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    How I Became a Spy
    How I Became a Spy
    How I Became a Spy
    Audiobook6 hours

    How I Became a Spy

    Written by Deborah Hopkinson

    Narrated by John Keating

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From the award-winning author of The Great Trouble comes a story of espionage, survival, and friendship during World War II. Bertie Bradshaw never set out to become a spy. He never imagined traipsing around war-torn London, solving ciphers, practicing surveillance, and searching for a traitor to the Allied forces. He certainly never expected that a strong-willed American girl named Eleanor would play Watson to his Holmes (or Holmes to his Watson, depending on who you ask). But when a young woman goes missing, leaving behind a coded notebook, Bertie is determined to solve the mystery. With the help of Eleanor and his friend David, a Jewish refugee--and, of course, his trusty pup, Little Roo--Bertie must decipher the notebook in time to stop a double agent from spilling the biggest secret of all to the Nazis. From the author of The Great Trouble, this suspenseful WWII adventure reminds us that times of war call for bravery, brains and teamwork from even the most unlikely heroes.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 12, 2019
    ISBN9781980034902
    How I Became a Spy
    Author

    Deborah Hopkinson

    Deborah Hopkinson is the author of Small Places, Close to Home and Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen, among more than fifty acclaimed works for young readers including picture books, middle-grade fiction, and nonfiction that help bring history and research alive. Deborah lives near Portland, Oregon with her family and a menagerie of pets. You can visit her online at www.deborahhopkinson.com.

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    Reviews for How I Became a Spy

    4.5/5

    13 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I “read” the book via audio. I loved the various accents used by the narrator. I also enjoyed the creative way the author involved youngsters as “spies” without actually putting them in harm’s way.
      I had a little trouble with much of the story being “inactive” as the kids read Violet’s journal to move the plot forward. I am was disappointed at the end that the traitor wasn’t caught as part of the story. The ending “reveals” occur in a meeting rather than as action in the story, and include a flashback I would have preferred to have happened in sequence. Also, the main character’s mother and brother pop into the story at the end without any backstory of how they came back. It seemed the ending was rushed, making it less satisfying. In all, it’s a compelling read for middle grade readers, but had a few plot holes.
    • 5/5
      This middle grade historical mystery stars Bertie Bradshaw, Eleanor Shea, and David Goodman. These thirteen-year-olds find themselves solving ciphers to find a German double agent in London before the specifics of D-Day can be discovered and sent to Germany.Bertie's father is a policeman. Bertie is working as an air-raid messenger. One evening when the sirens go off, Bertie grabs his dog Little Roo and heads out to the air-raid shelter. He directs everyone he sees to the nearest shelter including American Eleanor Shea. He literally bumps into her. When she continues on her way, Bertie finds a small red notebook. Then Little Roo leads him to an alley and an unconscious young woman. When Bertie gets back to his base and sends help, the young woman is gone. Where she went and who she was is a mystery for him to solve. The red notebook contains still another mystery. It tells of a young woman who is being trained to infiltrate German-held lands and assist the Resistance. It talks about her training. However, the last part of the book is ciphered. Bertie calls on his friend Jewish-immigrant David who is a devoted fan of Sherlock Holmes and a good puzzle solver. The boys also reconnect with Eleanor who tells them that the red notebook was written by her French tutor Violette. Violette asked Eleanor to take care of it and share it with her father, who works for the OSS, if something should happen to her. The kids work together to solve the various ciphers and then use their information to try to track a traitor. While the three main characters are fictitious actual historical figures do make brief appearances in the story. Both General Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower and his dog Telek have a role as does Leo Marks who worked with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who sent civilians to occupied territory and who wrote a book after the war. Each chapter begins with a quote from the SOE Training Manual or other quotation and each section has a different cipher for the reader to solve (with solutions in the back of the book). There are notes at the end citing the chapter quotations.This was a nice mystery about a time period that interests many students.