Amy and Dan

Main Page: The Characters

Besides the plot, in every story, the main characters are the main thing; everything is centered around them.

In The 39 Clues book series by Scholastic, this is taken to the max, which literally the entire world revolving around them and their every move.

Dan and Amy Cahill are main characters in every sense of the imagination, with the fate of the world hanging in their hands.

Perhaps more importantly, they can be easily related to by the reader.

Dan is eleven years old, and in many ways is the quintessential eleven year old boy; athletic, loving gross things’, eating too much candy, and is very hyper, He also loves video games and weapons.

On the other hand, he is one of the smartest people on the planet, who (as Amy says) is a “hot-mad genius,” and “a natural Madame Curie.” His code-breaking and math abilities are truly amazing.

To top it all off, he has a photographic memory; but is impatient, and is not good at researching or taking his time.

Amy is almost the opposite. At fourteen, Amy loves books and research, but is constantly plagued by the terrible disease of self-doubt.

Even though she might even be smarter than Dan, Amy has no trust in herself, and always expects them to slipup and lose the contest.

She also absolutely loathes being in front of crowds, and it is revealed in book one that she often has nightmares where she’s at the bottom of a pit and everyone is laughing at her. She is easily tongue-tied.

However, starting book six, Amy got much more complex.

She had always taken the hunt more seriously than Dan, who treated it somewhat as if it were a game. But in book six, she began to take on a role of a much more serious clue hunter.

She has stood up for herself against both Isabel and Ian Kabra (“Amy could not believe the cold, sardonic voice was her own.”).

She also became an active spy, looking for “tails.” This new development was very interesting.

In book seven, though, the mysteriousness of Amy ratchets up a few notches as she starts to have temper tantrums. Not only that, but she wants Alistair to die (I wanted him to die, Dan. I’ve never felt this before, what’s wrong with me.”)

It will certainly be interesting to see what comes of Amy in the coming books.

Without one another they would be nothing: Amy does the research and figures out some of the “book” stuff, while Dan cracks codes and comes up with the abstract answers.

Unfortunately, according to the teaser for book eight (courtesy of Amazon), they will be separated: “As the race to find the 39 Clues builds to its explosive finish, Amy and Dan must steal a Clue guarded by thousands of the world’s best soldiers. After discovering the horrible secret of their family branch, they begin to question whether they’re the good guys or the bad guys. With their enemies closing in, the siblings are separated. Together, they almost have a chance, but alone…. Could the search for this Clue spell the end of Amy and Dan? And while they are separated, could their Aunt Beatrice’s detective find them?”

The search hinders on them; and so does the entire series. There is so much more to discover about Dan and Amy, which will be provided in the links below.

Oh, and by the way; did I forget to mention their branch was Madrigal?