Jennifer M. (Kaydence) reviewed on + 380 more book reviews
I'm a huge fan of the 39 clues series. I found them to be interesting, educational, and move quickly enough to keep me interested even when I got super busy. Unfortunately, once they switched to the Cahills vs Vespers thing I lost interest. When I saw this and started reading some of the reviews, I got excited that I may have found my next series that would include the mix of adventure and history that I missed. I'm glad that I wasn't disappointed.
Summary:
The basics of this book is the set-up and first adventure of Wade, Lily, Darrel, Becca, and Roald. Roald (father to Wade and Darrell who are stepbrothers) end up with a mysterious note that sends them along with cousin Lily and friend Becca to find the 12 vital parts of Copernicus' astrolabe (a time-traveling device). In this first installment, the five travel from the United States to Germany and continues through international destinations. Each place gives them a small clue (that you can help figure out) to travel to the next place. The forbidden stone is the first artifact that the group finds.
My thoughts:
Overall, this gave me what I wanted. There is a lot of action with historical and scientific facts throughout. The characters are not extremely well developed, but I feel that we will get to know them better as they continue to work to solve puzzles with one another. I also really liked that the father played a significant role within this book. He is not absent while the children run off into dangerous situations. Finally, the fact that there is a lot of cooperation is really nice for a middle grades book. The relationships aren't perfect, but they don't hate each other and try to make each other miserable, especially the step brothers. I look forward to the next book in the series and hope that it doesn't drop off like 39 clues did.
Summary:
The basics of this book is the set-up and first adventure of Wade, Lily, Darrel, Becca, and Roald. Roald (father to Wade and Darrell who are stepbrothers) end up with a mysterious note that sends them along with cousin Lily and friend Becca to find the 12 vital parts of Copernicus' astrolabe (a time-traveling device). In this first installment, the five travel from the United States to Germany and continues through international destinations. Each place gives them a small clue (that you can help figure out) to travel to the next place. The forbidden stone is the first artifact that the group finds.
My thoughts:
Overall, this gave me what I wanted. There is a lot of action with historical and scientific facts throughout. The characters are not extremely well developed, but I feel that we will get to know them better as they continue to work to solve puzzles with one another. I also really liked that the father played a significant role within this book. He is not absent while the children run off into dangerous situations. Finally, the fact that there is a lot of cooperation is really nice for a middle grades book. The relationships aren't perfect, but they don't hate each other and try to make each other miserable, especially the step brothers. I look forward to the next book in the series and hope that it doesn't drop off like 39 clues did.
