Click Here to Start by Denis Markell

When I was a kid, my favourite movie was The Goonies. I would shove our well-worn VHS copy of it into the giant Panasonic player and my friends and I would pretend we were those kids, faced with insurmountable odds, solving riddles, getting into trouble, doing something fun.

Click Here to Start brought up all those great memories for me as I read it in one sitting over the weekend.

Twelve year-old Ted loves video games, particularly the  "escape the room" genre. He spends way too many hours of a hot L.A. summer sitting on his laptop cracking codes, solving riddles and beating the games, sans-walkthrough.

Then Ted gets news that his great uncle has passed away. In addition, he's left Ted everything in his apartment along with a cryptic message that there's treasure to be found.
At first, Ted thinks that his great uncle just left behind a lot of junk.

That's until he realises that the apartment is actually a riddle unto itself, a real life escape the room game. Together, with his friends Caleb & Isabel,  Ted must solve the riddle before the treasure gets into the wrong hands.
Jam-packed with pop culture, literary and historical references, Click Here to Start is quickly becoming one of the most popular books at Glenthorne. If you need a book to recommend to both boys and girls who love video games, puzzles or just plain fun, this is the book.

We had the great pleasure of Skyping with author Denis Markell on two occasions and it was great fun, I highly recommend getting in touch and Skyping with Denis for any year group!

I recommend Click Here to Start for years 7 and up!