(Kids-bookreview.com)
Despite having had Brian as a visiting author at both of my last schools, and I might add, you would never regret doing so yourself – this guy has even the most blasé of senior boys eating out of his hand! – I hadn't got around to reading either of the first Katipo Joe novels. I'm not only grateful for the opportunity to review this third in the series but will now go back and read the earlier ones.
I think anyone in a school library will admit that frequently there can be a dearth of really gripping, exciting fiction that will engage the interest of older boys, those reluctant readers who will stick to the same adventure series they read back in upper primary simply because they can't find anything else. Therefore, you need to order this series and book talk it up big to your chaps, both boys and girls.
Joseph St George raised in Germany by English spy parents is the perfect candidate for MI5 to infiltrate Hitler Youth and carry out top secret missions. The first two have been fraught, dangerous, and exhausting and Joe has little stomach for a third, but his parents, especially his mother, are in danger so his protests are quickly shut down.
Falkner really has a gift for building superb tension in his plot and his skill with ‘show don't tell' is now on my agenda to share with Year 9 English students, many of whom are struggling with this aspect in their current short story writing.
Joe is detailed to replace and impersonate a boy selected as one of the candidates for an elite competition, conceived by the Nazi elite. As you can well imagine, the prize offered for the successful entrant is dazzling, however the cost of failure is torture – even death. The other contestants are, by turns, likeable and loathsome and, overall, my reaction was the realisation of just how successfully Hitler manipulated the youngsters of German to become, essentially, a living arsenal. The virtual tour, as it were, of such infamous settings as the Eagle's Nest provides a chilling backdrop to the non-stop action. A really clever device Brian employs, are the extracts from (adult) Joe's memoirs scattered throughout, which allow the reader insight into the character's thoughts and emotions.
“I have been accused of whitewashing the Nazi leadership in my memoirs. Some people say I make them seem human. But therein lies the problem. I saw these men up close. They were human. If we think of them only as monsters and demons we may lose sight of the fact that they were very much like you and I. They had the same number of eyes, ears and limbs. If we forget what humans are capable of, we risk it happening all over again.”
There is not one of us that could deny this, in my opinion, particularly given the terrible events happening across the world right now.
Every bit as thrilling, and yes – often implausible – as Anthony Horowitz' Alex Rider stories, this will capture the imagination of even the most jaded teen. Set squarely amidst real historical events, with chilling insights into key figures and attitudes of the Nazi regime, this exciting tale of heroism, intense action, a little romance and devastating tragedy will have your older readers wanting more. Needless to say, Brian is already on my list of intended authors to visit, hopefully, this year.
I strongly suggest you order this series immediately, just as I will be doing for my new library [which is in dire need of zhushing} and recommending it your older readers. Naturally with the wealth of historical fact woven throughout, it also makes an excellent choice for ‘read around your topic' for those students of modern conflicts.
(Kuttners Choice)
Brian Falkner's wonderful wartime adventure series opens in Berlin in 1938: Hitler is massing his troops and Germany is preparing for the Thousand-Year Reich and a pure Aryan race. Joseph St. George is 12 years old and living in Berlin, the son of British Diplomats. He has lots of friends at school and is envious of them because they are all joining the HitlerJugend, the Hitler Youth – why can't he?
His parents explain to him very succinctly why he can't, especially after Kristallnacht, The Night of the Broken Glass, when Jews and their property were beaten and smashed: on the surface Deutschland sparkles; behind the glitter are horrible undercurrents which culminate in a midnight visit to their home from the Gestapo, who drag Joe's father off for questioning. Joe finally realises that his idyllic childhood in Germany is over, especially when he and his mother are forced to flee to a series of Safe Houses on their way to Switzerland and eventual safety in Britain – where his mother immediately sends him home to her brother in New Zealand because he will be safe there. Outrageous!
Joe doesn't believe he can survive without his mother. He still doesn't know what happened to his father, and he has no idea what kind of work she does in Whitehall, but he is determined to get back to her whichever way he can – and after three years he does, stowing away on a cargo ship, nearly drowning when a U boat torpedo strikes, but he does make it back to London – just in time for the Blitz, and to find that his Mother is spying for Churchill.
