The Master Spy Handbook: Help Our Intrepid Hero Use Gadgets, Codes & Top-Secret Tactics to Save the World from Evildoers

Gr. 4-7. To foil a supercrook and her burly henchmen, a kid makes use of more than 50 tried-and-true spy techniques, including elaborately coded messages, devious disguises, and concocted gadgets. The fictionalized first-person narrative is really just a vehicle for the real excitement: the espionage facts. With dramatic watercolor illustrations, each double-page spread conveys a wealth of information. Insets resembling case files fill readers in on "what you need and what you do" to write and read code (including Morse code), write in and read invisible ink, make a false wall, check if someone has searched a room, and much more. The codes start off simply but become very complicated, and more than half the book is back matter that includes more explanations and suggestions for top-secret ciphers and devices. Great fun for amateur sleuths, the book will also appeal to older ones who enjoy puzzles and sinister secrets. For more about codes, suggest Paul Janeczko's Top Secret (2004). Hazel Rochman
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