I have mentioned multiple times that I love using historical fiction as a way of getting kids interested in a historical period. So when I saw that there was a new story about WW2, and it revolved around a twelve-year old girl and her quest to find a spy at Bletchley Park I was immediately intrigued. And the main reason was because it sounded like something my daughter would have enjoyed when she was younger and to be honest I went through a stage where I was really searching for good historical fiction with strong female characters for her to read. I sometimes struggled to find suitable stories, so I thought if I struggled there would be others also struggling…………..hence even though this book is now too young for my daughter the fact that it is something that would have appealed to her made me want to read to and write a review for others.
The story starts with Rosie (the main character) and her dad parachuting into France (her dad is a British spy and she often joins him on his missions because it helps with his cover). Right from the beginning you understand that Rosie is going to be a unique and strong character. She was raised in India and only moved to England with her dad after her mother passed away.
They are in France to try and find out the identity of a spy but things go wrong and they end up having to escape back to Britain. Once they are back in Britain they go to Bletchley Park to try and find the spy. When they are stationed at Bletchley Park, Rosie and her father are on a mission to uncover the Nazi spy, and again Rosie makes a few mistakes but we see her learn from her mistakes and try even harder. (I am trying not to give too much away)
Okay so I loved that the story revolves around an interesting young girl and one who is not a typical British girl (this would have applied to my daughter as she really liked stories around female characters who did not fit the standard mold). I really enjoyed the way Rosie’s character is written, yes she is brave but she makes mistakes and gets carried away, something which I think is totally normal and makes her believable.
The story is set in WW2 so it deals with WW2 situations and focuses on the codebreaking side of the war (something which is fascinating to learn more about). But the author does an incredible job of bringing in other WW2 topics in an effortless manner, I loved the way she managed to drop in Dunkirk (when Rosie was escaping from France) and how she effortlessly included a discussion on Russia’s involvement in the war and how people where already worried about the idea of communism spreading. There are also small but interesting bits about kids been evacuated, soldiers recovering from injuries, the resistance movement, even how the troops comprised of men from the Colonies. Oh and the way she just drops in the fact that the house Rosie is staying in has an outside toilet was brilliant and then later on in the story when Rosie has to go to the loo in the middle of the night and tells herself from now on she must not drink water at night to avoid having to use the loo, that was just so real for me and something both my kids would have totally picked up on and enjoyed. It’s small things like this that made the story stand out for me.
Even though the story is focused on WW2, the fact that Rosie grew up in India has an Indian mother and still has family living in India means the discussion about India’s fight for freedom becomes a thread that is woven into the story. I was not expecting it but once you understand Rosie’s background it just ends up being a natural discussion about her family and country of birth. So you end up getting what I would have considered a second historical springboard (what I mean by this is if I used this with my home educated kids as a springboard for topics I would have used it to launch a topic on the codebreaking, general WW2 discussions, Russia’s involvement and I would have also got them to read more about India, what was happening in that country and why.)
As a parent this is a fun, engaging and entertaining historical fiction read for kids.
As a home educating parent this could be a gem. It is well written and entertaining and it could easily be used as a starting point to some interesting discussions and possibly some good topics for your home educated kids to dive into.
For those of you interested here is an Amazon link – Rosie Raja, Undercover Codebreaker
Admin – When I saw this book being released I asked for a review copy because I thought it looked interesting. This is NOT a paid for post I was just given a free copy of the book to read for review purposes.
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