The Secret Agent And Other Spy Kids

Ten True Tales

by Allan Zullo

Throughout American history, spies have sneaked behind enemy lines, adopted fake identities, and unearthed enemy secrets. They have sent coded messages, worn clever disguises and used inventive hideaways. The information they've gathered has helped win battles and changed the course of war.

This book features ten stories, from the American Revolution to the Korean War, about the thrilling and dangerous adventures of real-life teenagers who left their mark in the shadowy world of espionage. These young spies chose to live a lie and risk everything—including his or her life—for the good of their country.

(From Allan Zullo's website)

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Childrens, School, Biography, Military Fiction, Middle Grade

147 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Allan Zullo is an American non-fiction writer. He is the author or co-author of more than eighty paperbacks for adults and children.

A native of Rockford, Illinois, Zullo graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1969 with a degree in journalism. His books include The Baseball Hall of Shame and Baseball Confidential (both co-written with Bruce Nash), A Boomer's Guide to Grandparenting (co-written with his wife Kathryn), and the Haunted Kids series. Zullo has also written articles for The National Enquirer, The Christian Science Monitor, Ladies Home Journal, and The Palm Beach Post. His syndicated comic strip "The Ghost Story Club" ran in American newspapers from 1995 to 1998.

Zullo currently lives in Fairview, North Carolina.

Reviews

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains ten tales of children (mostly teenagers) who conducted espionage activities during times of war. The stories are not overly detailed, but do contain some of the tragedies that occur in wartime and may not be suitable for some children.

I expect that children who are fascinated with stories about spies and other clandestine operatives will really enjoy the tales and will be surprised by the dangerous situations the children encountered. Overall, it's a fairly fast read, although I took my time and typically only read one story each day.

I would've appreciated more information about the sources of information as well as a listing of additional resources for further study.

[Max Miramontes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book because it talks about how kids got fake identities, and risked their lives as spies for the greater good. Which, if you think about it, can be scary. I recommend this book if you like autobiographies or any true stories of breathtaking events.

[Brandon Bastar]

Personal Response
I liked the book The Secret Agent . It had very detailed information about how every person felt throughout each story. It gave good perspective about how each spy made it through the war. It gave good information about what a spy’s lifestyle is like and how they survived.

Plot
The book, The Secret Agent , by Allan Zullo was very interesting. It gave great detail through each of the stories about how each spy escaped and blended in with society. The author explained why and how a spy is not what most people think it is. They explained how spies do not change what they wear or how they act. They just go on as they do and just observe over other people’s conversations. One story was about a young boy who sold newspapers and his whole family was part of a spy group. The boy would act as if he were selling newspapers, but he would still be listening to the target’s conversation.

Characterization
The main character of the book was the narrator, each chapter was a different story. The book was wrote by different spys stories about how they became a spy and what their life was like once they became a spy.

Amy was a young girl whose father was injured from war, when she hear him talking about the army needing a spy to deliver a message. The army thought it was perfect because they would have never expected a young girl to be a spy. She was found by the northern army and searched, but she ate the letter just in time so they could not find it.

Setting
This book took place throughout many different places because there were ten different stories. The majority of the book were stories that took place during war times. A northerner or a southerner would go to the others territories and spy on their society to get information about the others war plans. If they were captured spying or were thought to be a spy, the government would either torture or kill him or her.

Amy lived in the southern United States and had to go into the northern states to deliver a message to another spy that was living in the north.

Recommendations
I would recommend this book for boys and girls ages 12 and up. It is a very easy book to read and it gives great information about how each character reacted to all the tough decisions throughout the book.

[Brooke Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the book "The Secret Agent" it talks about how spies do their job. The one story I liked was called "The Carolina Heroine." "The Carolina Heroine" talks about how this girl named Emily that wants to be a spy. She wanted to be a spy because her father was going to do the job, but he father John was disabled by a stroke. The mission was for Emily to carrie a message to General Sumter's. The problem was that she was a woman, but she still wanted to ask if she could carry out the journey. So she ask Mr. Greene if she can give the message to General Sumter's. His first response is "send you? But you're a young girl." Emily tries to say they would never expect for there to be a spy to be a woman. After he thinks about it he says that she can go on the journey. When she reaches this one camp two guys know her dad and are wondering why she is there. So she goes into the place she was staying at and hears someone at her door. She has to do something with the paper, but they will find it. So the only choice she has is to eat the paper. A couple of seconds after the men break in. She acts confused and got away in peace.

