Code Name Verity (Edgar Allen Poe Awards. Best Young Adult (Awards)) [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Wein (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 15, 2012 | Series: Edgar Allen Poe Awards. Best Young Adult (Awards)

Oct. 11th, 1943—A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun.

When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.

As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy? 

A Michael L. Printz Award Honor book that was called “a fiendishly-plotted mind game of a novel” in The New York Times, Code Name Verity is a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Teen Books of the Month, May 2012: Rich in historical detail and intrigue, Code Name Verity is a vivid reminder of what makes historical fiction so compelling. In exchange for a temporary stay of execution and lesser forms of torture, a young female spy captured in Nazi-occupied France writes a confession of her activities in the Resistance. Her story is that of two women who should never have crossed paths, yet were destined to become the best of friends and embark upon the covert mission that would determine which of them would live or die. Courage born of friendship, fierce hope, surprising twists, and ironies abound in this spell-binding novel that will appeal to teens and adult readers alike.--Seira Wilson

Review

Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal

“This heart-in-your-mouth adventure has it all: a complex plot, a vivid sense of place and time, and resonant themes of friendship and courage. Practical Maddie and mischievous Julie are brought to life through their vibrant narrative voices and intriguing backstories . . . In this powerful work of historical fiction, Julie and Maddie need never fear ‘flying alone’; the reader will soar with them until the final page.”
—The Washington Post
 
“Young people will enjoy this Second World War spy story, no doubt, but its appeal is much wider. It's a beautiful thriller about friendship, courage and daring at a desperate time.”
—The StarPhoenix
 
“Moving back in time, rather than forward, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein is an original, cleverly written Second World War story about spies, torture, women pilots, friendship and the horror of war.”
—The Independent

“A carefully researched, precisely written tour de force; unforgettable and wrenching.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 
“[Code Name Verity] is outstanding in all its features—its warm, ebullient characterization; its engagement with historical facts; its ingenious plot and dramatic suspense; and its intelligent, vivid writing.”
—The Horn Book (starred review)

“A fiendishly plotted mind game of a novel.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“If you pick up this book, it will be some time before you put your dog-eared, tear-stained copy back down. Wein succeeds on three fronts: historical verisimilitude, gut-wrenching mystery, and a first-person voice of such confidence and flair that the protagonist might become a classic character. . . . Both crushingly sad and hugely inspirational, this plausible, unsentimental novel will thoroughly move even the most cynical of readers.”
—Booklist Online (American Library Association) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Book CH; First Edition edition (May 15, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423152190
• ISBN-13: 978-1423152194
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (203 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in New York City in 1964, and moved to England when I was 3. I started school there. We lived practically in the shadow of Alderley Edge, the setting for several of Alan Garner's books and for my own first book The Winter Prince; that landscape, and Garner's books, have been a lifelong influence on me.

My father, who worked for the New York City Board of Education for most of his life, was sent to England to do teacher training at what is now Manchester Metropolitan University. He helped organize the Headstart program there. When I was six he was sent to the University of the West Indies in Jamaica for three years to do the same thing in Kingston. I loved Jamaica and became fluent in Jamaican patois (I can't really speak it any more, but I can still understand it); but in 1973 my parents separated, and we ended up back in the USA living with my mother in Harrisburg, PA, where her parents were. When she died in a car accident in 1978, her wonderful parents took us in and raised us.

I went to Yale University, spent a work-study year back in England, and then spent seven years getting a PhD in Folklore at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. While I was there I learned to ring church bells in the English style known as "change ringing", and in 1991 I met my future husband there at a bell ringers' dinner-dance. He is English, and in 1995 I moved to England with him, and then to Scotland in 2000.

We share another unusual interest--flying in small planes. My husband got his private pilot's license in 1993 and I got mine ten years later. Together we have flown in the States from Kalamazoo to New Hampshire; in Kenya we've flown from Nairobi to Malindi, on the coast, and also all over southern England. Alone, most of my flying has been in eastern Scotland.

We have two children.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

(What's this?)

#97 in Books > Teens

#97 in Books > Teens

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 86 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most powerful books I've read May 17, 2012

By Gretchen @ My Life is a Notebook

Format:Hardcover

This review is of an ARC received from NetGalley.

There are few books that leave me speechless.

This would be one of them.

I'll admit, I had my reservations in the beginning. The narrator RAMBLES like whoa. I mean, I was reading on a screen and I saw pages taken up by just two paragraphs and I thought "Swell, this is just going and going and I'm going to be bored to tears."

I wasn't. Not by a long shot.

Usually, if the narrator rambles, I get bored and lose interest. Not here. Sometimes I feel like narrators in YA lack a distinct voice, but-again-not here. Verity HAS VOICE. Verity HAS PRESENCE. Despite the fact that she tells her story from Maddie's point of view, talking about herself in the first person, I felt like I was seeing into Verity's soul. There was no doubt in my mind about the voice that was just flying off the pages, talking to my heart. She not only managed to win me over despite rambling, but also despite talking about herself in the third person, which is huge. (The third person thing makes sense later, but I can't say anything about that!)

Plus, I was expecting a pretty dark, dramatic book. It is both of those things, but imagine my surprise when I found myself laughing out loud multiple times while I was reading. While Verity is being held by the Gestapo. I was laughing. That's how spectacular Verity is. That's how strong she is. That's what this book is like.

I'd also like to give a brief shout out on a very touchy subject. Not only is Verity a rounded person, but the German Officer who interrogates her is also a rounded character. He isn't this mindless drone, which I found very refreshing and made the book even more real. It would have been so, so easy to stereotype this guy, but Wein didn't. She MADE IT REAL.

