The Case of the Missing Mountain (author Kim Jones) is a book I highly recommend for any Christian homeschooler with children in elementary through middle school. Your children will have so much interactive fun exploring for clues, solving mysteries and completing puzzles and activities, they'll not even realize just how much they are actually learning!

The main focus of the book is to teach children about young earth concepts through the investigation of tangible, observable evidence.

If your family has ever toured any of the U.S. National Parks mentioned in the book, (the Grand Canyon, the Badlands of South Dakota or Yellowstone), you probably heard a tour guide or viewed a video claiming that these areas developed over the course of millions of years. If your family hasn't had the opportunity to visit any of these National Parks, maybe your children have seen or read about them. If so, chances are good that the information contained 'facts' stating that it took millions of years to create such beauty and wonder.

In The Case of the Missing Mountain, Rangers Jack and Jen guide kids through the evidence left behind after the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. In this exciting adventure your children will learn how the formation of the Grand Canyon and the Badlands as well as the petrified trees of Yellowstone can all be explained biblically and within a young earth timleline.

How is the book interactive? There are clues to follow, mysteries to solve and secret codes, mazes, crossword puzzles and word searches to complete.

Kids will also love the many hands-on activities such as the Warrior's Volcano, Volcano on the Go, Soda Blast Shake-up, Experience the Power, Slippery Slope, Pyroclastic Peanut Butter and more!

If that's not enough fun, kids also have the ability to become an 'Official Mystery Ranger' by solving all the mysteries, completing 2 Rockin' Ranger Activites and at least 2 Mystery Ranger Missions!

What are the Mystery Ranger Missions? These missions are designed to take learning to the next step and include things such as memorizing two 'Volcano' verses, helping with a project around the house or sharing the 'Eternal Life Rescue Plan' with someone.

Did you know that part of Mount St. Helens went missing several years ago?

In The Case of the Missing Mountain by Kim Jones, Rangers Jack and Jen take Future Mystery Rangers on a sleuthing adventure to uncover many mind-blowing clues and facts along the way to discovering the scientific secrets and creative truths involved in the 1980 explosion of Mount St. Helens. Future Mystery Rangers are even taken on a discovery trip of how the region of Mount St. Helens has developed since its 1980 eruption.

Jones creatively includes seven primary mysteries to solve followed by an eighth bonus mystery at the end of the book. Each mystery helps the reader unearth facts about what has happened to Mount St. Helens by using various fun forms of decoding, word searches, mazes, and even experiments and projects that drive home the lessons in a fun way.

Ultimately she guides the reader in understanding how scientific changes to the landscape and environment can happen much faster than scientists used to think, thereby helping the reader understand that believing in the fact that God created the earth as the Bible describes is not such a crazy thing to believe after all. Scientific proof exists in many documented and studied occurrences - not the least of which is Mount St. Helens.

Finally, in the bonus mystery...well, I'll let you discover that little nugget for yourself! :o)

My five-year-old son, Official Mystery Ranger Buster, gives this exciting sleuthing adventure a really BIG thumbs up!!!

Honestly, the book is probably geared more for a little bit older age-range of children, as I had to "help" him with a large amount of the sleuthing work. However, he thoroughly enjoyed the adventure and still retains a vast amount of knowledge about Mount St. Helens that most five-year-olds do not have. Additionally, some of his favorite activities in the book included decoding, word searches, mazes, and he especially LOVED creating our own volcanoes in the back yard and watching the different ways they exploded!!!

Official Mystery Ranger Buster and I highly recommend The Case of the Missing Mountain!!!

Disclaimer: I received this book for free as a contest/giveaway prize from the author, Kim Jones via the publisher Master Books. No other compensation was received. The fact that I received a complimentary product does not guarantee a favorable review.

Every so often, as I have been reviewing curriculum and books, we receive a nearly perfect item. Such is the case with this review from New Leaf Publishing Group. The Case of the Missing Mountain by Kim Jones fit my family to a tee, and we've been having way too much fun with this book to get around to actually reviewing it.

This book is part mystery, part puzzle book, part science text, part story, part experiment book. To make this book absolutely perfect for my family, there would have been a couple fewer puzzles involving deciphering codes (but the author gave me permission to solve a couple of those for my severely dyslexic and quite frustrated student!) However, while he started off incredibly resistant to doing all those word puzzles, the subject matter and the mystery aspect inspired him to complete more of them than he normally would.

The book consists of eight mysteries which involve some text, and a bunch of puzzles. At the end of each mystery, there are "Rockin' Ranger Activities" to do. We, ahem, did virtually all of them. Almost all involved pretty normal household materials (I did have to go shopping for more salt, food coloring and baking soda!)

My absolutely favorite activity, I'm telling you, was called Volano-On-the-Go, and it involved vinegar and baking soda in the bathtub (we went for the shower instead) and a sponge to clean up (quite literally) afterwords. Oh, I should have gotten a photo of my shower after my son used "lava power" to attack all the scum and grime. And HE THOUGHT IT WAS GREAT. Oh, I'm telling you, this book is worth the price just for this activity.

Other experiments involved spreading colored salt into layers, or layering peanut butter and crackers (the little guys loved this one!)

Many activities were outdoor ones. A couple involved spraying something out of a soda bottle. One outdoor activity we hope to do involved creating bubble art, but we are waiting for a day that isn't windy. There were also a couple of the later activities that involved visiting a lake, pond, or stream (we don't have any nearby... so we may not do this one at all) and one that requires leaves of different colors and shapes. That one will have to wait for later in the year when there are leaves to be found.

Of course, no book about volcanoes would be complete without the traditional baking soda volcano. The kids all loved this one. They started discussing what could be done to turn this into more of an experiment. Would there be a difference with boiling water vs. warm water vs. cold water? What difference does the size of the container make?