Brian Falkner keeps up a cracking pace throughout Book One; his research is top-notch and he provides a glossary and relevant photos as Joe is eventually recruited by Whitehall to train as a Junior Spy; he is tall and fair, the perfect Aryan specimen, and his language skills are exemplary. After the right training he will be sent back to Berlin – as an assassin: no-one would ever suspect a tall, handsome Aryan Hitler youth as a murderer of one of their own.
Spycraft, Book Two, is set in Bavaria in Berchtesgaden, Hitler's planning and social centre: once again Joe has been parachuted into Germany to replace a HitlerJugend lad who mysteriously disappears from the train that Joe must take to join other young girls and boys who are the cream of the Hitler Youth. They are to appear in a movie by acclaimed film-maker Leni Riefenstahl, a propaganda film to show the German public – and the world – the perfection of German Aryan youth under the Third Reich and, as with Book One, there is more to Joe's mission (and more life-and-death risk) than he could possibly imagine; the suspense and excitement never falters, and Falkner's portrayal of all the monsters of history is first-rate. At this stage of the series, Book Two should be classed as Young Adult as themes and the story change, but the only criticism I have so far is the lack of Book Three. I need to know what happens! SIX STARS!!
(Hooked on Books)
“There were times during the war when I lost myself… I risked becoming the person I was playing, and that person was a Nazi.”
Joseph (Joe) St George is 15 years old. A schoolboy. But unlike most schoolboys, he also happens to be a spy for MI5.
It's the middle of World War Two and he has just found out he is being sent on a mission. He's told that his mother, also a spy, has gone missing in Germany and that he has to rescue her.
Joe is parachuted into Germany and makes his way to a rendezvous with an accomplice. There he learns that actually, his mission is not to rescue his mother. Turns out MI5 just wanted to make sure he cooperated. Instead, Joe is about to be sent right into ‘the very heart of the Nazi spider web,'” the Eagle's Nest, a place used by Nazi Party members for government meetings and discussions. Eight boys and girls from the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls have been selected for a special project and his job is to infiltrate this group. To do this he must replace one of them. Joe St George must become Jürgen Weyl…
Spycraft by Brian Falkner is an absolutely gripping novel set in World War Two. The second in the Katipo Joe series, I totally loved it! I haven't actually read the first book and I thought it would be interesting to see if this had an impact on my reading experience of the sequel. Although there were some references to Joe's previous mission I had to figure out, I didn't have any trouble getting right into the story.
The book starts with a prologue which is really effective in drawing you in. “The Irishman stops as the dog plants her paws in front of him and bares her teeth, jagged in the light of the reluctant moon…Perhaps she can smell the blood on the knife.” A knife? Blood?! From the very first paragraph, I couldn't wait to read more.
I also found the cover really hooked me – a full moon over the Eagle's Nest and the Katipo spider. The spider resembles a swastika (the symbol on the Nazi flag) and Katipo is Joe's code name.
One message the book gets across is that good and bad aren't as simple as black and white. Joe is the ‘good guy' but that doesn't mean all he does is perfect or right. In fact, he comes very close to murdering the girl he has a crush on when she starts to suspect his true identity. Likewise, the ‘bad guys' are portrayed as humans, not demons.
Spycraft is technically a war story, however, most of the narrative takes place away from the thick of war. This sets it apart from other war dramas but doesn't mean it lacks action or excitement!
Falkner has written Spycraft very cleverly. There's never a slow moment and the way he weaves real-life people and events along with his fictional characters left me feeling as though I was part of the story. I think my heart was thumping faster than normal at points! There are some very tense and horrific parts of this book and a lot of these things actually happened during World War Two. For this reason, I'd recommend to readers 13+.
Spycraft is an un-put-down-able, very well-researched novel with tension, betrayal and unexpected romance. One of the finalists in the NZ Book Awards Children and Young Adults and I can definitely see why. I can't wait to read the whole series!
(Bob's Book Blog)
This is masterful writing from Brian Falkner that will have you spellbound from beginning till end. Falkner grabs the reader on page one and never lets you go till the stunning ending when you will be screaming out for more.
