WATCH: The 39 Clues: Advanced Agent Training Webcast  

The webcast featured the first five author of The 39 Clues: Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, Peter Lerangis, Jude Watson, and Patrick Carman. I watched the webcast live and it was really good! Click the link above and you can watch a video of the webcast. Each author revealed a puzzle to solve.  I could solve all of them but one. One was a math story problem - that one was hard. Even the kids on the panel didn’t get that one right, which made me feel slightly better. At the end of the webcast each author revealed a secret. One of the secrets was a surprise and one was shocking! The surprise is that the author of book seven, Peter Lerangis, revealed the book’s title: The Viper’s Nest and showed a picture of the book cover. Book 7 will come out February 7, 2010. The shocker is that Jude Law (the author of Book 6: In Too Deep that comes out tomorrow)…said that in her book, a character we are all familiar with…DIES! Who, who, who? I want to know! The 39 Clues Official Website

• 39 Clues Colorcross Game
• The 39 Clues Family Tree
• Grace Cahill’s Will

The 39 Clues Books so far…there will be 10 in all. The 39 Clues #6 In Too Deep comes out November 3, 2009.

Kari and Lucas from The Mystery of the Third Lucretia are back for another international mystery. This time they are in Scotland where Kari’s Mom has an assignment interviewing a teen prodigy - a touring pianist all of 15 years old.

Kari and Lucas are excited to meet the famous Seneca Crane. Yes, she’s beautiful. Yes, she’s talented. Yes she’s traveled all over the world…but Seneca turns out to be just a normal kid who happens to have mad piano skills.

Seneca reveals the disciplined life she leads and how difficult it is to trade a normal kid life for life touring the world playing music with and for grown-ups. Seneca is frustrated with her overprotective Mom, her strict tutor and her new Stepfather.  The three of them barely let Seneca out of their sight. Kari and Lucas make it their job to show Seneca what regular teens do and convince Seneca’s Mom to let them take Seneca sightseeing around Edinburgh. The three friends have a great time together and look forward to more Scottish adventures after Seneca’s concert performance.

After the concert, everyone waits outside Seneca’s dressing room but she doesn’t appear. A search of the room reveals a ransom note - Seneca doesn’t need rescued anymore from her overprotective Mother…she needs rescued from kidnappers!

Kari and Lucas are on the case in their signature clue-busting style.  They are resourceful, gutsy and determined. They rely on their sharp memories and their keen powers of deduction to sort out the clues and get on the trail of the kidnappers. I can’t wait for Book #3 Adventure at Simba Hill which will come out next. Simba Hill takes place in Africa. Author: Susan Runholt

• Read Chapter One Rescuing Seneca Crane
• Listen to an Audio Excerpt of Rescuing Seneca Crane
• Read an Interview with the Author

Don’t miss Kari and Lucas’s first mystery adventure The Mystery of the Third Lucretia. And here are some more girl sleuths to keep you guessing the clues:

Isn’t an exquisite corpse an oxymoron…like “jumbo shrimp”? Actually, it’s a storytelling game. Really. Who knew? Well, Jon Scieszka (author of the The Stinky Cheese Man, The Time Warp Trio, etc.) for one. He says this game was played in the old days. It is a storytelling game during which several people contribute to a story. One person starts the story and then other people take turns adding to it. The people adding to the story don’t really know where the first person was headed, so each installment can change a lot about what is going on in the story.

For the next year The Exquisite Corpse Adventure will be published on the web with a new chapter every two weeks. Chapter One is by Jon Scieszka. The next chapter, which will appear on Oct. 9 is by Katherine Paterson. They’ve got a whole line-up of favorite children’s book authors ready to tell this crazy tale.  Those authors area; M.T. Anderson, Natalie Babbitt, Calef Brown, Susan Cooper, Kate DiCamillo, Nikki Grimes, Shannon Hale, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), Steven Kellogg, Gregory Maguire, Megan McDonald, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack, Linda Sue Park, Katherine Paterson, James Ransome and Chris Van Dusen. It’s a bit like The 39 Clues because several authors are telling the story, but this one is all online. I will blog about each chapter as it comes out so you won’t miss anything!

• Read Episode One The Exquisite Corpse Adventure
• Listen to Jon Scieszka read part of Episode One The Exquisite Corpse Adventure

To begin this next (5th) installment of The 39 Clues, Dan receives a telegram with a message only he and Amy and their Grandmother (who is dead!) would know. Who sent the telegram? Could there be someone alive who is on their side, someone Grandma put in place to help them? The only way to know the answer is to keep following the clues.

Dan and Amy ditch their nanny Nellie early on in this one. They are truly on their own. The stakes in this global treasure hunt are getting higher by the minute. The kids have almost been killed on more than one occasion. Under pressure, they make a very important, very game changing decision. When one of the clues turns out to be a list of places, the kids realize they need to take a calculated risk. The kids make a deal with adversary Hamilton Holt. As Amy says, “We can’t visit all these places, alone, and neighher can you. What if we were to split them up? You go one way, we’ll go the other, and we’ll share what we find?”

Remember Dan and Amy’s instructions at the beginning of the clue hunt? “Trust no one.” Well, maybe they shouldn’t trust who told them that either! Another fun read following the clues with the Cahills. I still can’t figure out the wesite though, or even think of solving anything myself. I guess I’m not a Cahill! Author: Patrick Carman Series: The 39 Clues

• The 39 Clues Official Website
• 39 Clues Colorcross Game
• The 39 Clues Family Tree
• Grace Cahill’s Will

TONIGHT: Wednesday, August 26 from 6-7 E.T. you can join a live chat with the author of The Black Circle, Patrick Carman. Visit Scholastic for instructions. Transcript from the Live Chat. (And if you read the transcript Patrick tells you where book 6 will take place.)

The first four 39 Clues Books so far…there will be 10 in all.:

• The 39 Clues #6 In Too Deep comes out November 3, 2009.

Miranda is in the sixth grade and lives in an apartment building in New York City. The school year is moving along pretty much like any other until the Friday Miranda comes home from school and discovers her apartment door unlocked…and the spare key missing from its secret hiding spot. Miranda’s mom is immediately concerned and has the lock on the door changed.

On Monday, Miranda discovers a note hidden in her backpack:

M, This is hard. Harder than I expected, even with your help. But I have been practicing, and my preparations go well, I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own. I ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter. Second, please remember to mention the location of your house key. The trip is a difficult one. I will not be myself when I reach you. 

If the spare key was stolen on Friday, why would someone ask where it was hidden on Monday? It’s already gone. Weird. As Miranda’s mom says, “Someone with the key wouldn’t have to ask where the key is. It makes no sense.”

What’s weirder is Miranda keeps fiinding more notes, and the second one starts out “Miranda” not “M,” so the notes are definately for her. The writer of the notes knows things no one else should know. And then the notes start to mention things that haven’t happened…yet. When the notes start to predict what happens later, that’s when things start to get really interesting.

This story is a puzzle. It’s the kind of story you want to read again to catch how all the puzzle pieces fit together. The author had me really guessing until the very end. Author: Rebecca Stead

• Amazon Look Inside When You Reach Me
• Read Chapter One When You Reach Me
• Read an Interview with the Author, Rebecca Stead

If you liked When You Reach Me try these time-bending adventures: