how eccentric the will is: Take one million dollars, or give it up in exchange for a vague clue to a treasure that would make its owner the most powerful person in the world. I don't mean "give the money to charity, the government, or any other person", by the way. To get the clue, you have to burn the money like the Joker after a bank robbery. Not only that, but it's also the key to saving the world, and Amy and Dan are essential to the plan. If the world was in that much trouble, why would Grace make them solve riddles first? Why leave the fate of the world in the hands of someone who eats twenty packs of Skittles at once?Amy and Dan of course are dunces and burn the money. Through some leaps of logic, they decide to search Grace's secret library. Not only does she have a regular library, she has a library you have to access via secret passage. It is filled with Cahill artifacts, since every important person of the last five centuries was a Cahill. There are also four Cahill branches based on personality traits. Lucian, the branch of cunning and intellect, even has a snake symbol. Does this sound familiar? If you're not a Cahill in that world, you're dirt. Nobody can achieve things by their own merits, only through the right bloodline. ;) The mansion is burned by rival Cahills to "slow down" Amy and Dan, destroying millions of dollars of value in exchange for getting slightly ahead in a race for a prize of dubious value. The clues lead them to travel the world with their nanny Nellie Gómez, who conveniently knows French for getting around Paris. Not convenient enough to take her with them when there's an ominous message in French that they can't read. Every time they find a clue, someone steals it from Amy and Dan immediately. Did all the Cahills synchronize their watches and itineraries?Not much needs to be said about the characters, because they're all stereotypes you've seen ten thousand times before. The only character I sympathize with is the nanny, because she's being roped into dangerous situations that she doesn't understand or want to be involved in. Unfortunately, she comes around to Dan and Amy's plans at the end. On a positive note, you may learn something here. Each book focuses on a historical figure and their accomplishments. Just take the Cahill stuff with a grain of salt. I even learned what an "au pair" was! From a schlocky kid's conspiracy thriller! (It's one of those weird cases where the protagonists are in the conspiracy; the Cahills would be villains in any other story)I had fun snarking it at least. :)EDIT:Whoops, I forgot to add quotes and bonus snark to go with them! Some of these could make the Lyttle Lytton contest:"She was about to set in motion events that might cause the end of civilization."-That sort of line is fit only for the dust jacket of an airport technothriller."His nose was pointed like a sundial so it always cast a shadow over one side of his face.""He reminded Dan of a vulture"-In case you didn't know William McIntyre was evil."Don't worry', the man promised. 'They'll never have a clue".-The least subtle title reference I've seen in a while. At least "clue" wasn't in italics."Now, girls', Eisenhower said. 'We can't go flinging people at a funeral. This is a happy occasion!"-I think Grace was really a villain if everyone except the main characters hated her."She preferred a steel-gray winter in St. Petersburg, a much better climate for espionage".-Irina has been watching way too many James Bond movies. Any climate where people expose sensitive information to you is good for espionage."Thankfully, it wasn't another fart essay."-You'll never see a line like this in any other context."What?' Jonah said. 'She's not a Cahill. I'm not talking to her."-The only people who buy his albums are Cahills too. They make up about two-thirds of the world's population, so this is a sounder business model than you might think."What a stupid move,' he murmured to his opponent. 'I thought computers were supposed to be smart".-Ian Kabra never caught onto his sister's prank of switching Chess Titans to the lowest difficulty.The drinking game for 39 Clues is whenever the narration refers to Dan or Amy as "annoying". The Maze of Bones, the 1st book of the series of The 39 Clues. The 1st book introduces us to the characters, and 39 deadly clues that might lead you to become one of the greatest person in the world. Amy and Dan Cahill, are the 2 main characters, although they are kids at the age of no older than 16, they decided to follow the clues that their grandmother left behind when she died. On this journey, they travelled with a Nanny, since their parents left them when they were young. Follow these clues are so important for Amy and Dan, they though that this clues finding was what their parents wanted them to do, so as their grandmother. Death awaits them as they are going on this journey, there were moments Dan, and Amy could die already. I really like this book, for those who love adventure, mystery story, you might want to check this book out because it is awesome!
What do You think about The Maze Of Bones (2008)?
While this is a good start to a series, it most definitely wasn't enough to keep me interested. Putting the fate of the world in the hands of a 14 year old and 11 year old with no special superpowers or any idea what is going on isn't exactly a bright idea. I also wanted to shake the crap out of Dan most of the novel. It was infuriating that the only black character in the book (Jonah) was a rapper...of all things (note the sarcasm). I don't think I'll be continuing this one, but at least I'll know what the kids are asking me about when they come into the bookstore.
—nat
I finished this book fairly quickly. Of course I am an adult reading a children's book. The book did flow well but thr story line is slightly hard to believe. How do 2 children manage to escape all these perilous events? How do they convince a babysitter to go with them on so little information? If the ages of the children had even just been raised to 15-17 years it would have been so much more believable. The way it stands good easy read but a little too far fetched.
—bridge
As far as adventure books for middleschoolers, this is pretty entertaining and educational.
—sherrydsza
Like a kids version of the Sigma force books. Great action and intrigue.
—Teanna147
What's with all the haters?! Fantastic book!!!
—Alya
