FICTION

The Secret of the Skeleton Key

by Penny WARNER
978-1-60684-162-4.
COPY ISBN
Gr 3—5—This pedestrian mystery involves four kids who form a club based on their mutual enjoyment of riddles, puzzles, and secret codes. When one of their elderly neighbors acts weirdly, the kids realize that he has left a semaphore code on his bedroom window, asking for help. Two cheesy relatives are trying to kill him for his fortune. The children get involved and, by decoding a number of messages, are able to rescue him. Readers may enjoy solving the coded chapter titles as well as those that the children have to figure out. However, there is no character development, and the bad guys are stock figures who are more laughable than sinister. Most readers will find the solution to the mystery ridiculously obvious.—B. Allison Gray, Goleta Public Library, CA
Cody, Quinn, Luke, and M.E. have fun breaking codes in their club, but when their elderly neighbor's house burns down, code-breaking becomes more than a hobby. The kids must decode a message from their neighbor to save his fortune--and his life. Cliffhanger chapter endings propel the action forward in this very readable mystery. An answer key for all the codes is appended.
Reviewed by B. Allison Gray , Sep 01, 2011

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