[Oxana Gutu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me realise that the fairytales readings are a stage we moved through. It is the true stories now that fascinate my kid. She chose from her Scholastic offer "The secret agent and other spy kids". The book tells 10 true stories of spy kids from the times of the 1781 Revolutionary War to the two world wars and the war in Korea in 1951. It is a good introduction into certain stages of American history through the stories of real-life teenagers who "left their mark in the shadowy world of espionage" who took risks for their country.

The reading will require an adult help with understanding some of the history and military concepts new at this age. So it can be a nice book reading time spent together.

[Braxton Schieler · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is very meh. Other reviewers pointed out that it could be used as an introduction to nonfiction in a classroom setting because it is comprised of many short stories. Fair. It's cute if you are into spies and wars, but it was very juvenile in the writing. The stories themselves were interesting, but the writing was just meh. I'm turned off of Zullo's writing. I give it two out of five instead of one because I recognize I am not the intended audience of this book, and if I were, I might have felt differently about it.

[Becky Tice · Rating 4 out of 5]

My young teen and tween boys enjoyed the stories. They liked the idea of kids helping in important ways and were inspired by the boldness and bravery of the kids in the stories. Very quick reads - each spy has his or her own story (about 15 pages each) and it was nice that it gave the name of the war and the years at the beginning of each chapter.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the exciting stories of 10 young people who were spies in The Revolutionary War (Emily Geiger), Texas War of Independence (Kit Benson), Civil War (Charles Phillips & Charley Felton for the Union and Belle Boyd & David Dodd for the Confederacy), World War 1 (Joe Leysin), World War II (Marguerite Vourc’h & Ingeborg Klein) and Korean War (Choon Kyung Ko).

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

it shows kids who risked there lives to help the greater america be born to today
it was kinda scary and breath taking

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really good, it had multiple different stories in one.

[Nichole]

This features a few stories of Confederate spies and I've decided I don't want to continue to read this right now.

[Fabian Duran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good. I've never knew about any of these spies until I read the book. These spies were important because they provided important information from their enemies and it was very interesting to read about spies from the revolutionary war and things like that. I recommend this book if you like reading about spies.

[Raya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be a spy? Well, this book tells you about some real-life spies and some of the brave things they have to do. In this review, I am going to give two reasons why I like this book. In my opinion, I really like this book.

The first reason is that this book has ten different stories about ten different kid spies. I like this because it doesn't get boring because the characters and plots are different. For example one of the stories is called "Slave Boy" and another story is called "School Girl". Those two are very different stories and they are both really interesting.

The next reason is that all the stories are true! I like this because they are all about real kids who really did the brave, heroic things. It shows you that kids can do things that adults can. For example In one of the stories, “ The Carolina Heroine “ a girl rides a horse for miles and miles to deliver a secret massage.

I recommend this book to everyone. All the stories were good and put together they made a great book.

[American Mensa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book "The Secret Agent" is a really amazing book. The story is about wars and their spies. It talks about the Kid spying over enemy defenses, finding information from the attic of their own hideout, crossing through enemy lines to deliver a message and much more. This is all done by kids just like us. They couldn’t stand there being idle, they went for their country.
Read all about KIDS JUST LIKE US who risked their lives TO BE SPIES !!!!!!
Review by Saksham R., 10 years, Central New Jersey Mensa

[Children's Literature Project · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book features ten brave teens that risk their lives as spies. The stories include teens from the Revolutionary War, Mexican-American War, Civil War, WWII, and the Korean War. The stories are relatively short so works well for a shared reading or introduction to bibliographies.

Classroom uses:
- nonfiction lesson
- supplement lessons on the various wars
- classroom library

DRA: 60
GR: W
Lexile: 980L
GLE: 6.8

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever wondered what it is like to be a young spy? This book by Allan Zullo shows 10 true stories about kids who risked everything for their country. In my opinion, The Boy Martyr story was the most sad. It really opened my eyes to the fact that in every war, terrible things happened to both spies. I considered this a great read!

[Melanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why would I want to read more about history after I just got done suffering thru it in school?

[707Leonel · Rating 4 out of 5]

These kids must really have risked their lives in order to help there cause, in giving plans and getting the other causes spy's captured.

[Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

the greatest book ever.

[Dayna Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute introduction to nonfiction.

[Kian Moe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice!!!

[Murray5thgrade2015 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagen hiding in the attic of your enamys base. Thats what these kids did.
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