Book series: 39 Clues ... tell me about it

[plain jane]

What ages would you say this series is aimed for? What other books would you compare it to?

 

I've seen the books here and there at yard sales and am debating picking some up but I don't have the time to pre-read anything right now as I have a lot on my own stack. :tongue_smilie: So I need the experience of the Hive...

 

Is there anything questionable in them? Is the writing *ahem* decent quality or akin to Judy Blume? :tongue_smilie: Some of the books had the cards missing. Do you need the cards to enjoy the books?

 

And of course, do your dc enjoy the series?

[cougarmom4]

We love them! Ds12, dd10, ds7 and I have read them all. The only thing I can remember that was objectionable was an occasional taking the name of the Lord in vain, which did bother me.

 

They are written by different authors--not horribly written but far from 'literature' study material, imo. There is a bit of educational info tucked inside--which can lead to rabbit trail studies on related topics perhaps. They kind of remind me of a more grown up Magic Tree House; each book has the same characters, different location around the world, but they are searching for clues. My biggest problem with them is I hate to spend $10 a book...and there will be 39 of them! If I found them at yard sales, I'd buy them for sure..

 

As for the cards, my kids don't do anything with them. We've only bought the first two books. Most of the time we get the books from the library, and there aren't any cards there.

[KristenS]

No, only ten books! The series ends this year. They find more than one clue in each book ... some are more critical than others.

 

I myself am enjoying them a lot. The writing isn't always the best ... but they had to find a style that each author could remain consistent with, and so far that seems to be holding up. The puzzles can be fun to solve, too. And the brother/sister relationship seems to be worked out well.

 

It *seems* like a cross between Series of Unfortunate Events and National Treasure on an international scale, presumably with a happy ending.

 

The cards are useful if you intend to play the online games and compete. If you find used ones and want a card set, you can write to Scholastic (there's info on the game website) and they will send a code for the virtual set. My first one was secondhand, and apparently printed even before the cards came out, so that's what I had to do for that.

 

The cards for each title are the same, but the card packs contain a random assortment, and some will duplicate with the book cards. Just so you know. If you don't want to get into all the collecting ... that's a heads up. But the cards do sometimes have fun puzzles and codes to solve, and even after the online part is over, the real cards will still be a fun item.

[Allearia]

My son LOVES the books. They aren't the best quality literature, but fun, with some educational value. He actually likes the cards best and finally got one friend into the books and they play a game with the cards. He is a big card collector. Whenever a new book comes out we go to the bookstore that day to buy a book and a card pack. I don't know if he would like them as much without the cards. It adds up, but we buy very few books so I don't mind spending money on something like this that he reads over and over. I haven't read them myself but am not aware of anything objectionable.

 

ETA: We buy tons of used books but these are the only ones we buy new, because of the cards.