The earliest Clue books contain puzzles that anyone can solve without use of paper and pencil. As the miniseries progresses, however, the puzzles become more difficult. I don't really like the change; the new characters are not very interesting and they are more of puzzle pieces rather than the funny characters in the early books. Also, on book #5, the character images on the back of the books change to those of the new version of the board game that was released that year. I personally like the old portraits better.
Clue Jr., meanwhile, is currently more successful than Clue since it's still around and kids are still reading it. However, the series probably won't last as long as that of Clue, which went for eighteen books before finally seeming to collapse.
I personally can't stand most of the characters in the early Clue Jr. books. I've written about them on all of the respective character pages. Between book 5 and 9, though, they change, and the images are all replaced. Georgie looks reasonably cool now, rather than like a self-absorbed prune. Mortimer is now African-American, and Samantha now looks like some sort of tease. I haven't seen a new pic of Polly Peacock, so I assume she's out of the books. I really have to find the new books and read them.
To sum up that which I've stated, I like the Clue books and detest what I have read of the Clue Jr. ones. It's as simple as that, really; and it's not because of my being too old to like Clue Jr. or something, since I started reading those books just after I started reading the Clue ones (when I was um, nine?). I guess the characters were just too flakey or perky or whatever for my liking. Anyway, if you ever see the Clue books in a store, I recommend buying them, especially the early ones.
The Complete Clue Guide is © 1999-2010 Kenneth Hand.
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