Break the Code: The Missing Museum Key
A mystery for kids ages 7 and up that you solve yourself, using a real secret code.
Secret codes are everywhere, hiding in plain sight, waiting for someone clever enough to crack them.
At the Fairmont Natural History Museum, the master key has vanished just hours before the grand opening. Without it, dozens of exhibit cases cannot be opened. The building was locked. Nobody broke in. The suspects are all still inside. And the only clue is a sheet of pale green paper covered in strange little symbols.
Every adult calls it scribbling. Eleven-year-old Olivia Thompson notices that the symbols repeat, and that the gaps fall in the same places every time, like words.
Somebody did not simply take the key. Somebody left a trail.
This interactive detective story invites young readers to investigate alongside Olivia and her best friend Liam as they search dinosaur halls, ancient Egyptian galleries, a fossil lab, and the hidden service tunnels beneath the museum.
Every clue the characters see is also given to the reader. Nothing important is hidden, and every puzzle can be solved.
Readers will crack the Pigpen Cipher, unscramble museum words, study a map, compare boot prints, question suspects, weigh alibis, follow physical evidence, and decide where the investigation goes next.
Careful detectives may work out who took the key before Olivia does. The sharpest readers will also work out why.
Inside this bookA complete mystery adventure for readers ages 8 and upSecret messages written in the Pigpen Cipher, a real code more than four hundred years oldAnagrams, a museum map, boot print evidence, suspect profiles, and hidden cluesInteractive case files with space to record your answersThree possible places to search near the end of the case. Only one is right.Bonus codebreaking puzzles, including harder double puzzlesA complete answer key that explains every clue and how it fitsA look at the companion workbook, Codes and CodebreakingAll it takes is a pencil, a curious mind, and the determination to keep looking when the answer is not obvious.
Perfect for young mystery fans, beginner codebreakers, reluctant readers, gifted readers who want a real challenge, classrooms and library shelves, family read alouds, road trips, rainy days, and screen free afternoons. A great gift for boys and girls ages 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
If your reader enjoys detective stories, spy books, escape room puzzles, brain teasers, or choose your path adventures, this one belongs on their shelf.
The museum is waiting. The key is missing.
Can you break the code and solve the case?
Customer Reviews
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