At the end of the book, there are some other missions to be completed in order to be an Official Mystery Ranger. One involved memorizing Bible verses. We particularly liked Psalm 46:1-3.

In summary, particularly for a child already interested in geology or just interested in volcanoes, this book was great. It packed a lot of great information into a fun mystery. And the activities were phenomenal. I learned a lot about volcanoes... and I thought I knew a fair amount already.

I highly, highly recommend this book. And no, you cannot have mine...

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from New Leaf Publishing Group. No other compensation was received. The fact that I received a complimentary product does not guarantee a favorable review.

Author Kim Jones has written a fantastic book for children called "The Case of the Missing Mountain". In this book, children are able to uncover clues and solve eight mysteries all centered around Mount St. Helens, learn about young-earth creation concepts in a fun and educational way and unveil some of the most amazing evidences for Creation. Your child will become a detective (along with Ranger Jack and Ranger Jen) to search for the clues and answers as use secret codes to solve problems, wander through mazes, decipher crossword puzzles and more.

There are also fun experiments and craft projects for your child to complete that will give your child a hands-on experience with what they have read about. Our kids loved "Pyroclastic Peanut Butter" the best and even though we didn't use relay teams, they still had to see who could build the tallest stack of cracker pyroclastic layers in three minutes. Of course, eating the pyroclastic layers was a huge hit too! Don't know what a pyroclastic layer is, then you need this book! But don't worry, I didn't know what it was either until I read this book!

Each of the eight mysteries are fun-filled, action packed adventures that get your kids excited to solve the mystery and discover the secret. "The Mystery of the Floating Forest" was our 9 year old's favorite. She loved learning about Spirit Lake and even neat things like why the sign at Yellowstone had to be taken down because of the eruption. Our 5 year old loves all things animals so his favorite part of the book was the "Survivors and Colonizers" section. In it, he learned about all the plants and animals that were destroyed in the eruption, the ones that survived (amazingly enough, some did survive!) and the ones that moved into the "blast zone" after the eruption.

There are even volcano jokes in the back of the book that your kids will love learning and telling to people. Our kids loved this one: "What did one volcano say to the other?" I LAVA YOU! (hehe) Of course, to finish the book you have to solve all 8 mysteries and then you can become an Official Mystery Ranger (just like Ranger Jack & Ranger Jen) complete with an Official Mystery Ranger Certificate and Badge.

Is your elementary aged child ready to become a Mystery Ranger?

If they are curious about the world around them, like learning about volcanoes, solving puzzles and seeing spectacular photos, I'd say "yes"!

A mountain is missing!

Your mission:

Find out how it could have disappeared to earn your Mystery Ranger Badge.

* First, visit the Nature Tour website to download your checklist and see other activities.

* Second, solve all seven mysteries.

* Third, complete at least two missions from the Ranger Mission List.

* Lastly, complete at least two Rockin' Ranger Activities.

Join Ranger Jack and Jen as they take you on a tour of Mt. St. Helen's showing the evidence for a young Earth while you solve word puzzles, decipher codes, and wander through mazes. You'll learn about the 1980 eruption, pyroclastic and mudflows, badlands, rock layers, petrification, water erosion and recolonization.

Case of the Missing Mountain is an 80 page book about Mt. St. Helen's written from a Young Earth/Creationist perspective. The information provided is easy enough for the youngest of Rangers to understand without being too simplistic for your older crew. Broken down into bite-sized bits, it is readily retained.

I adventured through this book with my 7th, 4th and 2nd graders. Like my oldest, I knew many of the facts - but not as they pertain to a Young Earth Theory. We both loved the pictures supporting these tidbits.

My 4th grader got a lot out of the book especially in the area of relating what happened during the formation of canyons from the mudflows on Mt. St. Helen's with the carving of the Earth during Noah's flood. (and also relating it to the Grand Canyon). He was able to figure out the puzzles without help. He also enjoyed working on a chapter at a time on his own and then coming together to discuss it.

My 2nd grader needed help to do the puzzles, giving us some Mother-Daughter time as well. She focused more on the pictures and the interpretation of them than the boys did. Being my animal lover, she really enjoyed the chapter on Recolonization.

At the end of each of the 7 Mystery Sections, two experiments (Rockin' Ranger Activities) are given. For the most part, these utilize common items and are easy enough to do.

My kids each choose Volcano-on-the-Go and Crazy Color Cliff in order to earn their badges.

Since we are a 'geology oriented' household, we've done plenty of building our own volcanoes and 'setting' them off. But, we've never done one in the bath tub. The directions say to use only 1/2 cup baking soda....but, seeing no harm in it, I let them experiment and choose how much to use. Let's just say that it was the most fun, bubbly mess that led to a sparkling clean bath tub that we've ever had!!!!

We also tried the "Crazy Color Cliff" with colored sand. This one shows rock layers, pyroclastic flow and if done correctly, an angular unconformity. One note of caution.....thinking that this would be a messy project, I moved our laboratory to the back porch. Glass jars filled with sand do not hold up when dropped on cement. We will be doing this one over!

The author, Kim Jones, is formerly a guide at The Mt. St. Helen's Seven Wonders Museum. I really like how she presents all the evidence throughout the book, allowing for kids and doubting Thomas's alike to form an opinion of the evidence in its concrete form. Beyond the last chapter, the reader is shown how the evidence observed at Mt. St. Helen's makes a strong case for a world wide flood as written in the Bible. Scriptural references are listed and an invitation to be saved from the ultimate danger, not knowing Jesus, is presented.

For your older student (and for yourself!) be sure to check out another Mt. St. Helen's gem from Master Books, Footprints in the Ash.

I received this item free of charge in exchange for an honest review.