About the Book

The Vespers have crossed a line. Amy and Dan were devastated when the Vespers kidnapped seven Cahills around the world, holding them hostage until Amy and Dan delivered an impossible ransom. But at least the hostages were Cahills—members of the world’s most powerful family, trained to face all odds.

Now the Vespers have gone too far.

They’ve kidnapped Atticus, an innocent eleven-year-old boy and Dan’s only friend. Dan and Amy are in the struggle of their lives. Because if they can’t outwit the Vespers, the unthinkable will happen...Atticus will die.

About the Author

As an award-winning author with a degree in biochemistry from Harvard, Lerangis has a mix of skills that make him a formidable Clue hunter and Janus Branch member. He was most recently spotted in New York City, where he is rumored to live with his wife and two sons.

Explore The 39 Clues World Using Common Core Standards

Discover exotic locations with famous explorers like Marco Polo, admire amazing artists and their work, and follow Dan and Amy as they conquer challenges like they have never had to face before! The Educator Guides for The 39 Clues Cahill vs. Vespers series are created to help educators take a journey around the world with their students.

Using Common Core Standards, each lesson is designed to help your students master a specific English Language Arts standard. Each skill helps teachers ensure that their students have the knowledge they need to be successful by providing clear goals for student learning. In addition, the Educator Guide provides tiered lessons with various levels of cognitive complexity for differentiation in the classroom.

English Language Arts Anchor Standard #1

Students will be able to read carefully to determine the explicit meaning of the text and to make logical inferences from it. They will also be able to cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking in order to support conclusions drawn from the text.

Amy and Dan find evidence and then use their inference skills to protect them from danger, to find the solution to impossible tasks, and to ultimately help them save their family from the Vespers. Use these exercises to help your students learn to think like a Cahill by developing their ability to identify key ideas while uncovering details using fact-finding and inference skills.

RL.3.1. Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

Learning Goal: In this exercise, students will use The Dead of Night to answer questions about the text and support answers by locating evidence in the text. This is an active reading comprehension strategy that can be applied to a variety of texts across content areas. Because students are developing this skill, chapter numbers are given to help them focus their efforts. Students will work individually or in pairs to complete the Text-Based Challenge Questions Worksheet (see the PDF reproducible).

RL.4.1. Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Learning Goal: Students at this level have mastered the ability to use the text to find answers. Now they are challenged to use details and examples to make an inference about the text. The Text Inference Chart Worksheet (see the PDF reproducible) can be done individually or in pairs.

RL.5.1. Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from a text.

Learning Goal: This fifth grade standard expects students to be able to explain a text’s meaning using quotes to support their inferences. Students will work individually to complete the Quote Discovery Challenge Worksheet (see the PDF reproducible).

Educator’s Guide by Laura Stockwell