Spring 2005 Review:

    Gregory had just gotten an invitation from his Uncle Max and it said he could bring one friend. He asked his friend Brian to go with him, Brian agreed and so did their parents. So they set of to Gregory's Uncle Max's house, and Gregory even warned that his Uncle was a little on the wacky side. Uncle Max picked them up in a horse and buggy. Brian was stunned, especially at the house! It was an old Victorian styled home, huge, and very easy to get lost in. Brian met Gregory's cousin Prudence, who seemed to him to at least be normal.
     After dinner they found their way to their room and found an ancient game board. The board said The Game of Sunken Places and Brian and Gregory were stunned. They vowed that in the morning they would go out to explore the places the game board had on it. In the morning they did just that, but they split up, something they vowed not to do again. They found various things on the game board, and Brian even met a troll. They became friends with the troll and solved the first puzzle. The friends continued on little by little day by day. One day they just could not take it any more, they demanded to know what was going on.
     Uncle Max started to explain some things but was not allowed to say much, or he would break the rules. Eventually he did go to far, and the people that Brian and Gregory, or they thought they were playing against, came.  These creatures were like the rule keepers of the game and if something went wrong, they came. Brian and Gregory fled the house and only returned for supplies. They continued their adventure, though closely followed by someone they were both afraid of: Jack Stimple. Jack Stimple followed them everywhere he could.
     The two eventually cracked all of the codes but one. This was the most important one. If this was not solved by the two friends, or so they sought, they would lose the game and suffer like the people of the mounds, for who they were playing for. Brian and Gregory met Jack Stimple at the City of Gargoyles, where there was almost a lot of damage. Brian and Gregory found out things they never thought they would, as in who Jack Stimple really was, and what he was there for. They found out many more mysteries, ones I cannot say, for I will break the rules of the game.
     This was an EXTREMELY AWESOME book! It was full of adventure, risk, torture, horror, and death around EVERY corner! I would recommend this book for students in an enriched sixth grade English and reading class to ninth grade. This is because it is a very hard book to follow and students in lower grades may give up easily.
 

~ Ashley Aldan, grade Six, Boardman Center Middle School

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