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Welcome
to KeyKeepersMystery.com!
Here readers and teachers will
find loads of fun educational activities, a cyberhunt or web
quest, photographs, and
information related to the first book in the Key Keepers
series, A Key Keepers Mystery: The Game Begins by child educator Liz
Shore. Each book in the series will be a regional
mystery, but the story that begins it all is set in the author's home
state of Florida.
With
or without the book, this website will help you uncover interesting facts
about Florida and the United States. If you're interested in discovering
clues to the oldest settlement in the United States, the largest subtropical wilderness
on the continent, and an island where Elvis
might still be "king", then you have come to the right place!
The Game Begins with a
vacation to the historic forts of
St.
Augustine, but it soon leads the characters on a swamp tromp through the
Everglades and then into the coral reefs of the Florida Keys and finally
to Key West.
What they discover there will change their lives forever.
They hold the keys to this mystery.
They are the Key Keepers.
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A weird poem,
an
etched skylight, a 13-hour clock, a map with missing states, a cookbook of
island recipes, a six-toed cat, and the dying wish of an eccentric old
man. These are the keys that will unlock the mystery to a great family
treasure, if only Maddie, Michael, & Emma can get to it first.
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The
mystery is set into motion when Great Uncle Jack falls ill quite suddenly
and must entrust 12-year-old Emma with a clue to the whereabouts of his
secret treasure. He swears her
to secrecy and warns her there are enemies who will try to get to the
treasure first. Two other
children (Michael, a 10-year-old boy, and Maddie, his 12-year-old sister)
have just come to live with Jack in his gothic manor after their parents
disappear in a plane crash. Jack
encourages a wary Emma to let only Maddie and Michael help her solve the
mystery of his greatest treasure. After
some intense sleuthing, the children realize they must travel to Key West,
Florida. Read Chapter 1 now.
A
Key Keepers Mystery: The Game Begins
is a wholesome and fun story with many exciting moments as the main
characters learn what it means to be a family. Read
comments
and reviews.
Read
about author
and educator Liz Shore.
Click here to purchase A Key Keepers Mystery: The Game Begins
(ISBN:
1424136881) from online bookstores, or request your local bookstore to
order it for you.
This book is appropriate for any
child, age 9 and up.
ATTENTION TEACHERS! Be sure to
check out the Teaching
Ideas and Educational Activities and Student
Projects pages.
ONLINE PRESS CLIPPINGS:
The
Johnson City Press Link
to my website
Related Web Links
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Cyberhunt
/ Web Quest
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Here are links to
help any child picture and understand what is happening in the book.
Take a virtual tour of St. Augustine, the Everglades, the coral reef of
the Florida Keys, and Key West.
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The
Greatest Treasure |
Track the clues
from Uncle Jack's poem. Use it to make predictions and find the
missing family treasure! |
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Games
and Puzzles |
Play the same
games that Maddie, Michael, and Emma do. Play memory games of
animals found in South Florida. See if you can beat them at Jeopardy
games about St. Augustine, South Florida (the Everglades), and the Florida
Keys (Key West). Solve the mystery of Uncle Jack's odd map, and play
interactive crossword puzzles using vocabulary words from each chapter of
the book. Get together with your friends to play Smugglers, a game
like "Clue" that uses characters, rooms, and props from A Key
Keepers Mystery: The Game Begins by Liz Shore. |
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Sketch
a Scene |
Try your hand at
sketching a passage from the story. Have your artwork posted here. |
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Behind
the Scenes |
Look at the
people and places that inspired the author to write the book. See
photos of St. Augustine, the coral reef of the Florida Keys National
Marine Sanctuary, and other attractions of the Florida Keys, including the
Ernest Hemingway house and its polydactyl cats in Key West. You can also
go here to learn more about author Liz Shore and illustrators Marilyn
Speakman and Adam Bowman. |
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Greystone
Manor |
This diagram of
the inside of Uncle Jack's 3-story mansion will help you track the characters'
movements as they look for clues. |
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Find places
mentioned in the story.
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Keys
to Good Character
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Read the list of
character qualities that guide Emma's conscience.
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Nicknames
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Who are these
characters that Maddie refers to in her nicknames for Michael?
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Glossary
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Want to learn the
meaning of a word from the story? Look here!
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You're
the Critic
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Write a book
review on A Key Keepers Mystery: The Game Begins by Liz Shore. Tell the author what you liked about the
characters, setting, and plot. Tell her what you think could have
been better. (Please send your review in an email and put "book review" in the subject line.
Send email to shore@keykeepersmystery.com)
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Ideas
& Suggestions
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Help the author with her next book. Suggest interesting places for the characters to visit in
the Appalachian Mountain region (North Georgia, Western
North Carolina, and East Tennessee). (Put "ideas" in the subject line of
your email. Send it to: shore@keykeepersmystery.com.)
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Student
Projects
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Meet the author's
students and look at their projects based on A Key Keepers Mystery: The Game Begins.
View their murals and reports of the Everglades and projects on the coral
reef of the Florida Keys. Animal and plant research outlines are
available here for you to use when gathering information for similar
reports.
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For
Teachers
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Here are teaching
ideas and handouts to use in the classroom. Educational activities
related to the book are provided in an integrated curriculum. This
includes vocabulary and many other language arts, social studies, science,
and math lessons relating to the history and ecology of St. Augustine, the
Everglades, and the Florida Keys, including Key West.
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Copyright Policy: All material on this website is
protected by copyright. Teachers and students may freely reproduce
anything on this site for personal or classroom use.
No material on
this site may be used in commercial publication without the author's written
consent. Feel free to link to this website. |
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shore@keykeepersmystery.com
This website is written and
maintained by the author. Email from readers and
teachers is appreciated, but spam mail will be deleted.
Please reference www.KeyKeepersMystery.com
in the subject line of your email.
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Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved.
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