You have no idea how hard it is not to comment on the second half of the book. I literally don't know how to write about that. I'll admit, personally here I found the voice weaker and several things too rushed, but at the same time I can't imagine certain events having differently, not if they still wanted to be real. The ending is very bittersweet, so I suppose my mixed feelings are supposed to be there.

And trust me, all of my feelings are there.

I could get technical. I could. I could talk for ages about the rambling, the technicalities, and the story tangents that don't make sense til the second half of the book. With any other book, I would. But with this one, I just can't. Code Name Verity was just one of those books.

A good book is fun to read. A good book takes you to a new place for a time, but then you put it down and you go on with your life. Code Name Verity was not a good book.

Code Name Verity was a great book.

It was the kind of book with images, words and ideas that get under your skin. The kind of story that melts into your heart. It was an experience that is with you long after you've closed the book. THAT is the kind of story that comes with Code Name Verity.

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Different in a Very Good Way May 14, 2012

By Valerie A. Baute

Format:Paperback

Free ARC provided by NetGalley

Best friends Maddie and... (I don't even know what to call her because I don't want to ruin anything!) crash-land in occupied France. One becomes a prisoner, tortured for information. What about the other girl? I am so set on not ruining ANYTHING about this book that I'm not going to say anything else about the plot except that there are two parts to the story. That was about all I knew going into it, and it was enough to make me want to read it.

This book is a wonderful historical fiction about WWII told from a different perspective. There are lots of Holocaust books. There are books about soldiers fighting the war. There are books about almost every aspect of the war. Very rarely do you read about women during the war, and almost never about young women actually fighting in the war! Fighting! Not being nurses, not working at home, not struggling to survive while their towns are being blown up. Actually flying into the middle of it! Add to that the prisoner of war aspect and wow!

I really enjoyed reading this book. I had to know what was going to happen! It definitely drew me in and kept me there. When I got past the first part of the book, I didn't think I would care for the second part, and was quick to say that I was only going to be giving the book 4 stars. Before long, I was hooked again. The author did a good job of surprising me and of bringing so many things together. I enjoyed reading the first part probably more than the second, but I brought so much more out of the second than the first. For some people who may think that the beginning story drags on... keep reading. I didn't feel it dragged on at all, but that was because I found most of the information so educational. There was quite a bit about certain types of planes that I just kind of skimmed over because it didn't particularly interest me, but she thankfully didn't go into too much detail about it. For anyone who thinks the beginning story isn't very interesting, they will be rewarded with all of the crazy twists of the second part.

Even after I finished the book, I at first thought I would only rank it 4 stars. There was only so much action and a lot of story, something I don't usually enjoy. I decided to sit on it for a couple of days. Then I couldn't get the book out of my mind. I kept thinking of ways that the author made the story realistic, different, enthralling. When I went to talk about it with other people, so much information sat on the edge of my tongue waiting to be spilled out. I had to keep my mouth shut just in case any of those people decide to read it, because it wouldn't be the same if you had any real idea what was going to happen. In the end, it left such an impact that it definitely earned the 5 star ranking.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great war books August 24, 2012

By Heidi Waterhouse

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Oh. My.

When you read enough reviews that refuse to talk about the plot, you know there is a twist coming, but the twist ended up being other than what I expected, so thank you previous reviewers.

The VOICE in this book! The voiceS. I was riveted all through the book by how vivid and rich the conversations were. There are 24 highlights in this book, which is about double my usual rate, because I couldn't let phrases like
"You ignorant Quisling bastard, SS-Scharführer Etienne Thibaut, I AM SCOTTISH."
and
"Oh my sainted aunt! unlimited visibility! unlimited visibility except for the dirty great city in the northwest! That would be the dirty great city surrounded at 3000 feet by a few hundred silver hydrogen balloons as big as buses! How in the name of mud is he going to find Berlin if he can't find Manchester?"

Anyway, it's a war book. It's like many other war books for young readers, about the inhumanity of war and the humanity of the individuals writing it, and how jarring it is to try to understand all that together. I would unhesitatingly give this book to a middle-schooler. There is violence, but it is mostly by reference, and there is fear, the book is thick with it, but each of the main characters makes a list of things she is afraid of, and both of them include Failing Other People. I love books that are about being equally scared of dying and failing.

Fascinatingly, this is an entirely aromantic book. It's like everyone is so busy staying alive/fighting Nazis that they have all the mate-finding and sexual pursuit burned out of them. Except for one creepy handsy character, which I thought was a fascinating and unnecessary inclusion, but it models how to handle someone sexually pushy without becoming completely unhistorical. It makes the book more complicated and richer.
<cite>I suppose all he wanted was a kiss and a cuddle. He backed off looking deeply injured and left me feeling guilty and dirty and prudish all at once.<cite> Yes! That's what it feels like. And we should be saying so.

Read if: You have previously liked Elizabeth Wein books, you read /Escape from Colditz/ obsessively as a child, you wish you were clever and brave. You love stories about unlikely friends who push each other to be better. You like books with extensive bibliographies and references to English literature. (yes, this book was obviously written exactly for me. My point is that it may be exactly for you, too.)

Skip if: historically-accurate references to torture, execution, and the general misery of occupied France are going to be a problem for you.

Also read: Escape from Colditz;: The two classic escape stories: The Colditz story, and Men of Colditz. Rifles for Watie.

Final note: This book is way too absorbing to put down easily. It's not long, but allocate some undisturbed time for it.