After his experiences in London during the Blitz and the fateful mission in France, Katipo Joe the fifteen year old spy is airlifted into Germany during a bombing raid, with the aim of infiltrating an elite group of Hitler Youth. This will have him mixing with five other elite young Nazis and competing with them to become movie stars in a film by Leni Riefenstahl. But there is a bigger prize than that but you will have to read the novel to find out what it is. This will not be a hardship I can assure you of that.
In this journey he finds love and meets Hitler's inner circle of Himmler, Goebbels and Goring and even the girl that stole Hitler's heart Eva Braun, plus Hitler's dog Blondi and that is a story in itself. He mixes with the Nazi elite in the town of Obersalzberg and ponders “how can you be in the presence of such evil and not feel even a prickle of discomfort?”. They appear so normal.
The highlight for me is the meeting of the top Nazis including Hitler, Eva Braun plus Goebbels etc at the Eagle's Nest fortress in Berchtesgaden, a place I visited in 2004.
This is world class writing, well researched, historically accurate and poses a “what if “scenario regarding Hitler's dilemma of whether to to invade England. The detail is fascinating from the descriptions of the Nazi leaders to the aircraft, the guns the motor vehicles that the SS and Hitlr drove around in and of course the landscape around Obersalzberg. In the back of the novel there are some very enlightening photographs in which the action was involved
The ending is stunning and sets up book three. I can't wait. If this isn't the best Children and Young Adults book of the year I will give up eating strudel.
(Hooked on Books)
The second book in Brian Falkner's Katipo Joe series, Spycraft, was published in 2021 by Scholastic, and continues on from where we left off at the end of Blitzkrieg. Joe is a British spy during World War 2 and has just come back from Paris and his previous mission, infiltrating the Hitler Youth, when he is whisked away to Germany to take the place of young Jürgen Weyl and enter the belly of the beast. Joe knows next to nothing about this person yet he must forget everything that he once was and become Jürgen. But will he be able to deceive everyone and make it out alive?
Joseph St George is now 15 years old and returning to London after a failed mission when he hears that his mother has been deep undercover in Germany, close to Hitler's inner circle. However, MI6 has not heard from her for a few weeks, and is unsure whether she has been captured, or worse, is dead. Joe is sent into Germany on what he thinks is a rescue mission to find his mother and return her home, but he soon finds out that it is so much more than a rescue mission. Joe must take the place of Jürgen Weyl and by doing so enters an elite programme designed to find the best of the best. Joe goes into this mission knowing next to nothing, apart from a few details about the person he must become and must learn to play the part of Jürgen Weyl convincingly. This is made harder still by the fact that Joe suspects that someone doubts his cover and could threaten to ruin everything. As Joe learns the true purpose of his mission, and what ‘Jürgen' is really doing in a hotel on the edge of the isolated Lake Königssee, he must fight to come out on top without revealing that he's not Jürgen, but in fact a British spy. Joe will come across many enemies and, unusually, a few friends, but who can he truly trust? Or maybe the better question to ask is, who can trust him?
Falkner has done it again, and managed to make this book even better than the first! Through the various characters in this novel we see aspects of ourselves and others, which makes the characters relatable, especially the teens. The decisions and choices that they make cause conflicts to arise within themselves and between each other, and these actions are relatable to us in the current world, albeit in a less drastic and life threatening way. Falkner weaves the terrifying true events of a terrible war into a story of thrilling adventure, deadly risks, and devastating tragedy.
(NZ Listener)
This Kiwi take on Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, with its uber cliff-hanger endings, is the second in the New Zealand expat author's World War II schoolboy spy series that began with Katipo Joe: Blitzkrieg.
Unlike Horowitz's orphan Alex, however, Joseph St George, son of a diplomatic family resident in Berlin when war breaks out, has at least one surviving parent: at the end of the previous book, his mother's existence was revealed to him, in secretarial garb, in a photo of Hitler's entourage. On a mission to rescue her before the Gestapo can "make her talk", Joe must parachute into enemy territory and once more attempt to insinuate himself into the Hitler Youth movement - this time in the guise of a propaganda film exercise involving real-life film-maker Leni Riefenstahl and a group of teen girls and boys at the Fuhrer's Eagle's Nest retreat in the Bavarian Alps. As with the first book, a good glossary and bibliography plus a swag of relevant photos not only support the author's solid research but point to further avenues of investigation.
