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The Maze of Bones - 39 Clues 1 Book Summary and Study Guide

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Amy and Dan Cahill goes around the world to discover their family's secrets and the possibility of becoming the most powerful human by winning their family's race to the 39 Clues. The story follows the adventures of Amy Cahill, 14 years old and Dan Cahill, 11 years old, both grandchildren of Grace Cahill. The story starts with Grace Cahill talking to William McIntyre about changes in her will. She dies after telling him that he needs to execute the other will that she wrote. Aunt Beatrice who serves as the guardian for both Dan and Amy drives them to the funeral. At the funeral, both of them are bullied by their distant relatives. The Cahill family is so big that they have distant relatives in almost all countries. William McIntyre announces that only a selected number of relatives are invited to the reading of the will. Amy and Dan are invited because they were really close to their late grandmother that they even stay in her huge mansion during the weekends. During the reading, a video of Grace plays and she informs everyone that they have a choice to go home with a million dollars, or get a clue and join the hunt to become the most powerful person in the world. Their relatives, the Holts, the Starlings,the Kabras, Jonah Wizard and his father, Irina Spasky, and Alistair Oh join. Amy decides that Grace wants them to join and Dan agrees. The first clue says Resolution: he fine print to guess, Seek out Richard S_____." All the other teams rush to search for the clue, but Dan and Amy still remain clueless. Mr. McIntyre tells them that he will not be able to help but gives them a special message from Grace which is Beware the Madrigals.Ā Without any clue on where to start, Amy decides to go to Grace's library because she believes that it is where she can get all the information she needs. Their uncle Alistair Oh suddenly appears in the library and invites them into an alliance. They agree because they do not have an adult to help them with the travels and expenses. Dan finds a secret library and they search it together. Amy finds Saladin, Grace's beloved cat in the S shelf. Saladin sits on Grace's jewelry box that includes Amy's favourite jade necklace. Amy realizes that they are looking at the wrong section and should be looking at the F shelf instead. She explains that they need to look for Benjamin Franklin who wrote Poor Richard's Almanack using the pseudonym Richard Saunders. They recognized their mother's handwriting and it says "Follow Franklin, first clue, Maze of Bones." Suddenly, they notice that there is a lot of smoke and the mansion is on fire. They cannot find Uncle Alistair inside the library but the two manage to escape with Saladin in tow plus Grace's jewelry. Outside the burning mansion, they see Uncle Alistair with the Almanack, Mr. McIntyre sprawled on the floor and a mysterious man in black. Without an adult, they feel that they will definitely lose the race. They go back home and tell Nellie, their cool au pair, about the Clue Hunt and try to convince her to join them. Aunt Beatrice does not want them to join the hunt from the start so they are sure that she will just report them to a child care authority. Amy sells Grace's jewelry except for the jade necklace and Dan sells his precious baseball card collection to have money for their trip. In the meantime, Irina Spasky forms an alliance with Ian and Natalie Kabra. They go to the Franklin Institute with the hopes of getting more information but what they find is the Starlings siblings. The Starlings take a picture of what they find: a harmonica and a request for iron solute. Dan sees the man in black again and tries to warn the Starling siblings when there is an explosion. They tell Nellie that their next stop is Paris which triggers a lot of excitement from their chaperone. Alistair, on the other hand, is hijacked by the Kabras and they get the Almanack. In France, Jonah Wizard invites them into an alliance but they refuse. Then, they find Irina holding the Almanack and follow her into a Lucian stronghold. They see photos of popular figures in history and realize that Benjamin Franklin is a Lucian. They see a map showing 23 Rue de Jardins. They manage to escape the guards chasing them in the headquarters. They get to their destination which turns out to be a trap. A group of men try to bury them alive but they make a bargain with the Holts to help them in exchange for some information. They are able to escape and once again, Amy sees the man in black. When they get back to their crappy hotel, they face an angry Nellie, but Amy tells her about what happened and Nellie seems to be ready to fight for the kids. The morning after, they see Uncle Alistair again and he gives them free lunch, explains what happened in the mansion, and promises to tell him about their parents. The Kabras appear, and to prove that he is still an ally, Alistair delays the Kabras and let Amy and Dan head to the Catacombs, which is based from the coordinates they got from the Holts. They find a magic square that Dan solves. The Kabras are able to follow them and plans to poison them with darts and Alistair helps them again. They manage to escape again but they get on a train track. Dan gets stuck in one of the rails while trying to retrieve the photo of their parents, his only memory of them. Amy helps him and Dan realizes that everything is getting serious now and that they may die in this Clue Hunt. Unable to decide where to go next, the three go to a library. Amy asks what Iron Solute is and Nellie says that it is a chemical for metal works and printing. Dan tells Amy that based on the coordinates; they need to go to a church called St-Pierre de Montmarte. They reach the graveyard and find a tombstone with a Lucian symbol and an arrow pointing down so they dig it. They find a vial of liquid wrapped in paper when suddenly, Jonah appears and tries to snatch it from them. Irina appears with her poisoned nails, and the Holts join the rumble by throwing ice cream crates. Dan and Amy goes on top of the tower and when the lightning strikes the vial, it turns green. Just in time, Natalie and Ian appear and they tell Amy that they poisoned Dan. In exchange for the antidote, she gives them the vial. It turns out that the Kabras tricked Amy and that Dan was just tied. Amy explains that Iron Solute, the chemical in the vial is the anagram for the first clue they got which is Resolution. She tells them that the paper that wrapped the vial is a sheet music for a harmonica with the letters W.A.M. at the bottom which stands for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. She decides that their next stop is Vienna, Austria.
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Best part of story, including ending: It is action-packed and enjoyable to read. The characters are lovable.

Best scene in story: My favorite scene was when Dan tried to get her parent's photo that might have caused him to lose his life. He showed that he really loves his parents even if he was still young when they died. He is family-oriented and it means that he will do whatever he can not to lose his sister Amy.

Opinion about the main character: I like both Dan and Amy because they are incredibly smart and witty.

The review of this Book prepared by Teresita Sy a Level 1 Blue Jay scholar

Chapter Analysis of The Maze of Bones - 39 Clues 1

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Plot & Themes

Composition of Book descript. of violence and chases 40%Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives 40%Feelings, relationships, character bio/development 10%How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) 10% Tone of story    -   very upbeat Time/era of story:    -   2000+ (Present) Exploring into the wild    -   Yes Plotlets:    -   searching for treasure/artifacts Kid or adult book?    -   Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character

Gender    -   Female Profession/status:    -   student Age:    -   a teen Ethnicity/Race    -   White/American Unusual characteristics:    -   Super genius

Setting

United States    -   Yes The US:    -   Northeast Europe    -   Yes European country:    -   France Misc setting    -   fancy mansion

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   moderately detailed references to deaths Amount of dialog    -   roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

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Rick Riordan Books Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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