That childhood also created a fierce, committed, if not always well-informed, feminist. My father might have been considered a good role model in a bygone age, but his raging patriarchal brand of masculinity left me with no illusions about men. Some strong and fearless sister-figures in early adolescence, plus a General Leia here and a Simone de Beauvoir there, set the tone for my creative life. I embraced the feminine, fell in love with Anne Shirley and the girls of Malory Towers, sought out my own role models and set out to write something worthy of them. This book is a World War II novel. The main protagonist is Sarah, who is a Jew with an Aryan appearance. After her mother get killed abandoned and alone she meets a man who turns out it be a spy. She is recruited by him to to be a spy and go inside and infiltrated a Nazi boarding school. Though no punches are pulled about the unimaginable atrocity of the death camps, a life-affirming history To help the captain and his mission, Sarah agrees to go to a girl’s boarding school for the Nazi elite. Her job is to befriend one of the girls, so she can get an invite to her house to discover what her father is up to. And whilst this might sound like a far-fetched idea, according to the author’s notes, almost everything in Orphan, Monster, Spy, has some basis in fact. The idea of using children as spies, agents and soldiers, is not a fanciful one. There were, also, elite Nazi schools known for their brutality. This story had me gripped throughout, not least because a Jewish girl risked her life every day surrounded by the daughters of elite Nazis who would have thrown her to the wolves had they found out who she really was. A stunning, smart, grounded tale of intrigue in Nazi Germany, so guilty and detailed it feels like true memory rather than fiction. Sarah is an angry, appealing, heart-wrenching hero, superhuman and achingly frail in equal measure.”

Orphan Monster Spy | Matt Killeen | UK

Aside from the mind games, there's also a lot of action and suspense, with both Sarah and the Captain finding themselves in a number of life-threatening situations. On top of that, Sarah finds herself at odds with the top girls at her school, and the resulting threats and violence really push her to her limits. These scenes really make my skin crawl; they're horrible to read, but they fit perfectly into the twisted setting of the school and the girls there, and they give Sarah a chance to prove, albeit only to herself, that the Jews can be just as good if not better than the supposedly master race. LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. At the same time, I found it satisfying how strong Sarah was in their company. In an ignorant bubble, where they were being taught that an Arian race was supreme and strong, there was Sarah, out thinking, outrunning and outmanoeuvring them at every turn. Sarah, a Jew, someone seen as week and a plague on society. The first book we read as part of this book club was Orphan, Monster, Spy by Matt Killeen. I was instantly attracted to this story because it is set during the war; I’m fascinated by stories set in war time and always have been. What’s more, this particular story is set in Germany during the Second World War, so it comes from another perspective. Kendra: I love that scene as well. Matt does such a terrific job of balancing the profound intensity and terror of Sarah’s experience with moments of lightness, and one of my favourite moments in the book is when she’s visiting a wealthy school friend’s home and gets to taste peanut butter for the first time. Later, when everything falls apart and is literally on fire all around her, Sarah grabs the peanut butter to take with her. It reminded me of the classic moment in the film The Godfather when Clemenza says, ‘Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.’ It’s a beautiful humanizing detail in dehumanizing circumstances.El libro en sí, me gustó ¿Tuve problemas para terminarlo? Sí; pero no porque me hubiese parecido malo, sino que por momentos se extendía a cosas que no eran relevantes a la trama y eran de puro relleno, por ende, aburrían. Yo creo que lo más destacable de esta historia, es sin lugar a duda la protagonista. Sarah es una chica de quince años que creció demasiado rápido, una chica afectada por la guerra, pero nunca tanto como para arruinar su espíritu. Es una chica que tiene miedo, pero nunca deja que la paralice; es una chica que sabe lo que quiere, pero nunca se olvida de mostrar compasión, y sobre todo, es una chica a la que la vida le pegó mil patadas, pero nunca se rindió. Me parece que Sarah podría ser un gran rol para niñas que están en plena etapa madurativa, por eso, creo yo, que ese es el público ideal para este libro. By the time I finished the final edits, narrow-minded and spiteful nationalism had been normalised, allowing racism and sexism to flourish online, on our streets, in our media and in our politics. We are, right now, looking at the conditions that created the Third Reich and all it will take, to paraphrase Burke, is for good people to do nothing. Lo menos que me ha gustado son los recurrentes sueños, aunque, en muchas ocasiones, eran recuerdos, lo cual te acercaba más a la protagonista. Sarah: The first chapter of Orphan Monster Spy hits you like a slap in the face – Matt drops you straight into the middle of the action (with Sarah escaping a crashed car, leaving her mother’s body behind and being chased by Nazis) and it feels like he doesn’t ease up on the pace through the entire book. Interestingly, we are split on historical fiction – Kendra loves it, while I am the first to admit I am not generally a huge reader of it, and it was helpful to have those different perspectives during the editing process. With Orphan Monster Spy I was instantly addicted to the thrilling action of the story and then fascinated by the (often horrific) historical detail. It grabbed my attention on so many levels and wouldn’t let go – I couldn’t stop telling people about it! ···· Night Mayor Franklefink has vanished from the Transylvanian Express - and it's up to you to solve the case! Part of the Solve Your Own Mystery seri...

Orphan Monster Spy - by Jordan Lynch March Book Review: Orphan Monster Spy - by Jordan Lynch

Through Sarah’s fictional adventures I want to illuminate this time and make it real for the reader. I want them to understand that history, to interrogate it and then question the events of today. Nobody should ever say ‘this couldn’t happen now’ because it can and it does. As the philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

I love YA books. They are so interesting and dynamic. Not that books for adults aren’t, but they offer so much in terms of a character’s journey and learning curve.

Sarah intrigued me very much and at times I was very glad she was on "side of the angels" so to speak. A few times she sent a chill down my spine. It's 1939, and Sarah, a fifteen year old, blonde-haired, blue eyed Jewish girl, is just trying to survive. After her mother is killed, Sarah meets a mysterious man who she learns is part of a secret resistance against the Third Reich. She teams up with the man and is sent to live at a boarding school with the daughters of top Nazi leaders. The plan is to befriend the daughter of a scientist who is working on a bomb and steal the blueprints before his creation could destroy the lives of countless people. But as Sarah soon learns, her biggest challenge might just be surviving the wrath of her schoolmates and teachers.

Spy (Orphan, Monster, Spy) : Matt Killeen Devil, Darling, Spy (Orphan, Monster, Spy) : Matt Killeen

As my nephews and eldest son grew up, I was surprised to learn how little they understood the Second World War. They had actually been taught the subject in school, but without those exciting tales of the dauntless so beloved of the 1970s, they hadn’t engaged with it. The nineteenth century historian Lord Macauley said, “History has to be burned into the imagination before it can be received by the reason.”This was one of the reasons to write this book. The world building and the insight to Nazi time is done very brilliantly, you can see the research done.. It has a lot of German words and I had to constantly search and find out their meaning (because well I didn't know any of them, totally new to me). But they provided a great insight into those times.

ISBN

Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments