Code Name Verity
Elizabeth Wein. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4231-5219-4
Wein (The Empty Kingdom) serves up a riveting and often brutal tale of WWII action and espionage with a powerful friendship at its core. Captured Scottish spy Queenie has agreed to tell her tale—and reveal any confidential information she knows—in exchange for relief from being tortured by Nazis. Her story, which alternates between her early friendship with a pilot named Maddie and her recent sufferings in prison, works both as a story of cross-class friendship (from an upper-crust family, Queenie realizes that she would likely never have met Maddie under other circumstances) and as a harrowing spy story (Queenie’s captor, von Loewe, is humanized without losing his menace). Queenie’s deliberately rambling and unreliable narration keeps the story engaging, and there are enough action sequences and well-delivered twists (including a gut-wrenching climax and late revelations that will have readers
returning to reread the first half of the book) to please readers of all stripes. Wein balances the horrors of war against genuine heroics, delivering a well-researched and expertly crafted adventure. Ages 14–up. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown. (May)
Details
Reviewed on: 04/16/2012
Release date: 05/01/2012
Genre: Children's
Hardcover - 352 pages - 9780385676540
Compact Disc - 9 pages - 9781743105665
Prebound-Glued - 339 pages - 9780606317603
Hardcover - 505 pages - 9781410459688
Hardcover - 343 pages - 9781423152194
Paperback - 352 pages - 9780385676571
Paperback - 451 pages - 9781405258210