We LOVE these series! My 10 year old girl has read the first 3 books, and is getting started on book # 4, so does my husband (who is hooked to the series too!) and I am working on book#2 at the moment..we also have pre-order book 5 with great anticipation..We enjoy the way the Author writes, the flow of thoughts, it's a very peasant book to read..it's even more inetersing after knowing He used ALL real life, History Characters, with the exception of the Twins, EVERYONE else in the book are historical characters. We liked this books better than Fablehaven, which is a very good read too! Lot's of fast paced adventures, Magic, interesting characters, twists and turns, it is a page turner!

I went to this series because of all of the good reviews, but to this point it has left me cold. The writer's combination of classic mythology with modern surroundings is interesting. But the characters are sadly two dimensional. Having just finished both of Suzanne Collins' series, where there is so much depth and personality to the figures, the contrast with this storytelling was almost painful. Apart from their tastes in music and other details I might find on their Facebook page, I felt like I knew nothing interesting about the two protagonists. As a result, I didn't care about them (and that also holds true for Flamel and the main antagonist). I'm not sure whether it's even worth giving book 2 a try.

We listened to this audio book on a long car trip with our 7-yr-old boy/girl twins. Since the main characters were b/g twins, this was a plus for us. Even though the main characters are much older, our kids had no trouble following the plot, understanding language, concepts, etc. We recognized the Nicholas Flamel character from Harry Potter (which we love), but this is not a J.K. Rowling off-shoot. It's a completely different story and we'll be getting the 2nd book when it comes out.

I've spent hours pouring over books, analyzing and critiquing them and the content within, as well as the messages they may contain, however subliminal they may be. This series is a great one for kids, granted they should be old enough to appreciate the historical context and mythologies mixed within. I know many of the reviews for this have said there is no positive message, but I would argue that they need to take a deeper look. What reader wasn't upset by the bad choices made by good characters? What reader doesn't want the good to triumph. Yes, these themes are used in a lot of books, but the way Mr. Scott represents them in this series is a breath of fresh air, that also leads to the reader asking deeper questions, such as "when is it o.k. to do this?", or "not to do that?" (I would give more detail, but I hate spoilers.) I would highly recommend this book series, especially over many of the more commonly read books kids are reading today (excepting The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events, etc.)