(The Sapling)
You know you're in the hands of a master storyteller when you find a glossary, a set of historical photographs and a bibliography at the back of the book, plus a web link for discussion of “the fact vs fiction elements of this story” at the front. This is a World War II adventure story stitched so firmly into the context of Nazi Germany of 1941 that you could almost be convinced that it's true. Almost.
Fifteen-year-old New Zealander Katipo (codename) Joe St George who grew up in Berlin is on a mission to find his diplomat-cum-British spy mother who has returned to Germany but has lost contact with British Intelligence – or so he thinks. In fact, his assignment becomes much more complex as he infiltrates the Hitler Youth movement becoming part of an elite group of teenage boys and girls competing for parts in a propaganda film and vying for the approval of Hitler himself. “Welcome to the machinations of military intelligence … Wheels within wheels and circles within circles. Nothing is what it seems. Get used to it,” Joe's contact in Germany tells him. He does. And between 26 May and 5 June 1941 he attempts to foil the Nazis and their plan to invade Britain, and to find his mother.
People on both sides of the conflict die, however, the violence is never gratuitous but compelling, and there's a hint of romance that leavens the tension. There are subplots, well developed minor characters and a running collection of excerpts from “the memoirs of Joseph (Katipo) St George” that preface chapters and add structure and a moral dimension to the story. “If we think of them only as monsters and demons, we may lose sight of the fact that they were very much like you and I. They had the same number of eyes, ears and limbs. If we forget what humans are capable of, we risk it happening all over again.”
There are references to people and happenings from the previous Katipo Joe book in the series and sufficient possibilities for the next volume of adventure. There are also some nice touches for Kiwi readers: “You never name the lambs,” Joe reminds himself as he steels himself to kill the girl whom he likes but suspects will betray him. Details like the U-boat stench of “forty or so unwashed men stuck in a closed tin can for a few weeks” are surprising and informative, and the everyday scene of swastika flag-waving children chasing each other through excited sightseers beside a hotel guarded by Gestapo officers is chilling.
But Falkner is at his best in the full-on, nail-biting action sections. Chapter one's description of Joe's abandoning of the now uncontrollably spinning Halifax bomber that has returned him to Germany, and the near calamity of ‘hide and seek' in the Nazi Party's Eagle's Nest in chapter 16 are riveting. In the end, Joe rescues his mother and sees her on her way to Yugoslavia and, presumably to safety. Joe, however, has unfinished work and another book to be written, and heads back ‘into the heart of the beast'.
(kiwireviews.nz)
Since I was already familiar with the character of Joseph (Katipo) St George, having already read "Katipo Joe: Blitzkrieg", the first book in the series, I was quickly immersed once again in Joe's unfolding story. The pace is just as frantic as that of its predecessor, demanding the reader's full attention: Joe's story is compelling in its meld of history and fiction.
Joe deals with the usual challenges of puberty, working through the transition from boy to man, but most young men do not have to simultaneously cope with warfare and death. The real people (and animals) who interact with Joe - Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler, and Eva Braun, right down to Hitler's dog Blondie, make the story come alive and in many ways plausible. I had to remind myself periodically that Joe and his comrades from Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls had their origins in the author's inspiration - even though the groups they were attached to were real, designed to seduce young people into the Nazi philosophies.
The story begins with a couple of chapters that set the scene for what is to follow, but after that the reader is on a fast-paced track to follow Joe's journey. As he encounters one danger after another, he grows in confidence and continues to hone his survival skills. Miss 14, who also read the book, said she found it drew her in to a much greater extent than the first in the series, and kept stopping to talk to me about what she had just read. We spent some time discussing it, and I was interested in her comment that she thought this book would appeal to a slightly older audience - reflecting possibly on Joe's own personal development and growing maturity. She liked the way the story introduced the theme of teenage romance; without being too explicit, it hints at the growing attraction between young people forced to interact together in a contrived situation.
Both of us found the inclusion of authentic monochrome photographs helped to illustrate the feel for the period. Today, when wars are fought via technology and long-distance attack, it is difficult for many to imagine the hands-on warfare of the 1940s. Very few people remember this time, and even if they are old enough to remember some of the history, they may have been only children themselves and in many cases be unaware of the huge differences that time has brought about.
