I am a massive fan of good historical fiction. I think reading a fun story based in a time period that the kids are learning about not only always adds extra knowledge but it also brings that bit of history to life. So I was immediately interested when I heard there was a new Historical Fiction book out by Iszi Lawrence (she happened to write Blackbeard’s Treasure which my son really enjoyed) and I quickly asked if we could get a review copy so I could see for myself what the story was about.

City of Spies is set in New York in 1780, during the American War of Independence. It is based around twelve-year old Aiden who is working in New York and struggling with the fact that although he is a nephew of a very wealthy, noble man because his father was not the eldest, their family is now poor and destitute. Aiden starts off as a young person who is desperate to get the acknowledgement from his family that he is worthy, young person loyal to the British crown but slowly he starts to discover things about people, their way of life, hardships that are not fair and slowly he starts to understand why the patriots are fighting for independence.

It is a sweet story, aimed at kids in the 9 – 12 age range (there is no adult content, nothing too scary or gory). There is an adventure, a bit of a mystery involving codes, and there is lots of great scenes where the kids read about life in America at that time. Scenes which talk about every day life – like the fact that young kids drank weak beer, the food that they ate, general life stuff. But it also includes some interesting information about how books and papers where published, how it was normal for young kids to work in jobs and the slave trade. There are lots of informative pieces of information woven into the story so the kids are constantly learning about that time and what living in America was like while they are reading the story.

I enjoyed this story and I felt like I walked away having learnt some interesting facts about this time period (the author does include information about the real characters that she mentions at the end of the book – so you can check what is fact and what is fiction and I must admit she did really well including these real characters in a her story). And the coded messages, I loved that this was included in the story and it all really happened – that is something that I think will appeal to lots of young kids. I think it is a great read for KS2 aged kids learning about British colonies and the American War of Independence. In fact even if your kids are not learning about this part of history it is still an interesting read and one which will help them gain an understanding of why this event happened. 

I recommend this book.

For those of you looking for Amazon links here it is – City of Spies

Admin – like I mentioned above, I did get a free review copy of this book, however I was not paid for this post. 

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