The Mysterious Moonstone (Key Hunters, 1)

{My thoughts} – Cleo and Evan must be some extra special children. They are in the library avoiding recess when all the sudden they hear a noise and then their new school librarian disappears. The old librarian had also vanished under odd circumstances. The two of them go to where they last heard the new librarian make noise and start investigating. Low and behold they find a secret entrance into a huge librarian hidden under their school library.Evan seems to really love books, he is always reading something or another, so when they find this extra special library he wants to open the books and see whats hidden within the pages. However, he can’t because they all seem to be locked and he doesn’t have a key to open them.The children start to look around and they find a book cart that looks like it belonged to the first librarian that went missing. With it they find a note that appears to have been left just for them to find. They decide they will go check out the only book that is left open on the table and as soon as they do they are transported into the story of the book. This is where it gets fun, they end up becoming assistants to a young detective that hasn’t really got a clue about how to properly solve a crime. They decide to help him and soon learn that they need to solve the crime if they have any chance of getting back to their time.Are the two of them able to put the pieces together and figure out what happened to the missing moonstone? Are they able to help the young detective close his case? Are they able to find their way through the story and back to their own time? The only way to find that out is to read the book.I highly recommend this book for any young reader that enjoys reading about adventures that can transport you to another place and time. These kind of books tend to be the best when it comes to pulling the reader into the story. How often have you as a reader, read a book and wished you were a character in it? The children in this book actually get to see what it is like to be a character in the book they were looking at and that helps to open up the readers mind to a new world of possibilities. Imagination is an incredible thing and it definitely shouldn’t be wasted.

I love this series. Last year I read the Magic Tree House books to my students. I got through a good chunk of the series before the end of the school year. This year I tried reading those again and after three books I knew I needed something different for classroom read aloud! The Key Hunter books are great, especially for any kids who liked Magic Tree House. They are vaguely reminiscent of those books due to their sucked into a story theme, but also wonderfully unique in their own way. They also are a bit more advanced, with larger words and more complex stories that force the kids to make inferences and draw conclusions.Each book in the series changes genre, but the first book starts off as a mystery. There's enough action, mystery, and excitement to keep any child intrigued. There was enough poking fun at mystery tropes to keep this teacher enjoying it as well! The story follows two characters: Cleo and Evan. One day they follow their rather mean replacement librarian into a hidden library with books that suck you in and make you complete their story lines. The characters are very enjoyable. They get along, but also poke fun at each other just like so many of my students.The writing and story is also very fun, following tradition mystery tropes but in a unique way. My students and I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new MG novel to read.

My 7 year old loved it! He got it for Christmas and just read the whole thing tonight. He was antsy to tell us a summary, and was so excited talking about it. He does like to read, but this is the quickest he's gotten through a chapter book, and the most excited he's been. After we tucked him in, he came into our room and asked if we had anymore mystery novels he could read! Going to order the next book in the series right now.

I liked it a lot, but got a little confused at times. "I'm not sure other kids in my class would like. I think it was pretty cool." Jordan 9 years old. "I think my friends would like it because they are adventurous. I definitely want to read more. It was exciting" Kaitlyn 7 years old.

So fun to read with my 10 year old. I couldn’t stop reading even when she fell asleep. Great read

Both of my kids (7 year old girl and 5 year old boy) love this series. It is fun and quick-moving. We read them all in quick succession and can't wait for the next book to come out.

This was purchased for a 6 year old that has become a great reader. She is already on the 4th chapter. I am so please and can't wait to purchase each book in the series.

Good book for our granddaughter and was a gift.