As with the first book in the series, many of the chapters are prefaced by a single page statement which provides additional comment on the action. These pages contain quotes, either from Katipo's own memories, or from real people like Hitler or Shakespeare. The words are presented in a font which differs from that used in the rest of the book, and they are displayed against a watermark which resembles a sheet of creased paper.
The German terms used in the book are either explained in context or included in the glossary - something which I, and Miss 14, found extremely useful. I am a German speaker but she is not, and this made the book more accessible to her than would otherwise have been the case. Some of the terms are indeed familiar to most English speakers, but certainly not all. She already knew the meanings of Blitz and Luftwaffe, but the idea of Kristallnacht was beyond her. Even with a dictionary, she could get as far as "Kristall" and find it meant "glass" or "crystal", but the full meaning of Kristallnacht would not have made sense without the full explanation supplied.
Both of us could see that the last few pages of the book almost certainly foreshadow a third in the series. We will be looking forward to that!
(Kids-bookreview.com) ▼
Despite having had Brian as a visiting author at both of my last schools, and I might add, you would never regret doing so yourself – this guy has even the most blasé of senior boys eating out of his hand! – I hadn't got around to reading either of the first Katipo Joe novels. I'm not only grateful for the opportunity to review this third in the series but will now go back and read the earlier ones.
I think anyone in a school library will admit that frequently there can be a dearth of really gripping, exciting fiction that will engage the interest of older boys, those reluctant readers who will stick to the same adventure series they read back in upper primary simply because they can't find anything else. Therefore, you need to order this series and book talk it up big to your chaps, both boys and girls.
Joseph St George raised in Germany by English spy parents is the perfect candidate for MI5 to infiltrate Hitler Youth and carry out top secret missions. The first two have been fraught, dangerous, and exhausting and Joe has little stomach for a third, but his parents, especially his mother, are in danger so his protests are quickly shut down.
Falkner really has a gift for building superb tension in his plot and his skill with ‘show don't tell' is now on my agenda to share with Year 9 English students, many of whom are struggling with this aspect in their current short story writing.
Joe is detailed to replace and impersonate a boy selected as one of the candidates for an elite competition, conceived by the Nazi elite. As you can well imagine, the prize offered for the successful entrant is dazzling, however the cost of failure is torture – even death. The other contestants are, by turns, likeable and loathsome and, overall, my reaction was the realisation of just how successfully Hitler manipulated the youngsters of German to become, essentially, a living arsenal. The virtual tour, as it were, of such infamous settings as the Eagle's Nest provides a chilling backdrop to the non-stop action. A really clever device Brian employs, are the extracts from (adult) Joe's memoirs scattered throughout, which allow the reader insight into the character's thoughts and emotions.
“I have been accused of whitewashing the Nazi leadership in my memoirs. Some people say I make them seem human. But therein lies the problem. I saw these men up close. They were human. If we think of them only as monsters and demons we may lose sight of the fact that they were very much like you and I. They had the same number of eyes, ears and limbs. If we forget what humans are capable of, we risk it happening all over again.”
There is not one of us that could deny this, in my opinion, particularly given the terrible events happening across the world right now.
Every bit as thrilling, and yes – often implausible – as Anthony Horowitz' Alex Rider stories, this will capture the imagination of even the most jaded teen. Set squarely amidst real historical events, with chilling insights into key figures and attitudes of the Nazi regime, this exciting tale of heroism, intense action, a little romance and devastating tragedy will have your older readers wanting more. Needless to say, Brian is already on my list of intended authors to visit, hopefully, this year.
I strongly suggest you order this series immediately, just as I will be doing for my new library [which is in dire need of zhushing} and recommending it your older readers. Naturally with the wealth of historical fact woven throughout, it also makes an excellent choice for ‘read around your topic' for those students of modern conflicts.
(Kuttners Choice) ▼
Brian Falkner's wonderful wartime adventure series opens in Berlin in 1938: Hitler is massing his troops and Germany is preparing for the Thousand-Year Reich and a pure Aryan race. Joseph St. George is 12 years old and living in Berlin, the son of British Diplomats. He has lots of friends at school and is envious of them because they are all joining the HitlerJugend, the Hitler Youth – why can't he?
