an activity from Grow in Wonder
An old letter turns up in Grandpa Theo's writing box. It says that something lost in Paris two hundred years ago may be hiding in Ava's own town. Walk the trail with Ava and Sox, and see where it ends.
Move with W A S D or the arrow keys. Press Enter to look at things and talk to people. N opens Ava's notebook. Move with the arrows. Tap the red button to look at things and talk to people.
Best played on a desktop or iPad.
Grandpa Theo says
"Most lost things are not really lost. They are sitting in the wrong drawer, waiting for somebody patient."
The trail through Ava's town is made up. The history behind it is not. Here is the true part, in order.
The Bible tells us that after Jesus died, a soldier pierced his side with a spear. You can read it in John 19:34. The Bible does not give the soldier a name. Later tradition calls him Longinus.
For centuries, Christians in Jerusalem kept a spear they treasured as that very one. Around the year 614 the city was captured. The spear point was broken off and carried to Constantinople, the great city we now call Istanbul.
In the 1240s King Louis IX of France brought the spear point to Paris. He built the Sainte-Chapelle, a chapel with walls of colored glass, and kept it there beside the Crown of Thorns.
In the 1700s Pope Benedict XIV asked Paris for an exact drawing of the spear point. He wanted to hold it up against another part of the spear, kept in Rome, to see whether the two pieces fit.
During the French Revolution the treasures of the chapel were moved to the national library. The Crown of Thorns came through safely. The point of the spear was never seen again.
You may have heard of the "Spear of Destiny." That name usually means a different spear, kept today in a museum in Vienna, Austria. The spear point in this story is the one that was kept in Paris.
Luc and his letter, the Durand family, ledger number 47, and the dusty frame in Ava's school hall. Nobody knows where the spear point is today, or whether any spear kept through the centuries was the true one.
A few things worth knowing before you hand over the screen.
The game saves in the browser as it goes, so a child can stop and pick it up later on the same device. Sound starts on the first tap.
There are no enemies, timers or scores. Every puzzle has a hint, and a gold arrow always points to the next place to go.
A 6-year-old will want someone beside them for the letter and the clues. A 9-year-old can manage alone.
Ava's adventures begin in the books
See the book series