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The Secret Of The Skeleton Key (2012)

by Penny Warner(Favorite Author)

3.99 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1606843907 (ISBN13: 9781606843901)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

EgmontUSA

series

The Code Busters Club

review 1: Four friends make up the Code Busters Club--from different ethnic backgrounds, different living situations, etc. The club is based around learning and using different codes to communicate. This comes in handy when a mystery involving the elderly man across the street from Cody starts to unfold. Using sign language, semaphores, braille, and more, the Code Busters Club is on the case!The mystery was decent, but what really made this fun was breaking the codes along with the characters. I found myself flipping to the back of the book to look at the keys and then at the answers to see if I deciphered correctly. I think this would be of great interest to those students and children who like to actively solve a mystery while they read it--readers of 39 Clues will probably l... moreove these!However, there was something that really bothered me. At one point, the Club goes into the burned out house that has been marked off by the fire department. Um...dangerous! They admitted that it was dangerous and the whole house could come down on top of them, but they went anyway. AWFUL decision. I realize what it did for the plot but there must have been a less "super dangerous and poor idea" way to get it done. Maybe that's the parent in me, but it bothered me.That aside, it is recommended, grades 4 and up.
review 2: Cody, Quinn, Luke and M.E. belong to a secret society they all developed together. They call themselves "The Code Busters Club." They each have a secret name and hiding place. They communicate with each other in many different types of codes including ASL, semaphores, morse code and many others.In this book the club members become suspicious of the people visiting the old man who lives across the street. They have reason to believe the two visitors are not well-intentioned. When the house burns down and the gentleman is taken to the hospital, the club members quickly take a look around the burned down house. What they find and hear confirms their suspicions. The two villains are out to get the man's money for themselves and so are trying to find his will to destroy it and make a new one.The Code Busters quickly get to work and learn the location of the actual will and are able to solve the case!An fun new series for middle readers. Interestingly enough, the characters are 7th graders, but the book is aimed at 4th/5th graders. Might be a little off-putting. less

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