Customer Reviews

The Private Eyes and the Mysterious Submarine

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This story describes an improbable but exciting adventure. It takes place in Israel in 1966 where four twelve year old Orthodox Israeli boys foil a dastardly plot to destroy Tel Aviv. At the outset, they find, restore and launch a boat that initially belonged to some of Israel's first settlers. In doing so, they come in contact with an Arab fishing boat and an Arab submarine crew from Egypt that are working together to launch a bomb. The plot involves the way in which they thwart this plot and save the city. While the plot itself may be somewhat intriguing, and the book's black and white drawings try for a whimsical feel to enhance the story, there are a number of negatives. The author describes the life of Orthodox boys whose vocabulary and lifestyle may be unfamiliar to most readers. Most importantly, the book is poorly translated from Hebrew to English. For example, the conversations are stilted and sound nothing like the words that young boys would actually say. ("You and your philosophizing!" Yanky complained. "I hope you are aware that you're testing my patience, but never fear. I was blessed with a large dose of patience.") Additionally, the character development is clearly lacking and many Hebrew phrases are included but are not explained. Arabs are stereotypes: the name of their terrorist operation is "Operation Tellafif's a Goner" due to their difficulty in pronouncing the letter "v". The published review copy also included inexplicable changing print size every few pages. Ages 10-13. Marge Kaplan

Reviewed by: Wayne Walker

If you lived near the sea and found an old boat along the shore, what would you do with it, and what adventures do you think that you might have with it? It is the spring of 1966 in Israel's ancient port city of Jaffa. Four twelve-year-old Jewish boys, Mordy Leifer, Yanky Scharff, Reuvi Davidowitz, and Itamar Navoni, find an old ma'apilim boat that has been beached on a sand dune near the shore. These boats had been used by Jews who were escaping from the Nazis during World War II and trying to sneak into Palestine during the time of the British Mandate. During their summer vacation from school, the four boys intend to fix up the boat and sail to adventures, but they never imagine that they will come across an Arab submarine carrying terrorists who are plotting to destroy Tel Aviv. Will the boys be able to do anything about the plot, or will they even escape themselves?

I suspect that Jewish children especially will enjoy reading a book in which the young heroes are Jewish boys who exhibit a great deal of courage and wisdom. However, this book has an exciting enough story that I think that all youngsters will find it interesting. In addition, author Neta Tzvieli has woven quite a bit of Israeli history and even geography into the action so as to give The Private Eyes and the Mysterious Submarine some educational benefit as well. My only complaint is that as someone who is not Jewish, a lot of the Jewish words and phrases used in the book are difficult for me to understand. Some of them are translated or explained, but many are not. An appendix with translations would be helpful. In spite of this, I found the story to be an imaginative tale of danger and suspense that will appeal to middle school-age readers. Translated into English by Chana Devorah Sklar, this is the first in a series of popular Private Eyes books by Tzvieli.