[JunWoo Song]

Dear Mr. Korman,

Hello, my name is JunWoo Song. I am a middle schooler in ISQ (International School of Qingdao). I am writing to tell you about the parts that I like about your book in the 39 clues series, One False Note.

 First, I like the part where even though the setting of this story is like today, there are a lot more advanced and futuristic gadgets that the Cahill family use. There are things like poison dart guns and even things like violins that explode. The Kabras usually use the high-tech gadgets against the main protagonists, Amy, and Dan. It is amusing to see how they counteract their fancy machines.

Second, I like the Cahill family line and how it leads to famous people around the world. All the Cahill z are famous people from different countries, and it is amusing to see main characters move around the globe. It gives relations to the readers reading these books and gives connection to the real world.

Third, I like how both Amy and Dan rely on each other to stand ahead. Amy is smart and is usually the more rational one, Dan adds comic relieve and is usually the more silly, playful, and humorous side. While they both think that they are normal, they both have their own strengths that lead them to otherwise stand ahead in their competition. Amy is smart and has a lot of common sense. Dan is good at memorizing or calculating numbers or pictures.

And finally, I have some questions for you. 1. How is Nellie not running out of money even though they are roaming around the world and staying hotels? Even though they have Grace’s jewelry, how do they have enough money to travel? 2. How do the Kabras find where they are going? We know that Mr. McIntyre was spying on them by using location detectors, but there are no direct mentions of how they are spying on them. 3. How do you plan out how the clues intersect and lead to each other? When I was reading this book, I was wondering how you figure these things out. There are even more books that lead to the 39 clues, but do you just plan them before making the books? If so, then how do you plan them?

Thank you for reading my letter, Goodbye!

Sincerely, JunWoo Song

 

Hello, JunWoo Song,

First of all, I had to go and look up Qingdao, and I found you in Shangdong Province of China. Thank you for posting. I'm pleased to hear that my first book in THE 39 CLUES series, "One False Note," made a hit with you. It's always good for me to get the impressions of my work from my readers. It keeps me in touch with what you guys like to read. So thank you for the input.

Your questions: 1. Money. You have to assume that they managed to take a lot of money with them, knowing they were going to need food and lodging. Also, Nellie had little jobs here and there along the way, so she was making a little cash for them too, e.g. at the hotel in Vienna.  2. The Kabras are very wealthy, and have spies everywhere.  As to how others are spying on them, you have to read the whole series to understand McIntyre and how he keeps track of everything and everyone. The clues indicate where the action is going to take place, e.g. the place where Mozart was born. 

Great question about how the whole series is planned, and it's complicated, but I'll try to answer. THE 39 CLUES is a multi-author series. The planning of the complete story took place before anything was ever written down, all of it by the editorial staff and a writer or two at Scholastic, the publisher. Rick Riordan, the author, was given the beginning of the plot and asked to write the first book. I was given the second book -- they then gave me Rick's book, told me where the story had to go, and I took it from there. In turn, I handed "One False Note" to Peter Lerangis, and he continued the story from there. And so on, all through the series. So we took up where the previous author left off, but the basic story line was laid out for us, and we knew what point we had to write to in order to continue the story.

Does that make sense? It was a fabulous experience, and turned into an amazing series. The other book I wrote for it was #8 in the series. It takes place in China, and is called "The Emperor's Code." I hope you'll read it and enjoy it too.

Thanks again for writing.                                                                 -----Gordon Korman-----