The Secrets of the Pied Piper 1: The Peddler's Road Kindle Edition

We read this book as a family with my 11 year old son. Trying to find a book he'll enjoy is difficult, but he seemed to take to this story. The focus is on a sister and brother and their journey into a fantasy world of the Pied Piper. What I like about this book is that the heroes are normal kids struggling with their everyday problems and then are thrown into this new other world . What makes it interesting is that one of the kids has a physical disability. Like in "Powerless", (check out Matt's other terrific series!) here is a boy who seems powerless, helpless, but ultimately is the one with the knowledge, wit, kindness, and power to save the day. We loved it!

A fantastic start to a promising looking series.

Putting aside the magical apprentice, prophesied-one, and object quest fantasies, tales built around being taken away and having to get back home may be among the most durable of all story arcs. From The Odyssey to Wizard of Oz, people just want to go home.The Pied Piper tale may resonate because it's one of the few tales with no traditional resolution. The children of Hamelin are taken away - but to where and to what ultimate purpose? This book starts at that point and spins out a continuing tale that's part Neverland and part folktale survey mashup.The opening of the book is gripping and dark. Cody nicely captures the Piper's sinister and hypnotic call. We then switch to modern times and meet the two kids we know immediately will be drawn into the Piper story. Again, this is set up well, with portents, and dark figures, and a "rat extermination professional" instead of a piper. And our heroes, Max and Carter are fine. Having a mildly wild-child older sister and a thoughtful, shy younger brother doesn't exactly break new ground, but both characters are built for the long haul and have reader appeal.But then we get to "New Hamelin". We start with loads and loads of exposition and explaining in order to get all of the characters and the reader on the same page storywise. I can see that as a real benefit to younger readers who aren't familiar with how these sorts of books work. NO SPOILERS, except to say that this then becomes a quest along a road in search of a way home. The book sticks with the Piper angle, but we get many more characters, more borrowings from other tales, (Baba Yaga?), and pretty much an anything goes fantasy and magical creature walk-about. I was O.K. with that, but be warned. While this could have been a tidy and entertaining stand-alone book, it is actually the first in a three book series, and is loaded with cliffhangers. I'm undecided whether this has was it takes to draw me through a trilogy, so be forewarned.(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Matthew Cody’s retelling of the classic Pied Piper story is imaginative and unique. The story focuses on 1) what happen to the children of Hamelin after they disappeared with the Pied Piper, and 2) how a modern day boy is the key to the Hamelin children returning home after their 700 hundred year absence.The story had a good pace, and there was enough suspense and tension without getting too frightening for younger readers. The main characters where all likable, and the sibling angst between Max and Carter is true-to-life. During the story the children encounter lots of obstacles and challenges which help engage the reader and keep the story moving forward. There are giant rats, ghost, trolls, witches, magicians, and elves. There is plenty to keep a young reader engaged, but there are some plot elements that had me puzzled. Some of the sub-plots were also confusing (Shades’ Harbor), and I never understood why the group took the long and winding Peddler’s Road (which made them circle the island going first south then east then back north when there was a much shorter and more direct northern route to the Black Castle).I also found the ending of the story to be rushed, and there wasn’t nearly enough closure for my taste. The ending is not quite a cliff-hanger, but it is pretty darn close. But on the plus side the ending/epilogue does do a good job of setting up the next book in the series. It has a great hook that has me looking forward to the next book in the trilogy.So a good story that is well written, but keep in mind that at the end of Book 1 you will have just as many questions as when you started.