READER To see keys and solutions to the puzzles inside go to the Code Busters Key Book and Solutions on page 148 To see complete Code Busters Club Rules and Dossiers and solve more puzzles and mysteries go to www CodeBustersClub com
Chapter 1 Does anyone know what this code is Ms Stadelhofer asked her sixth grade students She had just written ten unfamiliar curious symbols on the board Cody Dakota Jones a member of the Code Bust ers Club frowned at the characters She guessed they were some kind of language maybe Chinese or Japanese but she didn't know which one Mika Takeda the quiet new girl who sat across from Cody slowly raised her hand Cody was
surprised This was the first time Mika had volunteered an answer since she arrived last week It's Japanese Mika said Correct Ms Stad said smiling warmly at the girl with short black hair When Mrs Stad had introduced Mika to the class she had explained that the girl had recently come from Japan But Mika hadn't said much in class and Cody didn't know much more about her Cody remembered how shy she had felt when she was the new student at Berkeley Cooperative Middle School and she planned to invite Mika to join her and her Code Busters Club members at lunch It would be cool to get to know someone from another country Do you know Japanese Mika Cody asked The girl nodded Of course I spoke it when I lived in Japan Ryan raised his hand and Ms Stad called on him Chinese and Japanese kind of look the same To people unfamiliar with the languages they might Ryan Ms Stad said The characters used are similar But the vocabulary is different and the grammar is different
To Cody’s surprise Mika raised her hand again My Japanese books are different too They open from the back and are written in columns from top to bottom and right to left Interesting Cody thought She'd never seen a book written in Japanese Mika speaks Japanese and English How many of you can speak a language besides English Ms Stad asked Half the class raised their hands Cody’s teacher asked which languages the students knew M.E. said Spanish Samir said his family spoke Hindi at home Cole was learning Irish Gaelic from his grandfather Jodie knew some Vietnamese and Josh was studying Hebrew Wow I'm impressed at how multilingual you all are Ms Stad said Matt the Brat raised his hand I can speak Pig Latin Is say it tay ime tay or fay ecess ray Code Busters Solution found on p 153 The class laughed Cody rolled her eyes Ms Stad looked at him sternly
