Latter-day Spies: Spyhunt
In a world which offers too many questionable books for children, books in which children are dating at ten, treating their parents like idiots or spending every moment in a pursuit of popularity, it is a relief to see a new effort to bring LDS literature to our middle grade readers. There have been too few LDS books for these children. Covenant has released three novels for our older elementary school children. I will be posting the reviews of these books over the course of this week. These reviews are written for parents, so they contain spoilers (they reveal endings and other exciting moments) in order to help parents decide if the books are right for their children.
Latter-day Spies: Spyhunt
Author: Michele Ashman Bell
Publisher: Covenant Communications
Date: 2004
Official Website of Michele Ashman Bell
Eleven-year-old twins Sadie and Seth are living in Germany as the child of an FBI employee turned diplomat. They've always had to be careful about their safety, but now, with the arrival of Fami, a boy from India who is staying in their home for a while, they are suddenly under very strict orders to avoid any risks at all, no matter how limiting this is to their summer fun. Will they ever get to play Spyhunt again?
As it turns out, their game of trying to evade "bad guys" turns into a frightening real-life adventure. Terrorists out to avenge the arrest of someone the three children's fathers put in prison during their FBI years are determined to murder the children. A bodyguard is hired, but that turns out to be the worst decision of all. The skills they developed playing their spy game, as well as those developed playing pranks on each other, are all called upon in their desperate struggle to stay alive.
Children who enjoy adventure movies and books will be spellbound by this unusual novel. It reads like a mainstream novel, except, of course, that the children are LDS and are likely to pray, choose the right and make other LDS-appropriate decisions. It is not, however, preachy, and these are not perfectly well-behaved little stripling warriors. They are real children, playing pranks on one another and occasionally disobeying their parents, but paying the price.
Although the book is very well-done, and all the skills the children use during the climax are foreshadowed early on, some children may find this story too frightening in a day when even young children know what a terrorist is. There are guns, shooting and violence in this book, although it isn't graphic or glorified. The children are kidnapped; they escape but are recaptured, and escape again. The ending is realistic. Given that the enemy consists of terrorists, the children have a little adult help, and I would find the traditional rule that children must rescue themselves unlikely in this circumstance. However, their choices, resourcefulnes, and courage are what enable the adults to do their part. My only other concern with the book is that gender roles are stereotyped, even for an LDS novel. For example, when Seth's magic trick backfires and makes a mess, his mother asks his twin sister to help her clean it up. They weren't even in the room when it happened, but Seth seems to be allowed to go off to play while the females clean up the mess and the father fixes the blown fuse. This pulled me out of what should have been an amusing—and eventually important—aspect of the story, as I wondered why Sadie didn't protest the unfairness of this request.
Although the book was written for children, I enjoyed the story myself. The children are realistically drawn, without the sugary sweetness of so many LDS fictional heroes. Even children who think they don't enjoy religious fiction will have fun with this story. It is a series, and the book ends with the news that Fami's mother has disappeared. If your child is unable to wait a long time for the resolution of this problem, hide the final chapter, but otherwise….keep your eyes open for the next installment of our favorite preteen spies.