The Alchemyst is about Sophie and Josh Newman. They are twins and live in San Francisco with their aunt while their parents are on an archeology expedition. When the twins witness a strange man attacking bookshop owner Nick Fleming with magical spears of energy and Nick defending himself with exploding balls of light, their lives change forever.

The strange man is John Dee; he is immortal and has been trying to capture Nick Fleming — who is really Nicholas Flamel — for centuries. Nicholas Flamel is the guardian of the Codex, a book with the potential to destroy the world. The twins help him protect the Codex, and in doing so put themselves in grave danger.

Despite their help, John Dee succeeds in capturing Perenelle Flamel (Nicholas’s wife) and steals all but two pages of the Codex. This forces Nicholas, Sophie, and Josh to go on the run, and the twins find out that they are the twins of legend. They have the potential to save the world or destroy it.

One of the fun things about this book is that Nicholas Flamel was a real person. The events in this book didn’t happen, but Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel were real people. Nicholas was a French scribe and bookseller, and an alchemyst. One day he bought a book called the Book of Abraham the Mage (also known as the Codex). He and Perenelle travelled for years trying to translate it and eventually returned to Paris, supposedly very rich. There were many rumors that he had created the philosopher’s stone, which could turn metal to gold, and that he was also now immortal. When Nicholas and Perenelle died, their tomb was broken into, and it was found empty. You have to ask, were they really immortal?

The Alchemyst is the first book in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series. There are six books, and I am currently on the third. They have all been amazing so far.

This book is for 5th-9th graders, but I think adults would enjoy it, too. The Alchemyst has 375 pages.

I give this book 5 out of 5 bookworms.

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