🔍 The Melissa & Doug Secret Decoder Activity: Unveiling Fun and Adventure! Review

My 8 year old loved it. Distracted her from the tablet and TV for 4 hours. She solved the puzzle in one day so we bought a few more.

My 5 year old son really liked this book. We ended up buying more of this variety. He used it over and over again, so often that the marker rubbed off the pages.

It was a fun little activity that kept a 6 year old busy for a few hours. I like that this book is relatively small and easily packs into a travel bag without taking up too much space. I love Melissa & Doug products!

My 7 year old really enjoyed this activity on a recent flight. This occupied her for some time. She was the perfect age for this product. I also bought one for my new 11 year old and she wasn't interested. I would say 6-8 years old is a good age range for this.

Bought this for my 7 year old son for a trip. He liked the decoder aspect but struggled to understand the instructions. I couldn't help him because I was driving. So it's a good product but you may need to help the child depending on their ability.

I bought this for my 7 year old son for a trip. He liked it and let himself be carried away for a long time! It's great that there is built in storage for the pen as I'm sure it would be lost in a heartbeat. My son skimmed the book and took a break and came back to it later so it definitely kept his interest.

My son had a lot of fun during the multi-hour flight. He enjoyed unraveling the mystery and it gave him a good break from the screen. I'd say he's probably on the verge of being too 'small' for him who just turned 9, but I'll be sure to buy other versions of these for our next trip!

Bought for a 10 year old grandson, never seen. When he arrived I wondered if it would be too easy for him or if he felt too old for it. He worked on it with one of our 8 year old granddaughters. They had a great time together and he told me how much he enjoyed it. (So I just ordered another book, Melissa and Doug on the Road, Secret Decoder.)

Bought this for a flight for my 6 year old. The decoder part is great. However, you must write on small lines with a cryptic marker to decipher the words. My 6 year old can't write as finely with a marker with such a large nib. Even I struggled to write clearly on the lines. I ended up giving him a regular pen to decipher the words and he used a marker for other puzzles. It would be nice if it had a smaller tip.