Review: Secrets of Shakespeare's Grave by Deron R. Hicks

Secrets of Shakespeare's Grave by Deron R. Hicks.

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Publication Date: September 2012
List Price: $16.99
ISBN-13: 9780547840345

Review: Do you like to read books about adventure, action and mystery? Well then Secrets of Shakespeare's Grave by Deron K. Hicks is the book for you! In Secrets of Shakespeare's Grave twelve-year-old, Colophon and her recently acquainted cousin, Julian, try to find their great, great grandfather's "treasure" that he has hidden somewhere in London. Meanwhile, back in America, Colophon's brother, Case, is helping their father try to restore their publishing company before Treemont takes over.

The prologue to the book tells about how and where Miles, the great, great grandfather, gets the treasure. This is really interesting because it kind of builds up the history of the book, and puts more suspense into the parts of the book where they are treasure hunting. The obstacles that stand in the way of Colophon and Julian are mostly Treemont and his goons that are working for him. The chapters of the book rotate usually through the U.S and the U.K. The U.K "story" is about Colophon and Julian treasure hunting and looking for clues to where the "treasure" might be. The U.S "story" is about Case and his father trying to get three authors to sign a contract before the winter deadline.

The characters in this book are really interesting because they really push themselves to the limit to try to save their father's job. Other characters are really interesting because they do anything they can to ruin a person's job. The author is great at creating suspense because he made me want to keep on reading to see what would happen next. The author sometimes exceeds in humor; I found some parts of the book that were really humorous and others that made say "was that supposed to be funny?" The adventures that the characters go on are exciting, like the one where Julian and Colophon are in an old crypt when the door starts closing on them and Julian makes it through fine, but Colophon on the other hand hurts her ankle and Julian has to reach in there and yank her out before she is locked inside for another couple hundred years. All in all I enjoyed the tie into history and so should you. To me this book by Deron H. Hicks deserves 5 out of 5 stars because the tie into history is great, the book has great suspense and it has a perfect ending. So go to your local bookstore and pick up a copy today!!!

Review written by Noah (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a copy of Secrets of Shakespeare's Grave for this review.

Have you read Secrets of Shakespeare's Grave? How would you rate it?