As much as I love audiobooks, this one contained cyphers and code-breaking. I think that reading it visually would be more fun to participate in figuring out the puzzles. That being said, the audiobook was well done and Laci Morgan did a great job narrating.

Idlewood Manor invites several guests. I don't want to divulge any spoilers and the author does a great job revealing clues slowly throughout the book. I really love how the author describes the details of the rooms and the Manor. I also love how there are ties to a female explorer who disappeared decades ago. This children's audiobook held my attention.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher OrangeSky Audio and the author Allison K. Hymas for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review. Publication date is right around the corner on 15 June 2021!

Thank you for the opportunity to learn about this title. Unfortunately, I was not able to download the content in advance of the archival date. However, I have added this publication to my future TBR list.

Nice for middle graders.
I found the main character just a tad bit annoying and selfish and most of the characters were stereotypes.
But the mystery makes up for the characters even though some reveals were predictable.
I recommend it if you are just looking for something to pass the time and not for anything serious.

I am not posting this review online because I don't like to post negative reviews online. However, I will share my opinions here. To me, the voice in this book is wrong. It is not authentic for middle school kids. The book seems like what some parents would like for their kids to read, but not something that kids would actually enjoy reading. It is moralizing. The parts where the siblings ruminate about their relationship with one another is odd and sounds like what adults wish kids would think and feel, but is not really an accurate portrayal. Most, if not all of the parts where the kids ruminate about their feelings is just off. The code breaking idea has potential, but it was not really well done in this book. The writing seemed fine.

I really enjoyed this puzzle solving book! It is definitely a fun read. Inglewood Manor is a place that is said to hold treasures and due to it being left just as the original owner left it, many would love to explore the mansion for it's secret mysteries. The story follows Charlie, his sister Anna and Emily a friend they meet as they try to solve the mysterious history behind the house. Charlie, the math wiz, won a family package at the Manor and Emily's parents are there to prove the Manor is a Historical Monument and if the new owner is going to sell to get out of the owner's wishes to leave the house as is. No spoilers but I highly recommend it. Thanks to #netgalley for the advanced reader copy. I loved it!

I got this an audio book early review copy. Just reading the teaser Blurb was enough to get me excited about this read/listen.

I loved getting to know Anna, Charlie and Emily . Three amazing kids with their own personality quirks over the course of this amazing story.

I also loved hearing about the Brave woman explorer and her sister. It was brilliant and well paced adventure :)

thank you netgalley for providing me with the arc for this book.

i usually like this type of mystery book but here are a few issues i had with it:

1. the chapters are LOOONG. its probably just me but i hate books with long chapters
2. the "twists" in this book were kinda predictable
3. the plot was confusing at some points
4. the characters barely went through any sort of development
5. the ending just kept going on and on and on.
6. the narrator sounded robotic.

i think the only upside is i think the cover is cute.

What a fun mystery! I really enjoyed this book, the characters were well developed and the puzzle was interesting. This was a fast paced story and perfect for readers looking for a middle grade mystery.

There are three main characters, each with their own strengths. Anna is the explorer, always getting into places she shouldn't. She idolizes Ginny, a famous female explorer who traveled the world before disappearing. Charlie is Anna's brother and a young genius. He's great at codes and math and begins to put together hidden messages left in books and paintings. Finally we have Emily, the daughter of historians who knows the Idlewood house is being sold and is determined to save it.

The best part of this was seeing the strengths of each kid and watching them come together to figure out what really happened to Virginia and the treasure. There are also quirky side characters staying in the hotel and I enjoyed guessing which of them were up to no good.

I needed a light read and this was perfect. The narrator did a good job with the characters and I was absorbed right away.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. Thank you to OrangeSky Audio and NetGalley for the copy.

Puzzles, friendship, minor family squabbles, matching T-Shirts, and mysterious giant handbags! Anna, Charlie, and Emily are all staying in Idlewood Manor when they find clues to the history of the estate. This is a fun middle grade mystery!

