Orphan Monster Spy

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Like Inglourious Basterds for tweens, this clever YA title features Sarah, a blond, blue-eyed Jewish girl in 1939 Germany."-- The New York Post Me ha encantado este libro. La verdad es que lo imaginé solo con ver el título. Pero obvien la sinopsis, menos mal que la leí después, como siempre, pero te cuenta la historia al completa, exceptuando el final, por lo que no permite ir adentrándote en las situaciones e intriga. I'm giving this a full 5 stars because I loved the book so much that I don't even remember nor care about what I took a 0.5 off. I still keep thinking about it and I want to read it again, and so you see, I'm still in a book hangover a full month later. That's how powerful this is. 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. 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.

Orphan, Monster, Spy, by Matt Killeen – Book Review Orphan, Monster, Spy, by Matt Killeen – Book Review

Would the future Germany have any evidence of its crimes? Would it smell bad and would people even know why?" Lo menos que me ha gustado son los recurrentes sueños, aunque, en muchas ocasiones, eran recuerdos, lo cual te acercaba más a la protagonista. 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. 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! ····There were a few German words and phrases that I wished were translated in this book, but other than that I liked the book a lot. The Captain was appropriately enigmatic and businesslike and Sarah did what she had to do to keep both of them alive and to complete her mission. The last quarter of the book was very suspenseful. Despite the fact that the protagonist was only 15, I wouldn't characterize this book as young adult. Nothing was simplified or sentimentalized. I would read more books by this author. Kendra: I also loved the novel’s portrayal of a strong, incredibly capable, deeply flawed Jewish girl in Nazi Germany. As a Jewish kid, I grew up reading plenty of books set in this period that depicted Jewish characters as victims and focused on their suffering. Seeing this Lisbeth Salander-like girl spying, scheming, and fighting the way so many real-life girls did at the time felt empowering to me, and I hope will inspire many real-life girls in the present day to fight against today’s white supremacists. Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - En este libro, el autor nos presenta a una joven judía, que huyendo de los nazis se tropieza con el que puede ser su salvador o su perdición, un espía inglés. Y es que para ayudarle se infiltra en una napola, para acercarse a la hija de un importante científico alemán.

Orphan Monster Spy Quotes by Matt Killeen - Goodreads Orphan Monster Spy Quotes by Matt Killeen - Goodreads

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. 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.So it had potential... the story is fairly interesting and I cared about the characters. However, you’d think a story about espionage in WW2 would be way more exciting and while there are some intense parts... I forgot it’s YA so it mostly focuses on things like school, arguing with adults, main character socializing with other young girls, etc. Also didn’t care for the some of the dialogue. Shortlisted for The Branford Boase Award 2019 | Shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award 2018 | January 2019 Debut of the Month A big thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this YA book about a young girl caught up in trying to prevent the creation of a bomb like the world has never seen. Sarah: There are some incredibly dark and dramatic scenes in the book, but the one that stands out in my mind is the River Run. Sarah is challenged to compete in an annual race by the dangerous queen bee of the Nazi boarding school, known as the Ice Queen. If she wins, she may be accepted by the Ice Queen and able to get closer to her target and the crucial information she has been put in the school to collect. If she loses, she’ll be leaving the school, probably injured and with the mission in ruins. And the Ice Queen doesn’t play fair. This scene is where we see just how far Sarah is prepared to go to succeed and to survive, a blow-by-blow account of pain, sweat, blood and determination set against a frozen landscape and populated by vicious characters, that had me on edge from start to finish. Matt expertly shows how Sarah uses the wits and skills she honed scrambling over city rooftops to steal food as a starving Jewish outcast, to now defeat her supposed superiors. It’s pure genius. 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.

Orphan, Monster, Spy by Matt Killeen | Waterstones

What is the best piece of advice they, or indeed anyone else, has given you as a first‐time author?|Stinging with drama, action and, above all, a relentless sense of urgency, this ruthlessly remarkable debut sees an indomitable Jewess go undercover. 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. For the most part, the writing is strong. However, whilst it’s clear and relatively fast-paced, the internal dialogue is intrusive and repetitive - the constant reminders of Sarah’s Jewishness in particular. Sure, she must be hyperconscious of the fact, but I as a reader have already grasped that given the historical context. Killeen is clearly intelligent, and this makes the peppering of clunky German phrases and terrible action scenes harder to bear. Overall, not bad but I ain’t gonna bother reading the sequel. It has potential but the elements for younger readers show. Keep in mind even though I end up reading a fair bit of it, YA usually isn’t my cup of tea, so maybe if you’re a YA fan you’ll like it more?

Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen: 9780451478757

Killeen crams in plenty of great story ideas into this terrific novel that will appeal to young & old readers alike. In his notes at the end of the novel it's quite amazing to see how many real people & situations inspired this story. He also notes that when he was feeling down while writing someone told him that he "could be the YA Graham Greene" & after reading this book I think they may be right! Whatever else I read in the next twelve months Orphan Monster Spy is going to a hard one to beat as my favourite book of the year. 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. 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. I wish I’d written this myself. Deeply disturbing and chillingly good.”—Elizabeth Wein, New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Verity I loved how this story explores the concept of monsters, what it means to be one, how you can go about creating one, and what defines a monster. The school is like a nightmare.A half-Jewish girl in Nazi Germany passes up a chance to escape in favor of the opportunity to screw with Nazis.