The Khipu and The Final Key
Publisher - Albert Whitman & Co.
Publication Date (October 2017)
ISBN 10 - 0807506826
ISBN 13 - 978-0807506820
135 pages of story
And so the Boxcar Children's "Great Adventure" reaches its conclusion in this fifth and final part of this mini-series within a series. Although the five books in this mini-series should have been numbered 141 - 145, the publisher labeled them as "Great Adventure" books 1 through 5 instead. The next book after this picked back up the numbering with 146.
All of that aside, The Khipu and The Final Key provided a satisfying, albeit somewhat rushed conclusion to the Boxcar Children's worldwide adventure. In the last mystery, the children discovered that their pilot, Mr. Ganert, is a spy for the Argents, who are determined to steal the artifacts that the Alden children are working so fervently to return to their rightful owners. (Of course, as revealed in the book, if you look at Mr. Ganert's name, it is basically the letters of Argent rearranged.) Now, as they prepare to return the last item on their list, the children must find away to do so without revealing the fact that they know Ganert is a spy - and still manage to return the object.
But they don't know where they are going, and the don't even have the object they are to return!
Authors Dee Garretson and JM Lee send the children on a mission to South America, using the clue they discover inside the Reddimus box to locate the rare and exotic flower and deliver it to a botanist in Argentina. Along the way, they manage to evade Mr. Ganert, but they face off against the devious and determine Argent agent, Anna, not once, but twice, in their efforts to safely deliver the flower.
Garretson and Lee do provide some exciting moments, but nothing overtly dangerous (after all, these children are still very young). The clues are also intriguing without being overly difficult. For its intended audience, the book is a great conclusion to this huge, five-part adventure.
And I suppose that is where my problem lies. I am reading the book as an adult, so I am taking my adult perspective into the story. Seriously, what adults would allow four children, all under the age of 15, to go traipsing around the world without a chaperone? What guardian would allow the four children in whose care they are entrusted to leave a perfectly safe train to go hiking through the woods to an unknown destination, all the while knowing that some not-so-nice adults are looking for them, to steal the package they are carrying - and not only allow them to do it, but encourage them to do it? And what international agency would enlist the aid of four children to deliver packages around the world, when their adult agents were having difficulty evading the evil Argents?
I suppose as a pre-teen, the intended audience for this series, the stories would be amazing. I mean, isn't that every child's dream? To be free of parental control and go traveling the world in search of adventure? Besides, looking back, when I read the Nancy Drew series as a child, I did enjoy the fact that a teenager not only had so much freedom, but that she was respected by pretty much every adult she met. And let's face it - the Boxcar Children manage to outwit and out-think all of the adults around them and solve the mystery, every time. So, from that perspective, I would have to say this five-book adventure was fairly well-written and would certainly draw in children who crave mystery and adventure in their stories. (Let's just hope the children reading these books don't get it into their head that they can do these things without adult supervision!)
RATING: 7 jars of Dulce de Leche out of 10 for wrapping up this mystery adventure series in a fun and enjoyable way.
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