I loved this audiobook! I love children's mystery stories and this one was fantastic, especially when it was expressed through audio. The story is about three children called Charlie, Anna and Emily, who try to solve the mystery of Idlewood Manor. The mystery is decades old. Will the children be able to solve the puzzles and clues to solve the mystery and find the secret treasure? This is a great book and the narrator, Laci Morgan was very good at the different voices.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The main characters were relatable and their sleuthing was so fun! I especially enjoyed how each characters' discoveries eventually joined together. It was incredibly frustrating to hear Charlie constantly bash Anna and act as if everything she did was wrong. Particularly since their parents felt Charlie, the younger sibling, could do no wrong, Anna will be particularly relatable to and loved by older siblings and those who love adventure.

Unfortunately, I really struggled to distinguish between Emily and Anna for the entirety of the story. Somehow I didn't even realize they were two different people for the first 20%. This was likely because I was listening to the audiobook, not a fault of the writing.

However, one sentence really should have been rephrased. Anna's red curls are mentioned over and over throughout the story which, fine. But the statement "even the curls in her ponytail looked tense" just... doesn't happen? I have curly hair and my curls, though it can be argued that they have a mind of their own, do not move to show emotion.

The narrator, Laci Morgan, was enjoyable, though the extremely high voice for the little girls, especially Anna, was slightly annoying. It was difficult to follow and visualize the codes without reading them, so keep that in mind if you're hoping to solve the clues along with Charlie.

This was a great book, though it seemed to drag on after a while. I'd recommend this book to young readers, especially those who love exploration and solving mysteries. Even though I'm an older teenager now, the adventure was very interesting and exciting!

Contrary to what some other reviewers have said, I think that The Explorer's Code by Alison K. Hymas is a delightful read/listen for a younger audience! I would say that this book is geared more towards middle school children, but it was still an enjoyable listen for me, and I'm far out of that age range. I really enjoyed the puzzles and ciphers throughout the book and actually learned a few things, such as what exactly a Caesar cipher was. Although I didn't LOVE all of the characters, I didn't need to. Anna had no boundaries, her brother Charlie (who figured out the ciphers) was a math whiz and Emily had a sneaky way of getting adults to talk, especially Mr. Llewellen (sp). There were some really fun characters and although they weren't particularly full of depth, they didn't need to be. This story is more based on the mystery and solving the puzzles, per se, and less about building characters with tons of depth at the level that this story is geared towards.

The narration was a great fit for the characters and the book overall and I definitely think that she was a good fit to narrate this story. All in all, I could see this story being a great start of a series or even a kid's movie. Overall, this was a great book and I would definitely recommend it to friends with middle schoolers!

Thanks to NetGalley and OrangeSky Audio for an advanced audio book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Three kids sneak around Idlewood Manor searching for clues to solve several mysteries. I would have liked the kids to work together more to solve the mysteries. I loved the theme rooms. I know its a book but found it very annoying that almost all the guests, kids and adults alike, had no issues trespassing all over the property.

Narrator did a fine job on the audio book.

Idlewood Manor lays steeped in mystery, largely unoccupied, and going to ruin. Its doors are opened for one weekend and eager families flock to visit it. Amongst these guests are brother and sister, Charlie and Anna. They used to be close but in recent years Charlie's quiet nature and bookishness has meant he has had little in common with his elder and more adventurous older sister. The weekend does not initially prove to bring them any closer together as they both find interests at separate ends of the mysterious manor. Perhaps the other child staying there can help to bridge the gap between them? Emily takes after her historian parents and so has a little of both of their characters inside of her.

The reader was introduced to Anna's character first. I really liked her personality from the information provided about her inquisitive nature, that had her exploring locked attic spaces and restricted museum exhibits in the past.

Charlie's perspective came next and he seemed Anna's total opposite, with his love for intellect and books. His affinity for maths was baffling to me but I could understand his fears and reserve.

Emily was a third perspective and she immediately shared her interest in the past with the reader. Her parents' shared love of history meant she was knowledgeable about artefacts and old places and had previously visited many historical sites.

An explorer, an intellectual, and a historian: these three different skillsets were clearly going to have to work together to solve the mysteries surrounding the manor house, although it took them much of the book to actually do so.

I loved the codes, hidden clues, and adventures that the three children uncovered, over the weekend. I would have loved to see them interact a little more but their three separate missions eventually took them in the same direction. This was a fun exploration of a large and creepy setting with an ingenious adventure inside of it.

