Secret Code Book - Hardcover

Huckle, Helen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803717253 ISBN 13: 9780803717251

Publisher: Dial, 1995

Synopsis

Collects a variety of clever, fascinating, mind-boggling codes and ciphers--written, spoken, and symbolic--that have been used through the ages, along with historical notes, step-by-step instructions, and tips on decoding.

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Reviews

Move over, Mata Hari. Watch your back, Mr. le Carre. Espionage is alive and well-make that "xjiok xbg qkjj," in the coded language known to master spies and the readers of Huckle's ingenious book. More than 20 codes are clearly presented, from Pig Latin (everyway ildchay owsknay isthay) to Morse code (with its 1920s offshoot, the ACME code) and the ancient Greek Polybius square, a "substitution cipher" in which each letter is represented by a pair of numbers. Double agents in particular will want to try Superenciphering, "using two codes or ciphers together [which] makes your secret message even more difficult to break." Among the more unusual entries are the high-seas code, using flags, developed by the British Royal Navy in the 18th century and still practiced; and a grille with punch-out squares, originated by a 16th-century Italian mathemetician, that reveals a hidden message when placed over an innocuous-looking text. Two press-out "code-busters" are included. A handsome design places solid-color borders around clean white pages; instructional photographs and art reproductions add, er, intrigue. Ages 8-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 3^-6. This well-designed book features one-to four-page sections explaining 19 codes, many of them significant in history, as well as methods for encoding and deciphering messages using the codes. Full-color photographs, diagrams, and reproductions of period artwork and documents illustrate the text. From ciphers used by Julius Caesar, Benedict Arnold, and Thomas Jefferson to Morse code, semaphores, and pig latin, the codes will intrigue and challenge readers. Tipped into the back endcovers is a heavy paper sheet with press-out pieces for making two cipher disks. Although these will quickly disappear, making the two unillustrated pages on cipher disks hard to follow, libraries will still find the book a useful purchase. Carolyn Phelan

Edition details

• Publisher: Dial
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803717253
• ISBN 13: 9780803717251
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 64