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425 of 483 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Thinly-disguised advertisement for trading cards, September 11, 2008
Before I dive straight into the review, let me tell you where I'm coming from. I'm seventeen. I do realize that I'm outside of the intended age range of this book, but I read and enjoy many other children's series. Rick Riordan is one of my favorite authors, so my mother, out of the kindness of her heart, saw his name on the cover of The 39 Clues and decided to pick it up for me.
The 39 Clues is about the Cahill family. They're a big family. They're a very big family. They're so big, in fact, that every major person in history has been part of this family. I bet you never knew that Napoleon Bonaparte, Abraham Lincoln, and Benjamin Franklin were related. Oh, yeah, and they have family members all over the world, never mind that that it's impossible to have a Korean uncle, a British cousin, and a Russian...I don't even know what she is, without any of them being married/genetically related. Okay, clearly this is a work of fiction, so I'll just suspend my disbelief for a second. No problem. Let's continue. Grace Cahill, the head of the family (or so I believe, since it's never really explained), dies of cancer, and in her will she presents a challenge to all her relatives. They can either take the first of thirty-nine clues that will lead them to the source of the Cahill family's power, or they can take one million dollars and walk away.
Enter Amy and Dan Cahill. Dan is a hyperactive, eleven-year-old math genius, and Amy is a timid, fourteen-year-old bibliophile. Amy and Dan decide to take up the challenge, despite the fact that they (a have no money and (b don't have permission from their guardian. However, they're not alone. There are six other teams who want to maim, kill, humiliate, or steal from our young heroes, and they will stop at nothing to get what they want.
Sounds like a great premise, no? Lots of action, adventure, puzzles, clue-finding, and maybe you can even throw in a little history! Well...let's just say it didn't work out quite that way.
Issue #1: The book is copyrighted by Scholastic. For those of you who don't know what that means, it means that this was a work for hire. That means someone at Scholastic said, "Wow, I have this awesome idea! Now I need to hire someone to write it for me." Okay, not necessarily the kiss of death, but it's not a good omen either.
Issue #2: Every book in the series (and there are supposed to be ten) is going to be written by a different author. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's rarely a good thing either. When authors don't collaborate on a project, and instead are handed scripts, bad things happen, like plot holes, narration changes, and characters swapping gender. Trust me, not good things.
Issue #3: The plot is a mash-up of A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Mysterious Benedict Society...with all the intelligence removed. I solved all of the puzzles before they even came up. I predicted every "shocking" betrayal the moment the character said, "Let me help you." At least with A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Mysterious Benedict Society I had to think for more than two seconds to figure out the puzzles. No such luck here.
The 39 Clues also rips off plot elements from the aforementioned series. Amy and Dan's parents died in a fire that burned down their house, they were raised by an unfeeling guardian, and arson is a reoccurring theme in the book. How original. Oh, wait, A Series of Unfortunate Events did that five years ago. Amy and Dan are also unusually smart/talented in specific areas...just like the Baudelaires in A Series of Unfortunate Events and Remy, Sticky, Kate, and Constance in The Mysterious Benedict Society. Unfortunately, Amy and Dan are nowhere near as likable as the aforementioned protagonists, which leads me to...
Issue #4: I wanted Amy and Dan to die. Okay, maybe not die, but I didn't like them. In fact, I didn't like anyone in the book. Dan is utterly hyperactive, and he has less maturity than my five-year-old brother. Except when he's being all math genius-y, just about everything that comes out of his mouth is stupid. When Grace Cahill's lawyer gives him a warning about a mysterious group of people who may try to stop them, Dan jumps to the obvious conclusion--they must be ninjas. He continues this for the rest of the book. Every time Amy poses a question, he responds with the most inane answer possible, slowly driving the reader mad with his utter stupidity. Of course, maybe he's trying to be funny, but his answers would only be funny to a three-year-old with too much time on his/her hands.
Amy is so timid that at several points in the story I wanted to slap her. She's cripplingly shy and spends a great deal of time stuttering, bemoaning her inability to act in a confrontational situation, and being a push-over. Now, when I was younger I was also very shy, but I was by no means a weak person. Amy is weak, and she makes no effort to become stronger. She was not, to me, a convincing teenage girl, and instead was a cardboard character inserted to offset Dan's hyperactive personality. Dan's hyperactive, therefore Amy must be weak and timid. Riiight.
All of the characters are very two-dimensional, and none of them are likable...or even remotely interesting. The bad guys aren't scary, the good guys aren't sympathetic, and all of them are very, very boring. Plus, all the adults are either evil or unintelligent. Please excuse me while I make noises of disgust.
Issue #5: The book is not written in Rick Riordan's normal style. There is none of his signature humor, none of his wonderful characters, and none of his gripping narration. The 39 Clues seems like a stripped down, dumbed down version of Rick Riordan's real work (which, by the way, targets the same age group). There are no long words or complex sentences. There are very few descriptions. There is basically no humor. If Rick Riordan's normal books were Oscar-winning movies, The 39 Clues would be that made-for-TV movie that no one watches except for the kids unlucky enough to be sick on the day when there's nothing else on TV. There is no heart in the narration, and it really shows. Mr. Riordan, please do your fans a favor and never do something like this again. Please.
