My nine year old son has been so excited to continue on with The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls series by M.J. Thomas! We received review copies of both and from WorthyKids, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. He saw me opening the package and snatched them from my hands within seconds of figuring out what we had gotten in the mail.
The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls
MJ Thomas kids books are an exciting series, roughly from kids aged 6-9. As a read-aloud, they’re great for younger and older kids, especially if they’re listening as a family and can talk to each other about it later. Both of these paperback books are 120 pages long and contain some black and white, sketched illustrations throughout the pages of the book.
We read the earlier books from the series about a year and a half ago as a family read-aloud, and my kids loved it then. I guess my nine year old enjoyed the series even more than I thought, because he had these books read within a matter of days!
I asked my son to help me describe each book, and here is what he had to say:
Book 3 –
This is a book about the Egyptians. Peter, Mary, and Hank go to their great uncle’s house and there are scrolls there that bring them back into the past.
They went to ancient Egypt and at first, they see a mummy. Then, the princess sees THEM and brings them back to the palace. They have to solve secrets of the scroll (the same scroll that brought them there) so that they can go home. The angel Michael came and told them that something was about to change in Egypt, because they were treating the Israelites badly.
This book was talking about the Israelites and what they were going to do. The lesson in this book was to not treat people badly.
Book 4 –
Mary, Peter, and Hank are back at their great uncle’s house and are led to the past by another scroll. When they get there, they see a fancy tent with a menorah in it. The group discovers they are in Jericho, trying to help sneak Rahab to safety. Time is running out, because soon the city walls are going to fall, so it is a race to get back home.
Book 3 covered the book of Exodus from the Bible in a way that was easier to understand and relate to than many other stories we’ve read in the past that were trying to explain it to kids. My son liked this “view” of what was happening and he was excited to keep me updated on what he had read about it as he flew threw the book.
Book 4 kept him on the edge of his seat, because it was a race against time. He loved how the kids got to learn about being a spy more in this book, too. This one flowed perfectly following book 3, so it was like we didn’t miss a beat with the main characters of the story and their adventures.
I would highly recommend this series to other families. Books 3 and 4 fit in beautifully with the rest, and my son had a great time reading them to himself. Next year, when my six year old is a slightly stronger reader, I’m going to start him at the first book in the series and let him rediscover and fall in love with the characters and the story, too, as he will read through these for personal reading.
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