Island of Spies

July 4, 2022
Turnage’s (The Law of Finders Keepers) clever 1942-set mystery is based on the real-life torpedoing of American ships off the coast of North Carolina during WWII. Observant narrator Sarah Stickley “Stick” Lawson is a white 12-year-old “apprentice scientist and pre-FBI agent if the FBI ever writes us back” who, with best friends 10-year-old Rain, who has brown skin, and white 12-year-old Neb, make up the Dime Novel Kids. Operating out of a lighthouse and using skills they’ve learned from reading mysteries, the kids comb Hatteras Island to solve self-assigned cases, such as trying to catch the island’s petty thief. When German U-boats sink an American ship off the island’s coast and suspicious newcomers arrive, the Dimes pivot their attention to discovering the Nazi spy they are sure is helping to orchestrate the attacks. Stick’s keen observations are as charming and funny as the island setting, the kids’ antics, and the quirky cast, while her passion for equality is depicted through her insistence that girls should be allowed to defend the island and her staunch defense of Rain, who experiences racism on the largely white island. With codes and clues, spies and double agents, and plenty of made-up references to mystery novels, Turnage’s plot is a complicated maze that requires close attention, even as one message is made abundantly clear: “In times of danger, bet on each other.” An author’s note concludes. Ages 9–12. Agent: Margaret Riley King, WME.

July 15, 2022
World War II brings U-boats, spies, and adventure to a North Carolina island community. Even before the United States entered the war, 12-year-old Sarah Stickley Lawson, called Stick by family and friends, and her two best friends, Neb and Rain, longing for adventure in their quiet Hatteras Island town, formed a group called the Dime Novel Kids to solve mysteries while they awaited assignments from the FBI. Neb, also 12 and also White, is the son of the former lighthouse keeper, so the trio uses the abandoned Hatteras lighthouse as a lookout. Rain, 10, born on the beach to a mysterious White woman who can't remember her past, has brown skin, stirring up prejudice from some White islanders. While the kids are suspecting the town's postmistress of being a spy, real trouble comes in the form of German U-boats bombing cargo ships off the coast. Meanwhile, Stick's Papa is missing at sea. Turnage takes a little-known piece of American history and sets it solidly among realistic characters and an entertaining saga of island life. Her trademark folksy narration and love of metaphor do this particular tale a disservice, however: The Dime Novel Kids are so quirky and imaginative that it takes readers a long time to realize that the U-boats and possible spies are real, and the plotting and pace sag under the weight of the charm. A mismatch between voice and story weakens this otherwise promising novel. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)

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September 15, 2022
Grades 4-6 It's 1942, the U.S. has entered WWII, and German submarines are sinking cargo and passenger ships along America's east coast. Stick, Neb, and Rain, a trio of 10- to 12-year-old friends, are meeting in an abandoned Hatteras Island, North Carolina, lighthouse to plan operations. They're watching the shore for spies as well as observing a local bully, a suspicious postmistress, and recent newcomers to their small community. Notable for her quick wits and courage but disturbed by her father's disappearance at sea, Stick tells the story, while giving credit to Rain (a gifted artist) and Neb (an expert on codes). Together they investigate neighbors as well as strangers, examine clues, and sort through a broad array of suspects. Turnage, who wrote the Newbery Honor Book Three Times Lucky (2012), bases this historical novel on research into WWII as she constructs a complicated mystery with many characters and motives for readers to consider. Stick's lively narration will quickly draw readers into the story, which twists and turns cleverly before reaching its conclusion.

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January 1, 2023
For this freewheeling detective story, Turnage chooses a particular and intriguing setting: Hatteras Island off the coast of North Carolina in 1942. In the early stages of the American involvement in WWII, German U-boats were stationed off this coast, a fact largely hidden from the public. These conditions of secrecy, threat, and espionage make a perfect backdrop for an elaborate tale in which twelve-year-old Stick and her sidekicks, Rain and Neb, tackle a cluster of mysteries involving -- among other tropes -- spies, double agents, strategic eavesdropping, code-breaking, clue-solving, secret messages in lemon juice, explosives, an attempted arsenic poisoning, and a fatal snake bite. The pace slows very briefly for more naturalistic plot points such as Stick's father being missing in action and the endemic racism directed toward Rain and her mother, but the narrative is mainly tried and true: plucky kids outwitting the adults. An added bonus is that our narrator, Stick, is a keen reader of the encyclopedia and of potboiler fiction and has mastered both a wide-ranging compendium of scientific facts and a quippy tough-guy argot, with its delicious metaphors, all appropriate to the period. Her sister's boyfriend has "dimples deep enough to back a Ford into." Funny, crisp, and clever. Sarah Ellis

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2023
For this freewheeling detective story, Turnage chooses a particular and intriguing setting: Hatteras Island off the coast of North Carolina in 1942. In the early stages of the American involvement in WWII, German U-boats were stationed off this coast, a fact largely hidden from the public. These conditions of secrecy, threat, and espionage make a perfect backdrop for an elaborate tale in which twelve-year-old Stick and her sidekicks, Rain and Neb, tackle a cluster of mysteries involving -- among other tropes -- spies, double agents, strategic eavesdropping, code-breaking, clue-solving, secret messages in lemon juice, explosives, an attempted arsenic poisoning, and a fatal snake bite. The pace slows very briefly for more naturalistic plot points such as Stick's father being missing in action and the endemic racism directed toward Rain and her mother, but the narrative is mainly tried and true: plucky kids outwitting the adults. An added bonus is that our narrator, Stick, is a keen reader of the encyclopedia and of potboiler fiction and has mastered both a wide-ranging compendium of scientific facts and a quippy tough-guy argot, with its delicious metaphors, all appropriate to the period. Her sister's boyfriend has "dimples deep enough to back a Ford into." Funny, crisp, and clever.

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)