With the Harry Potter series now completed, Scholastics is moving forward with what it hopes will be its follow-up blockbuster series…according to NY Times: 

The 39 Clues series is new with books 1 and 2 hot off the press in 2008-2009 and book 3 due for release on Mar 3, 2009: (see infomercials at See 39cluesworld.com/ )

Book One : “The Maze of Bones”
Author : Rick Riordan (Released : Sept. 9, 2008)

Book Two : “One False Note”
Author : Gordon Korman
Release Date : Dec. 2nd, 2008

Book Three : “The Sword Thief”
Author : Peter Lerangis
Release Date : March 3rd, 2009

About the “39 clues” series:

Book Description from Amazon Japan: Minutes before she died Grace Cahill changed her will, leaving her decendants an impossible decision: You have a choice – one million dollars or a clue.

Grace is the last matriarch of the Cahills, the world’s most powerful family. Everyone from Napoleon to Houdini is related to the Cahills, yet the source of the family power is lost. 39 clues hidden around the world will reveal the family’s secret, but no one has been able to assemble them. Now the clues race is on, and young Amy and Dan must decide what’s important: hunting clues or uncovering what REALLY happened to their parents.

The 39 Clues is Scholastic’s groundbreaking new series, spanning10 adrenaline-charged books, 350 trading cards, and an online game where readers play a part in the story and compete for over $100,000 in prizes.

The 39 Clues books set the story, and the cards, website and game allow kids to participate in it. Kids visit the website – the39clues.com – and discover they are lost members of the Cahill family. They set up online accounts where they can compete against other kids and against Cahill characters to find all 39 clues. Through the website, kids can track their points and clues, manage their card collections, dig through the Cahill archives for secrets, and travel the world to collect Cahill artifacts, interview characters, and hunt down clues. Collecting cards helps: Each card is a piece of evidence containing information on a Cahill, a clue, or a family secret.

There are even teacher videos … see this Youtube link.

Our reviewer says: My 9yo daughter LOVES these books. We only got them last week and have already read the first two and have pre-ordered the third. I started for bedtime and she took over because we weren’t going fast enough. We are trying to solve all the card clues on the web at the moment. Part of me balks because they are so commercial with trading cards and all sorts of stuff and
they seem to have been written to make into a movie. But they briefly introduce many famous people, have lots of geographical connections and so offer lots of teachable moments too especially because the interest is really there. I’m happy to see her so excited about reading too. — J.T.

J