Of course, all these issues wouldn't really kill the book. Sure, they might turn off adult readers, and, sure, they might drive me crazy, but they wouldn't make the book anything less than it is: a fun book for kids who haven't read enough to know better. However, issue #6 is the real kicker. It's the reason that I'm bothering to write a review at all, instead of just shaking my head and ignoring the plot holes, irritating characters, and total lack of subtlety. You see...
Issue #6: Scholastic didn't publish the book to share Dan and Amy's story. It didn't publish it to appeal to reluctant readers. It didn't even publish it to make money off the books. The entire series is a not-so-elaborately constructed ruse to sell cards. The front of the book says, "Read the books. Play the game. Win the prizes." You see, if you go to www.the39steps.com, you too can be a long-lost member of the Cahill family. However, to break the codes (all of which are pathetically easy), find the clues (also pathetically easy), and "win over $100,000 in prizes*", you need cards. Six come in each book, but there are a total of 350 cards, and some books may contain repeats. So, of course, you gotta catch `em all and make Mom and Dad spend money to buy the card packs, hoping that you'll get that uber-rare card you need to complete your collection. Then you'll spend countless hours on the very badly constructed site, playing inane games (like an airplane flying game...which has what to do with the story?) and solving codes (which just means that you have to click on the screen until something happens).
It's not that The 39 Clues is the worst story ever written. In fact, it's average for middle school readers, even if it has completely ludicrous plot elements, irritating main characters, and less-than-intelligent puzzles and plot twists. What really riles me up, though, is that Scholastic would put such a thinly disguised piece of advertising on bookshelves. That's just not acceptable. So, spare yourself, your loved ones, your kids, your students, your library patrons, and please don't buy this book. Please. This is for the good of humanity.
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69 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing wrong with a smart marketing strategy, September 14, 2008
There's already a review that is negative about this series for being a blatant marketing scheme. While I was a bit put off at first by the whole book series/trading cards, now that we've bought the book and a few card packs, I'm a huge fan. Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series helped ignite my 10-year old son's passion for reading. He's now half-way through Maze of Bones, and thoroughly enjoying it. He's noted on the calendar the date the next book will be released. I have to admit I'm reviewing the book without having read it myself yet, but based on the number of times my son has read me excerpts, I'd say it is succeeding with the target audience.
As for the trading cards, well, 10-year old boys love trading cards - Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, and so on. These cards are different though. They have puzzles on them that the reader has to solve. They're not that tough - they seem simplistic to me as an adult - but for my son, they're challenging enough that he feels a sense of accomplishment when he solves them, but not so challenging that he's had to enlist parental help very often. The web site provides hints. We did have a problem entering one card. We sent e-mail to support and the problem was quickly fixed. I was pleased when my son noticed a clue hidden in the book. I believe the puzzles have him looking at the books much more analytically.
I'm hoping (as is Scholastic) that by including different authors in the series, my son will be encouraged to read other books by these authors as well. I see this as a win-win situation. Anything that gets kids to read is OK by me.
I think this is a brilliant marketing move on Scholastic's part. I try to teach my kids to be informed consumers, and understand when they are being manipulated. Everything is about branding and marketing in our culture, and here is a case where someone got it right, and is marketing a quality product in a very effective manner. Kudos to Scholastic for coming up with such a unique and engrossing series!
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59 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An addictive new series, September 13, 2008
I was reminded of both The Da Vinci Code and the Harry Potter books as I read Maze of Bones. First of all, it's an addictive read. Second, it is a mystery with multiple clues involving famous people, like Dan Brown's book. Last, like J.K. Rowling's famous books, it is about a group of people separated into four different branches, or houses; and about children saving the world.
The plot involves the diverse, far-flung Cahill family, which has been the most powerful family in history. Anyone important in history was probably a Cahill, including Abraham Lincoln, Isaac Newton, Winston Churchill, Napoleon Bonaparte and, especially, Benjamin Franklin. The source of the Cahill's power has been lost over time. The 39 Clues is about the search for that source, by a group of Cahill relatives vying against each other to find the answer. The clues are found all over the world.
Penniless orphans Amy and Dan Cahill enlist the help of their teenage au pair, Nellie, to find the solution to the mystery. The kids seem like real people, and you root for them against their mostly despicable relatives. Amy is a painfully shy, stuttering 14-year-old; Dan is a precocious 11-year-old who loves collecting things. Although they often fight, the siblings help each other during the many dangerous adventures collecting the clues.
Maze of Bones is the first of 10 books in this new Scholastic series, which also has an elaborate supplemental contest where readers can try to come up with the answers to the clues themselves. The book comes with six game cards that you can use to get clues online. There are 350 cards in total, so the series is also a card-collecting game for kids.
But if you just want to read Maze of Bones, it's certainly worthwhile. It's fast-paced, full of fascinating people and has an interesting mystery. I recommend it, and look forward to the second book.
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