The Red Pyramid

Egyptian culture has always been a special interest of mine since I was a high school sophomore, when most of our subjects for the year were tied up with Afro-Asian civilization. One quarter of that school year was devoted to Egypt, and I remember being fascinated with the history of pharaohs in Social Studies class (my personal favorite was Hatshepsut!), and Egyptian mythology and the concept of afterlife in Literature class.

I actually like Egyptian mythology over Greek mythology so even though I wasn’t all that fond of the Percy Jackson series, I was eager to try out The Red Pyramid, the first book in Rick Riordan’s new series, The Kane Chronicles.

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Preview: The Viper’s Nest (39 Clues #7)

I’m writing a newspaper review of The 39 Clues book 7: The Viper’s Nest by Peter Lerangis, but I just finished it tonight (I couldn’t put it down, even while getting my hair done at the salon) and I’m dying to spill the beans on what happens in this one, but of course I won’t, so here’s a sneak peek instead.

(Spoiler free sneak peek after the cut).

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Usborne Puzzle Adventures

IMG_0357When I went to Singapore last October, I specifically targeted getting a copy of the Usborne Puzzle Adventure Omnibus, a book compilation I’d lost when I was in grade school. I was hoping to find one at one of the bookstore chains there, as my cousin Dianne found a copy for herself in Hong Kong, and I was determined to get one too.

I found a brand new copy in only one bookstore — MPH — and I was hesitant to buy it because it cost  SGD 33, which is about P1000 or about US$20. Being the cheapskate I am, I decided to mull it over and come back for it before I went home.

Luckily, my plans to go to Bras Basah Complex (a mini-mall full of quaint, used-book shops right across Raffles Hotel) fell in place, and before an hour was up, I scored a slightly used copy for about SGD13 (P429 or about US$9), because I sweet talked the Indian proprietor to bring it down from SGD16! Not bad for a book I’d been searching half my life for. (But of course I ended up getting a dozen other books I didn’t plan on buying!

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More Cahill secrets revealed in “In Too Deep”

intoodeepSurprising revelations are in store for 39 Clues treasure hunters as Scholastic’s landmark multimedia action-adventure series comes out with the sixth volume, In Too Deep, in the race to uncover the Cahill family legacy.

Jude Watson (a pen name for Judy Blundell) returns with her second book in the multi-authored ten-book series. Watson previously penned the fourth volume, Beyond the Grave, which led the series to jump on to the US national bestseller lists, hitting the highest bestseller list ranking for the series to date on USA Today.

In In Too Deep, Dan and Amy Cahill find themselves in the Pacific, where the adventure takes them out on the Australian surf, then deep into the Australian outback, and eventually in the tropics of Indonesia.

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39 Clues hits the halfway mark with “The Black Circle”

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Nearly a year after its launch, Scholastic’s groundbreaking action adventure series, The 39 Clues, reaches the halfway mark with the fifth installment of the ten book-series, The Black Circle (book#135 for 2009), by Patrick Carman.

The interactive multi-media series has been making its way to eager young readers around the world. Aside from the simultaneous release of the hardcover and audio editions in various parts of the word, Scholastic reports that the series has been licensed for publication in 17 foreign languages, including Japanese, Italian, German, Chinese, French, Greek, and Hebrew.

The adventure series recently made its debut in Scandinavia with the first three books released in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, and followed by the release of the first three books in Japan. Additional international editions are set for release in 2010.

At the heart of the series is the Cahill family, a powerful family that has produced the movers and shakers in world history. When the last remaining Cahill matriarch, Grace, passes away, she leaves 11-year old Dan and his  14-year old sister Amy a strange bequest: the choice between a million dollars for each of them, or the first clue in the quest for the Cahill family legacy, and a reward beyond measure.

Choosing the path of adventure, Dan and Amy go off on the adventure of a lifetime to beat the rest of the Cahills to the source of their family’s power, getting in touch with the lives of other prominent Cahills along the way:  Benjamin Franklin in The Maze of Bones, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in One False Note, Toyotomi Hideyoshi in The Sword Thief, and Howard Carter in Beyond the Grave.
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