His parents explain to him very succinctly why he can't, especially after Kristallnacht, The Night of the Broken Glass, when Jews and their property were beaten and smashed: on the surface Deutschland sparkles; behind the glitter are horrible undercurrents which culminate in a midnight visit to their home from the Gestapo, who drag Joe's father off for questioning. Joe finally realises that his idyllic childhood in Germany is over, especially when he and his mother are forced to flee to a series of Safe Houses on their way to Switzerland and eventual safety in Britain – where his mother immediately sends him home to her brother in New Zealand because he will be safe there. Outrageous!
Joe doesn't believe he can survive without his mother. He still doesn't know what happened to his father, and he has no idea what kind of work she does in Whitehall, but he is determined to get back to her whichever way he can – and after three years he does, stowing away on a cargo ship, nearly drowning when a U boat torpedo strikes, but he does make it back to London – just in time for the Blitz, and to find that his Mother is spying for Churchill.
Brian Falkner keeps up a cracking pace throughout Book One; his research is top-notch and he provides a glossary and relevant photos as Joe is eventually recruited by Whitehall to train as a Junior Spy; he is tall and fair, the perfect Aryan specimen, and his language skills are exemplary. After the right training he will be sent back to Berlin – as an assassin: no-one would ever suspect a tall, handsome Aryan Hitler youth as a murderer of one of their own.
Spycraft, Book Two, is set in Bavaria in Berchtesgaden, Hitler's planning and social centre: once again Joe has been parachuted into Germany to replace a HitlerJugend lad who mysteriously disappears from the train that Joe must take to join other young girls and boys who are the cream of the Hitler Youth. They are to appear in a movie by acclaimed film-maker Leni Riefenstahl, a propaganda film to show the German public – and the world – the perfection of German Aryan youth under the Third Reich and, as with Book One, there is more to Joe's mission (and more life-and-death risk) than he could possibly imagine; the suspense and excitement never falters, and Falkner's portrayal of all the monsters of history is first-rate. At this stage of the series, Book Two should be classed as Young Adult as themes and the story change, but the only criticism I have so far is the lack of Book Three. I need to know what happens! SIX STARS!!
(Hooked on Books) ▼
“There were times during the war when I lost myself… I risked becoming the person I was playing, and that person was a Nazi.”
Joseph (Joe) St George is 15 years old. A schoolboy. But unlike most schoolboys, he also happens to be a spy for MI5.
It's the middle of World War Two and he has just found out he is being sent on a mission. He's told that his mother, also a spy, has gone missing in Germany and that he has to rescue her.
Joe is parachuted into Germany and makes his way to a rendezvous with an accomplice. There he learns that actually, his mission is not to rescue his mother. Turns out MI5 just wanted to make sure he cooperated. Instead, Joe is about to be sent right into ‘the very heart of the Nazi spider web,'” the Eagle's Nest, a place used by Nazi Party members for government meetings and discussions. Eight boys and girls from the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls have been selected for a special project and his job is to infiltrate this group. To do this he must replace one of them. Joe St George must become Jürgen Weyl…
Spycraft by Brian Falkner is an absolutely gripping novel set in World War Two. The second in the Katipo Joe series, I totally loved it! I haven't actually read the first book and I thought it would be interesting to see if this had an impact on my reading experience of the sequel. Although there were some references to Joe's previous mission I had to figure out, I didn't have any trouble getting right into the story.
The book starts with a prologue which is really effective in drawing you in. “The Irishman stops as the dog plants her paws in front of him and bares her teeth, jagged in the light of the reluctant moon…Perhaps she can smell the blood on the knife.” A knife? Blood?! From the very first paragraph, I couldn't wait to read more.
I also found the cover really hooked me – a full moon over the Eagle's Nest and the Katipo spider. The spider resembles a swastika (the symbol on the Nazi flag) and Katipo is Joe's code name.
One message the book gets across is that good and bad aren't as simple as black and white. Joe is the ‘good guy' but that doesn't mean all he does is perfect or right. In fact, he comes very close to murdering the girl he has a crush on when she starts to suspect his true identity. Likewise, the ‘bad guys' are portrayed as humans, not demons.
