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Arts & Entertainment

Suspense Intrigues Book Voyager Readers

The 39 Clues inspires book discussion for kids at Tolland Library

What would you do if you had to choose between getting a million dollars or a clue that could lead you to the most important treasure in the world and make you powerful beyond belief?

Seven children pondered that question at a Book Voyager discussion of The 39 Clues at Tolland Library on Thursday, Feb. 24.  The book, written by Rick Riordan, is the first in a series of 10 books about the Cahill family and the clues hidden around the world to protect the family's power.  In that book, Dan and Amy Cahill give up the monetary prize in favor of traveling the world to find the clues, in competition with other Cahill relatives. 

Linda Marchisio, a full-time school librarian, facilitated the discussion, in which a few parents and Tolland Children's and Young Adult Librarian Ginny Brousseau also participated. 

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Marchisio supplemented her presentation with materials on Benjamin Franklin, who the book featured as a Cahill family member responsible for creating and protecting clues.  The children learned about magic squares and heard the sounds of the armonica, both invented by Franklin.  They also played a game in which they had to guess the answer to a riddle by asking only yes or no questions.

Marchisio leads book discussions for both children and adults on a part-time basis for the Connecticut Humanities Council. As a trained discussion leader, her job is to "draw out participants’ personal observations and help them make inferences, understand symbolism, context and setting, and connect with the author’s deeper message, all fundamental aspects of the humanities," according to the Council's website.

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The Council sponsors the Book Voyagers in libraries and other programs for children, as well as reading programs for adults, including Literature for a Lifetime. It also sponsors heritage programs. 

The Council describes Book Voyagers in Libraries as a curriculum-based, facilitator-led reading and discussion series conducted for 8- to 12-year-olds in libraries. Culturally diverse, theme- based programs, ranging from classic works in children’s literature to recent award-winning titles are chosen to encourage children to "'stretch' a bit beyond their comfort zone of reading."  Book Voyagers promotes silent and independent reading, family reading at home, reading aloud with partners and group discussion of issues raised by the readings.

The children and adults who participated in the discussion of The 39 Clues agreed that it was the suspense, travel and action in the book that intrigued them.  Brousseau recommended other books for those children who had already finished the series, one of which was Dan Gutman's The Genius Files.

Participants included Collin Dooley, a third-grader at Tolland Intermediate School, who found the book to be "very nerve-wracking", when the children stepped on a gravestone.  His mother Katrin agreed that the children in the book led excessively stressful lives.  The Dooleys decided it was not the best book to read right before bed.

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