The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls book series (A REVIEW)

 The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls

My kids enjoy reading chapter books about kids traveling back in time through history and experiencing the adventures first hand while looking at the world during a different time, and trying to figure out clues along the way. This series of books from WorthyKids, an imprint of Hachette Book Group does just that with kids going back to biblical times, and living the stories and adventures from the Bible. It is kind of fun to see the Bible stories we all know and love come alive through a child's eyes.

A while ago we received the first 2 books in the series for a review, and my son enjoyed reading them, so I was really happy to see that we were going to be doing this one again with books 3 and 4. We received sofcover copies of The Great Escape (Book 3) and Journey to Jericho (Book 4). The kids (grades 2 and 5) and I read them together at bedtime each night for just about 2 weeks. They didn't take long to get through, and they would ask to keep reading each night. They are a pretty easy read that my 5th grader could have easily read on his own (which he did with the first 2 books), but the 2nd grader wanted to hear them too so I read them aloud. It worked out good because I wanted to hear them too since I didn't really read through the first 2 other than what my 5th grader told me.

The Great Escape (Book 3)

Prologue: Peter and his sister Mary are spending the month with their Great-Uncle Solomon who is an archaeologist that collects artifacts and treasures. He has special scrolls that can travel back in time, and that is how Peter and Mary would travel back to the biblical times.

In Book 3, The Great Escape, they travel back in time to Egypt and the time of Moses. They meet a young girl that turns out to be Pharoah's daughter. She helps them by giving them a place to stay, so they are in the palace right where all the action is when Moses comes and begins to ask for Pharoah to release God's people. Peter and Mary witness and experience the 10 plagues, and then they also experience the escape from Egypt and the Egyptian soldiers right with the Jews. They encounter danger and excitement along the way, and they meet other characters like Michael the angel who also helps the kids at certain points in the story, the magician who tries to replicate the plagues that Moses casts, and can't forget Hank (their dog) who traveled back in time with them.

Journey to Jericho (Book 4)

At the beginning of this book Great-Uncle Solomon tells the kids (Peter and Mary) about how he used to be a spy, and he shows them a few of his spy tools. He tells them to dress like spies for their next adventure back in time to the city of Jericho. Being dressed in black they are in the land with God's people again, and are mistaken for real spies at first. They learn that the Israelites are trying to get to the promised land, but the walls of Jericho are in the way. Peter and Mary want to help the Israelites conquer the city of Jericho. Along the way they meet people who help (like Michael the angel), and hinder (like satan). The kids see some suspicious men and follow them into the city. The suspicious men turn out to be spies, and Peter and Mary offer to help since they are "spies in training." They are finally on a secret mission to help the Israelites. They have to escape more than once from the guards of Jericho. In the end they are marching around the walls of the city with the Israelites, and they learn how God keeps his promises.

The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls

A common theme throughout all the books is the secret scroll. In each book there is a new secret message in the scroll that the kids have to solve throughout their adventure. They have 14 days to solve it or they will be stuck in that time. As they gather information from the people and events in their adventure they slowly unlock the secret message in the scroll. It relates to the story that they are in, and teaches a little message to the reader along the way. This is an important thread throughout the book, and kind of ties it all together. It's a little mystery puzzle to keep the kids thinking as they read. I know my kids were definitely trying to figure out the missing words as we read.

We really enjoyed reading these books. Even as a read aloud it lead to some discussion as the kids noticed similarities to the Bible stories that they have read. They got to ask, did that really happen? In most cases yes (when referring to the facts of the bible story itself), but it is a fictional book so you know there is a lot of make believe too. These books are great for all elementary aged children even a little older or younger would enjoy it too.

If you'd like to see what others had to say about these books you can click on the image below to find other reviews from the review crew.