Lighthearted cleverness invites readers to play along.
A World War II caper features three 13-year-olds learning ciphers amid the bombs.
Bertie, a white boy in 1944 London, is excited to be a new civil defense volunteer. With the help of his rescue dog, Little Roo, he carries messages for London’s wardens. In the middle of an air raid, Bertie finds—and loses—a young woman, who vanishes, leaving only a ciphered notebook. Bertie enlists two friends his own age to decipher the notebook: his Jewish best friend and a white American girl who’s also seeking the missing young woman. The messages introduce them to a frightening story of traitors and double crosses; it’s a good thing their code-breaking skills are up to the task! With many allusions to Sherlock Holmes and in chapters headed with excerpts from the Special Operations Executive’s wartime spy training, the three children put their minds to cracking the ciphers and rescuing the missing woman. Little Roo helps as well, sniffing out people who need rescuing. Though the characters’ voices and actions sometimes stretch the bounds of credulity, the puzzle solving is deftly handled. Clear instructions for deciphering messages, complete with an illustrated decoder ring, teach readers to solve the mystery along with our heroes—albeit without the help of Little Roo. Hopkinson includes some historical figures, including a Nigerian immigrant who effectively diversifies a typically whitewashed setting.
Lighthearted cleverness invites readers to play along. (footnotes, historical notes, Q-and-A) (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-399-55706-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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