It is 1944 in London, and Bertie Bradshaw is excited to be a new civil defense volunteer. In the middle of a WWII air raid, Bertie notices a mysterious young woman. Before he can catch up to her, she vanishes leaving only a ciphered notebook. With the help of his rescue dog, Little Roo, and his friends Eleanor and David, Bertie must decipher the notebook in time to stop a double agent from spilling the biggest secret of all to the Nazis. Readers can help to solve the mystery along with the characters, using an illustrated decoder ring. Hopkinson also includes some historical figures and events into this adventure.
Additional Book Information:
Copyright: 2019 by Deborah Hopkinson
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publishing Date: February 12, 2019
Reading Level (Lexile): 630L
5 key words to describe this book:
Adventurous
Historical
Page-turner
Mysterious
Unpredictable
ELA CT Common Core Standard that might be met by reading this book:
RL.5.5 Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.
Suggested Delivery:
Independent Read or Small Group
Electronic Resources:
https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/history/general-history/world-war-two/
Show students this website prior to reading to teach them some background information and basic facts about WWII.
https://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_ii/
Students can utilize this website before and throughout reading How I Became a Spy. It provides descriptions and images of many aspects of WWII, including a timeline and activity to evaluate understanding.
Video to Build Schema:
ELA Teaching Suggestions:
Key vocabulary that may have to be taught for students to better understand the text:
World War II: a war from 1939 to 1945 between the Axis (Germany, Japan, and Italy) and the Allies (Britain, the US, and the Soviet Union among others)
Air raid: an attack by armed airplanes
Cipher: a secret way of writing text; a way of writing in code
Nazis: a political group that ruled Germany between 1933 and 1945 under the leadership of Adolf Hitler
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS): the intelligence agency of the United States during WWII created to gather information about other countries
Double agent: a spy pretending to serve one government while actually serving another
Reading strategy suggestions to increase literal and/or inferential comprehension:
Before Reading
Students will fill out the "What I Know" and "What I Want to Know" sections of a K-W-L chart in regard to the main events/ideas involved in WWII.
During Reading
After Reading
Students will create a graphical representation of the events in the book using the following interactive from readwritethink.org.
https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/timeline
Writing activity that requires students to demonstrate inferential comprehension:
Research and write a report on the geographical setting of the story, including an explanation as to why this setting was important to the effect of the story.