I have seen The 39 Clues series of books all over the book stores. I have not read any, or really heard much about them. Just wondering if anyone out there could review one of the books or the series?

I have picked up the first book in the series from my daughters Scholastic Orders, but have yet to read it. I will probably read it first before I give it to her.

I am also curious about how the cards work with the book and website? Do you think it is a ploy to get parents to buy more cards? And can you just enjoy the books without having to use/buy the cards?

This book is a huge favourite of my son (age 4).  We first enjoyed it at our local library program. All the kids loved it.

It is a pop out book about a wide-mouthed frog who goes around telling other animals that he is a wide-mouth frog and he eat flies. Then he asks what do they eat?

Each page has a wonderful pop-out creature. In the end the wide-mouth frog meets a crocodile who admits to eating wide-mouth frogs. All of a sudden the wide-mouth frogs squeezes his lips together pretending to be anything but a wide-mouth frog and hops away.

Very cute story. Would recommend this book as a gift for a child 3-5 years old (someone who will be able to enjoy the pop-outs, but not destroy them).

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He walks home with one boot on to tell his mother the whole story. Grover sits on her lap and cries for a while. Then they go out and retrieve the boot and go get ice cream.

In the end he says, “I think tomorrow will be a better day.”

It is a nice little book that help kids see that everyone gets frustrated and has bad days.

I would recommend it for kids 3 and up. There is a lot of reading that kids much younger probably would not sit through.

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Julie (the girl in the book) saves lots of money and “rob[s] her little brother’s piggy bank”, to have a total of $100. Yep, I said robbed. In the end she does pay him back, but she does not get in trouble for taking it.

With the money she wants to buys lots and lots of makeup. Her mom says “oh, no!” but she “didn’t pay any attention” and she goes and buys makeup.

She then puts on all the make up and her parents, postman, etc are shocked. She has black lips, green cheeks, puple hair, etc.

Eventually she takes off the makeup and everyone agrees she is beautiful without it; even Julie agrees in the end.

Then she goes on to sell her makeup to her friends for $300 (not a bad little profit) and from that she gives her brother back his money.

Not sure what this teaches kids.

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In this story brother and sister bear can’t keep their room tidy. They always argue about cleaning it and it just gets messier and messier. Finally, mama bear has had enough and gets a big box and starts picking up all the stuff off the floor and puts it in the box (assuming it is going in the garbage).

The kids start getting upset until Papa bear comes in and calms things down. Together everyone agrees that there needs to be some storage solutions, and Papa bear (being a carpenter) sets to work to build the kids some shelving, a big toy box and a peg board.

The kids tidy up and even pitch a few unwanted toys and everyone is happy.

It is a nice book that is probably geared towards older children. My 3 year old like listening to it, and so did my 6 year old. It would be a reasonable high reading level (I am guessing level 3 maybe).

Did my kids tidy up after listening to the book?  Ahhh, no.  But at least the idea was planted in their heads, that tidying makes things easier to find and less likely to get broken. And that their mom is not the only one who makes their kids clean up.  Maybe one day they will tidy up all on their own. lol

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There are at least one or two cities/areas mentioned that your children should recognize (if you are from Canada or visited Canada). My son got so excited about “N is for Niagara Falls – hear the water roar!”   We were just there a few weeks ago.

They also have maple syrup, hockey, lobsters, a Zamboni and much more.

Fun book! You may be able to get older children to discuss things about the cities and items in the book.

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You need to call out for Map, look out for Swiper and make sure you say, “Swiper no swiping!”, and don’t forget to check backpack for the item you need.

There is lots of matching toys with the egg they came out of. For example you might have a green bear and a blue train, along with a blue egg and a green egg.

There is quite a bit of counting, as Dora and Boots collect eggs.

There is not a whole lot of Spanish in the book. Just a few words and then counting in Spanish from 1-12.

Good news for those of us who do not speak Spanish is that the front of the book has the Spanish words phonetically spelled out.

Nice book, not overly excited about it.

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The cover is shiny and the art work is fun. Children get to open and shut the door, make the wipers go swish, swish, swish. It is a really fun book.

The only downfall of the book is because you get to open and shut and pull tabs that make things work, it can get broken or torn easily.My book has seen better days.

I would suggest this book for children 3 and up. But if you have kids that will look after the book then maybe a bit younger. Sometimes the tabs are a bit tough and may get ripped if little hands pull to hard.

Would make a great gift.

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One of the many Little Miss and Mr. Men books.

I find most of the stories a bit too long to hold my children’s attention.

My son (3.5) wanted me to read this book to him tonight. He sat and listened intently, and asked some questions too. hmmm.

The gist of the story is that Little Miss Birthday loves birthdays. She loves getting the right present for her friends. The problem is Mr. Wrong. She just can’t find the perfect present for him. All the things she thinks of are well… wrong.

In the end she does find the right present, but you will have to read the book to find out what the perfect present for Mr. Wrong is.

It is a nice book. I think a lot of the humor goes over the kids heads. I don’t think my 6 year old catches it all. But at least it is entertaining for the adult reader.

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In the book there is Main Street where children can lift-the-flap and see different professions eg. fire fighter, baker, vet.

Next is the supermarket where the children lift-the-flap to discover different coloured foods  eg. red apples, yellow bananas.

The next page has trucks on a construction site. You lift the flap to see things like cherry pickers, backhoes, etc. doing their job.

After that is the park. Children are playing in the park and you lift-the-flap to count things like how many ant under the ant hill, how many cupcakes in the picnic basket, how many birds are hiding in the bush, etc.

Lastly is the  shops on the street. The reader is asked to match the people (in a box on the side) with the store they are shopping in. For example there is a picture of a girl playing a guitar. She was shopping in the music store. So you lift-the-flap at the music store and there she is in the music store!

The flap-lifting helps keep my son’s interest while he is learning numbers, colours, matching, and more.

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