This was read decently enough by Laci Morgan, but that couldn't help a story which dragged and which felt all over the place to me. Nor could it help one of the characters, who I found obnoxious. Obviously this story isn't written for me, since I'm far from a middle-grader, but I've listened to and read many such stories before, and enjoyed a lot of them, so it wasn't the age range; it was the story itself.

Let me put in a minor qualification in here. This was an audiobook, and I listen to my audiobooks while out in the car commuting and doing other stuff. A book which deals in alphabetic cyphers and math problems really doesn't lend itself to that sort of listening, because you cannot see the printed word and study it, so the advisability of having this as an audiobook in the first place became questionable to me once I'd listened to a significant portion of it.

The story is of three youngsters, "math whiz" Charlie, his sister Anna, and another girl who they meet, named Emily. All three are with their families, spending time at an old house which has been turned into a hotel. I do believe it was explained how they came to be there, but I either missed the details or I've forgotten it, so I can't tell you. It's not really important.

In the course of their exploring the place, all three find clues to a mystery, but by the time I quit the story, they had solved nothing despite getting into everything, and the story really was dragging for me by then. The description indicates that they work together, and I'm sure they do, but the fact that by almost two-thirds the way through, they were barely on speaking terms was a problem and evinced very little in the way of cooperation or faith in them as a team.

On top of that one of them finds some old letters which were read out in full in the story and were tedious to listen to. They felt like a ball and chain on the story. Maybe they were supposed to be clues, but they sounded more clueless to me. Consequently, around sixty percent in, I decided I'd had enough of this and DNF'd it without any regrets. Younger readers might have more patience with it than I, but I wouldn't bet on that.

I was put off the story quite early by Anna, who was frankly a nightmare. She had no boundaries, no sense of personal space or privacy, and was an unrepentant pain-in-the-ass troublemaker of a child who would wander around routinely into places she didn't belong - and knew she wasn't supposed to be there - yet she never felt bad about it or had any problem with being a busy-body, an unregenerate rule breaker, and a meddling little demon. I disliked her pretty much from the start.

How you can pretend there's an explorer's "code" and then feature a hobgoblin like Anna was the only real mystery here for me. Charlie and Emily, by contrast were such bland characters that they never really registered with me as anyone to pay that much attention to. Emily was mildly obnoxious, but was a milksop compared with Anna. Charlie was a one-note character as were most of the people in this story for that matter. Charlie was bland to the point of fading into the woodwork he studied so intently.

So, overall, not a good experience, and I certainly cannot commend this as a worthy read.

What a SUPER FUN little book! I loved reading Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames books as a child and this adorable story would have definitely been a good precursor to those series. I love that the young girls are smart and strong - budding heroines! I love that the “nerdy” boy is a hero. I love the example set about how each individual should be valued for his/her own strengths, but “teamwork makes the dream work.”
Cooperation, intelligence, family, brainpower ... these guiding concepts are wonderful topics for children and they are certainly the focus here.
Honestly, I kept expecting a twist where the reader finds out that this whole vacation was actually a plan by the owners to bring in a group of people to solve a mystery, or complete a quest, or ... something. Something that would pull the focus back to the adults and make them the stars, but I was thrilled to be wrong! This novel thoroughly shines the light in the young people and keeps it there, adults are merely bumbling (but not caricature) background players.
This is certainly geared to a primary school-aged audience, but I could see some of my younger middle schools kids loving it.
I also really appreciate the codes given (I’m guessing that in the print version , the actual codes are printed) and could see this leading to a fun follow-up assignment. I would definitely use this as part of my book club/literature circles, because it’s a lower level in the reading spectrum but not on a sophistication of thought level.

5/5!!! Amazing Middle Grade!!

I absolutely loved this book and if you're the adventurous type you will too! I wish this had came out when I was younger because I know I would've enjoyed it even more! I love the story and the mystery. None of the characters are prefect and I am so thankful for that because it makes the story feel a bit more real! I will definitely be keeping an eye out for a physical copy for my collection. 10/10 Recommend.

Disclaimer: I read/listened to this early on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

(ISBN is wrong on Goodreads apparently but I will be posting my review on there as well)