The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues) Exploration

When you live in a city full of historical landmarks, it's easy to let them become part of your everyday scenery instead of the parts of history that they are. Amy and Dan Cahill live in Boston, a city jam-packed with history. Grace's clue hunt causes them to look at Boston—and Philadelphia and Paris—differently than they did before. It takes them deeper into the history behind each city, and sometimes deep under the city itself. But The 39 Clues Book One: The Maze of Bones is nothing if not an excavation and exploration of the past.

Questions About Exploration

1. What new things do Amy and Dan learn about familiar places—like Paris and Philadelphia—as they explore these cities for clues?
2. Why do you think Grace made the clue hunt on a global scale and not on a smaller scale? Why, for example, isn't it just confined to Boston?
3. The hunt takes the clue seekers to strange and dangerous places, like the Catacombs under Paris, also known as the Maze of Bones. Why did Grace incorporate an element of danger? Does that seem very grandmotherly to you?

Chew on This

Grace's clue hunt not only has a fabulous prize at the end, but it provides its participants with another kind of prize: the experience of world exploration.

Grace loved exploring the world, and the clue hunt is a way for her to share her adventures with her family. Her highly competitive, often ungrateful and deceitful family.