bookshelf

THE REAL SPY’S GUIDE TO BECOMING A SPY

Name: THE REAL SPY’S GUIDE TO BECOMING A SPY
Author: Peter Earnest
ISBN: 978-0-8109-8329-8

by Peter Earnest with Suzanne Harper ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2009

bookshelf

Being an ex–CIA agent and also Executive Director of the International Spy Museum in Washington, Earnest carries promising credentials—but his career manual for would-be spies is a big yawn. Illustrated with drably impersonal line drawings of people in trench coats and largely devoid of actual examples, his narrative offers a generic view of what spies do, followed by comments on personal qualities that make good spy material and vague allusions to how CIA agents are trained (industrial espionage rates only a single brief mention). He then moves on to obvious advice about how field agents might enlist human “assets,” get rid of a tail, present security reports to bosses and like spy-ish activities. Frequent “Spy Speak” boxes define special terms that are, mostly, already defined in nearby text. Readers with a serious yen to be intelligence agents will get more insight and information from the likes of Claudia B. Manley’s Secret Agents: Life as a Professional Spy (2001), Kate Walker and Elaine Argaet’s So You Want To Be a Spy (2004) or Richard Platt’s Spy in the Eyewitness series (revised edition, 2009). (Nonfiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-8109-8329-8

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

bookshelf

THE SCHOOL STORY

by Andrew Clements & illustrated by Brian Selznick ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2001

bookshelf

A world-class charmer, Clements (The Janitor’s Boy, 2000, etc.) woos aspiring young authors—as well as grown up publishers, editors, agents, parents, teachers, and even reviewers—with this tongue-in-cheek tale of a 12-year-old novelist’s triumphant debut. Sparked by a chance comment of her mother’s, a harried assistant editor for a (surely fictional) children’s imprint, Natalie draws on deep reserves of feeling and writing talent to create a moving story about a troubled schoolgirl and her father. First, it moves her pushy friend Zoe, who decides that it has to be published; then it moves a timorous, second-year English teacher into helping Zoe set up a virtual literary agency; then, submitted pseudonymously, it moves Natalie’s unsuspecting mother into peddling it to her waspish editor-in-chief. Depicting the world of children’s publishing as a delicious mix of idealism and office politics, Clements squires the manuscript past slush pile and contract, the editing process, and initial buzz (“The Cheater grabs hold of your heart and never lets go,” gushes Kirkus). Finally, in a tearful, joyous scene—carefully staged by Zoe, who turns out to be perfect agent material: cunning, loyal, devious, manipulative, utterly shameless—at the publication party, Natalie’s identity is revealed as news cameras roll. Selznick’s gnomic, realistic portraits at once reflect the tale’s droll undertone and deftly capture each character’s distinct personality. Terrific for flourishing school writing projects, this is practical as well as poignant. Indeed, it “grabs hold of yourheart and never lets go.” (Fiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: June 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-689-82594-3

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FRINDLE FILES
by Andrew Clements ; illustrated by Brian Selznick

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FRIENDSHIP WAR
by Andrew Clements

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LOSERS CLUB
by Andrew Clements

bookshelf

BEOWULF

by Michael Morpurgo & illustrated by Michael Foreman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2006

bookshelf

“Hear, and listen well, my friends, and I will tell you a tale that has been told for a thousand years and more.” It’s not exactly a rarely told tale, either, though this complete rendition is distinguished by both handsome packaging and a prose narrative that artfully mixes alliterative language reminiscent of the original, with currently topical references to, for instance, Grendel’s “endless terror raids,” and the “holocaust at Heorot.” Along with being printed on heavy stock and surrounded by braided borders, the text is paired to colorful scenes featuring a small human warrior squaring off with a succession of grimacing but not very frightening monsters in battles marked by but a few discreet splashes of blood. Morpurgo puts his finger on the story’s enduring appeal—“we still fear the evil that stalks out there in the darkness . . . ”—but offers a version unlikely to trouble the sleep of more sensitive readers or listeners. (Fiction. 10-12)