ORPHAN MONSTER SPY BY: MATT KILLEEN
Bibliographic Information:
Author: Matt Killeen
Title: Orphan Monster Spy
Copyright: 2018
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 978-0451478733
Summary: Fifteen-year-old Sarah’s life is turned upside down when her mother is shot at a checkpoint. Sarah, who is Jewish, finds herself on the run to save her own life. However, Sarah’s appearance: blond hair and blue eyes will turn out to be her saving grace. She comes into contact with a mysterious man who turns out to be a spy on a dangerous mission that he can’t complete alone. His mission is definitely risky, and Sarah could lose everything, even her own life if she is caught. She is up for the challenge, armed with years of her mother’s training in the art of impersonation. However, the mission has proved to be more difficult than anticipated and suddenly Sarah is in the battle of her life. Will she survive?
Critical Evaluation: The characters in this book were extremely relatable. Sarah, the main character, displayed her strength not through wielding a weapon, but by her intelligence and acting skills. This book was both fast paced and thought provoking. The only odd thing in the book to me was that there was a whole lot of spying going on which weakened the book in my opinion. A large part of the storyline is centered around her becoming a spy, and yet there isn’t a lot of spying that goes on. Also some things could have been expanded on more for example Sarah’s interactions with her girl classmates. In a way the book seems to be a little incomplete without the expanded details. The ending was unsatisfying and kind of open ended as well.
Reader’s Annotation: Sarah is on the most important mission of her life. Can she succeed as a spy or will she get caught?
Author Information: Matt Killeen was born in Birmingham in the United Kingdom. He obtained his master’s degree from Manchester Metropolitan University in Creative Writing for Children. “Orphan Monster Spy” was his debut novel. This book was shortlisted for the 2018 Costa Book Award.
In addition to being an author, he has spent a decade being a music journalist, advertising copywriter, and sportswriter. Now he writes for the world’s best loved toy company. Matt has two children, and he is married to his “Nuyorican soul mate”. Matt lives in Surrey England.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Curriculum Ties- History
Book talk Ideas: World War II
Interest Age/Reading Level: Grades 9-12
Challenge Issues/ Defense preparation:
Challenge Issues: Violence; Nazis
Selection Policy: http://ccclib.org/policies/CollectionDevelopmentAccess-1999-11-16.pdf
Library Bill of Rights: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/intfreedom/librarybill/lbor.pdf
Right to Read: http://www2.ncte.org/statement/righttoreadguideline/
Rationale:
Bibliographic Information:
Author: Matt Killeen
Title: Orphan Monster Spy
Copyright: 2018
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 978-0451478733
Intended Audience: The intended audience is young adults specifically the upper grades of 9-12. This particular book would be beneficial for an English or social studies class. Primarily the book will be used for individual study in which every member of the class should read the book, and then afterwards there can be a group discussion of what transpired in the book as well as observations and thoughts concerning the book. “Orphan Monster Spy” can be utilized to start discussions concerning World War II as well as the Nazis and Jews during that time.
Summary: Fifteen-year-old Sarah’s life is turned upside down when her mother is shot at a checkpoint. Sarah, who is Jewish, finds herself on the run to save her own life. However, Sarah’s appearance: blond hair and blue eyes will turn out to be her saving grace. She comes into contact with a mysterious man who turns out to be a spy on a dangerous mission that he can’t complete alone. His mission is definitely risky, and Sarah could lose everything, even her own life if she is caught. She is up for the challenge, armed with years of her mother’s training in the art of impersonation. However, the mission has proved to be more difficult than anticipated and suddenly Sarah is in the battle of her life. Will she survive?
Relationship to Program:
Relationship to Program: The relationship of the book to school objectives would be helping 9th graders develop their literal and inferential understanding skills and comprehension skills. Through reading this book they would learn SLE # R.9.9.1 Connect own background knowledge, including personal experience and perspectives shaped by age, gender, class or national origin, to determine author’s purpose. R.9.9.5. Draw inferences from a sentence or a paragraph (including conclusions, generalizations and predictions) and support them with text evidence. Concerning summary and generalization students will utilize R.9.9.8 Summarize and paraphrase structures in informational and literary texts, including relationships among concepts and details. Concerning analysis and evaluation students will utilize R. 9.9.11 Recognize and define various points of view (e.g., omniscient narrator, third person limited) and R. 9.9.13 Identify and discuss a position using concepts gained from reading (e.g. debate, discussion, position paper, etc.). http://www.fayar.net/edvision/language/09_reading_0405.pdf
Impact: This book would definitely have a positive impact on the perspectives and attitudes of the students. It moves away from the traditional information concerning Jews in WWII; I myself have never heard of a Jewish spy during that time period so I’m sure it would be a first time for the teens as well. Also it may inspire the teens to research that time period further.
Why Included: This book provides a unique and interesting twist concerning Jews during WWII. In history books and fiction books alike when discussing Jews during WWII, there is a lot of focus on Jews having similar general features such as: brown hair, brown eyes. However, this book throws in a different appearance which is blonde haired and blue eyed which then offers a different kind of hiding for Jews: hiding in plain sight! Teens would get the opportunity to learn that Jews lived all sorts of different lives during this time period besides being in concentration camps or hiding with other families.
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