Skip to main content

Elizabeth Wein: Code Name Verity--Code Name Verity Book 3

This post is a book that I've read a couple of times because I read it with my seniors. It's one of my favorites, but I'll get into that more later.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein is about a British spy, code-named Verity who crash-landed in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. She is arrested soon after her landing while attempting to carry out her mission. While in prison, the Gestapo show her pictures of the plane wreck, leading her to believe that her best friend, Maddie Brodatt, the pilot, is dead. Ultimately, Verity begins working with the Gestapo and giving them sets of wireless code which would allow the Gestapo to intercept Allied communications. They also ask her to write her confession: a document with as much information as she knows about Allied plans, bases, and planes. However, knowing that she's going to die no matter what she tells them, Verity takes her time with her tale, instead telling the story of how she met Maddie and how she ended up in France. Will her confession be useful to the Germans?

I absolutely love this book! This is one of my favorites to teach, though it does present some interesting challenges. Some things I loved about this book:

  • I love the way it's written. Part I is Verity's story and Maddie's story is Part II. By the end of part I, you just want to know what's going to happen to Verity after hearing her story. I love the suspense of what's going to happen to Verity and the weight of what she's telling the Germans.
  • I love Verity's point of view and method of storytelling. She's so snarky and funny. I love her personality. While I also love Maddie, I have to say that Verity is my favorite.
  • I love that the ending is nothing that you will expect. By the time you read Maddie's story, you want Verity to make it out, but she doesn't. This book is full of unexpected twists and turns, many of which I didn't predict.
  • This book was incredibly well thought out and planned. There are small hints at the outcome, many of which you might not catch the first time through.
Some things that can make this book difficult:
  • The middle can drag on a bit. You have to remember that once Verity finishes her confession, she's going to get sent to a concentration camp for spies, but it doesn't necessarily make it any easier to get through that middle section.
  • Many students can't stand that Verity is spilling her secrets to the Gestapo. I have to assure my students that they just need to hold on and get to part II. For most, that works, but for others, they still struggle with it.
Overall, I rate this book:
  • ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
  • PG-13 for a brief discussion of sexual violence, and actual violence, torture, and execution.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dashka Slater: The 57 Bus

 I picked this one up to possibly use in my AP class. It had been recommended to me by one of my coworkers and I was trying to decide if it was worth using in AP. The 57 Bus  recounts the true story of two teens whose happenstance meeting on a public bus in Oakland, California. Sasha identified as nonbinary, liked to wear skirts, and went to a private school in Oakland. Richard was a black student, a good kid, but also tended to get mixed up in trouble. He went to a public school in Oakland's poorer side of town. One day, Sasha was riding the bus as they always did back to their house from school. This time though, Sasha fell asleep on the long ride. Richard and his friends boarded the bus as well, and seeing the skirt hanging off the edge of the seat, decided to see what would happen with a lighter. The material of the skirt burst into flames, and suddenly Sasha was burning. This story is unbelievably sad for both teenagers involved. In working with teenagers, one thing is tr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Robert Louis Stevenson: Pavilion on the Links

For anyone who has read Stevenson's short story "Pavilion on the Links" here is a short discussion of the story and a key passage.  For anyone who hasn't, here is a short explication dealing with a passage from the short story.  The prompt is as follows: In "The Pavilion on the Links," Frank Cassilis, the story's narrator, describes his friend Northmour: "My wife and I, a man and a woman, have often agreed to wonder how a person could be, at the same time, so handsome and so repulsive as Northmour.  He had the appearance of a finished gentleman; his face bore every mark of intelligence and courage; but you had only to look at him, even in his most amiable moment, to see that he had the temper of a slaver captain.  I never knew a character that was both explosive and revengeful to the same degree; he combined the vivacity of the south with the sustained and deadly hatreds of the north; and both traits were plainly written on his face, which was...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brandon Sanderson: The Lost Metal - Wax & Wayne (Mistborn Era 2) Book 4

 I finally finished Mistborn era 2! I loved this series so much (though I think I love era 1 the most still). This story was an incredible addition to Scadrial's story. In this final installment, we pick up in Elendel at a time of great uncertainty. The outer cities are threatening war, their tentative alliance with the Malwish is falling apart over the Bands of Mourning, and Wax is still in the middle of all of it. Now serving on the senate, Wax is desperately trying to help the Elendel nobles maintain peace while hunting the Set. Unsuccessful thus far at locating his sister, the leader of the Set, Wax is still trying to uncover her plans. Can Wax, Marasi, and Wayne uncover the Set's plans before the invasion of Trell crushes Scadrial? This was a fitting conclusion for Mistborn's second era. I loved the character development we saw in each of the characters: Marasi, Wax, Wayne, and Steris. I love the involvement of some era 1 characters (one who I am not going to spoil), a...
Post a Comment
Read more