Spycraft is technically a war story, however, most of the narrative takes place away from the thick of war. This sets it apart from other war dramas but doesn't mean it lacks action or excitement!
Falkner has written Spycraft very cleverly. There's never a slow moment and the way he weaves real-life people and events along with his fictional characters left me feeling as though I was part of the story. I think my heart was thumping faster than normal at points! There are some very tense and horrific parts of this book and a lot of these things actually happened during World War Two. For this reason, I'd recommend to readers 13+.
Spycraft is an un-put-down-able, very well-researched novel with tension, betrayal and unexpected romance. One of the finalists in the NZ Book Awards Children and Young Adults and I can definitely see why. I can't wait to read the whole series!
(Bob's Book Blog) ▼
This is masterful writing from Brian Falkner that will have you spellbound from beginning till end. Falkner grabs the reader on page one and never lets you go till the stunning ending when you will be screaming out for more.
After his experiences in London during the Blitz and the fateful mission in France, Katipo Joe the fifteen year old spy is airlifted into Germany during a bombing raid, with the aim of infiltrating an elite group of Hitler Youth. This will have him mixing with five other elite young Nazis and competing with them to become movie stars in a film by Leni Riefenstahl. But there is a bigger prize than that but you will have to read the novel to find out what it is. This will not be a hardship I can assure you of that.
In this journey he finds love and meets Hitler's inner circle of Himmler, Goebbels and Goring and even the girl that stole Hitler's heart Eva Braun, plus Hitler's dog Blondi and that is a story in itself. He mixes with the Nazi elite in the town of Obersalzberg and ponders “how can you be in the presence of such evil and not feel even a prickle of discomfort?”. They appear so normal.
The highlight for me is the meeting of the top Nazis including Hitler, Eva Braun plus Goebbels etc at the Eagle's Nest fortress in Berchtesgaden, a place I visited in 2004.
This is world class writing, well researched, historically accurate and poses a “what if “scenario regarding Hitler's dilemma of whether to to invade England. The detail is fascinating from the descriptions of the Nazi leaders to the aircraft, the guns the motor vehicles that the SS and Hitlr drove around in and of course the landscape around Obersalzberg. In the back of the novel there are some very enlightening photographs in which the action was involved
The ending is stunning and sets up book three. I can't wait. If this isn't the best Children and Young Adults book of the year I will give up eating strudel.
(Hooked on Books) ▼
The second book in Brian Falkner's Katipo Joe series, Spycraft, was published in 2021 by Scholastic, and continues on from where we left off at the end of Blitzkrieg. Joe is a British spy during World War 2 and has just come back from Paris and his previous mission, infiltrating the Hitler Youth, when he is whisked away to Germany to take the place of young Jürgen Weyl and enter the belly of the beast. Joe knows next to nothing about this person yet he must forget everything that he once was and become Jürgen. But will he be able to deceive everyone and make it out alive?
Joseph St George is now 15 years old and returning to London after a failed mission when he hears that his mother has been deep undercover in Germany, close to Hitler's inner circle. However, MI6 has not heard from her for a few weeks, and is unsure whether she has been captured, or worse, is dead. Joe is sent into Germany on what he thinks is a rescue mission to find his mother and return her home, but he soon finds out that it is so much more than a rescue mission. Joe must take the place of Jürgen Weyl and by doing so enters an elite programme designed to find the best of the best. Joe goes into this mission knowing next to nothing, apart from a few details about the person he must become and must learn to play the part of Jürgen Weyl convincingly. This is made harder still by the fact that Joe suspects that someone doubts his cover and could threaten to ruin everything. As Joe learns the true purpose of his mission, and what ‘Jürgen' is really doing in a hotel on the edge of the isolated Lake Königssee, he must fight to come out on top without revealing that he's not Jürgen, but in fact a British spy. Joe will come across many enemies and, unusually, a few friends, but who can he truly trust? Or maybe the better question to ask is, who can trust him?
Falkner has done it again, and managed to make this book even better than the first! Through the various characters in this novel we see aspects of ourselves and others, which makes the characters relatable, especially the teens. The decisions and choices that they make cause conflicts to arise within themselves and between each other, and these actions are relatable to us in the current world, albeit in a less drastic and life threatening way. Falkner weaves the terrifying true events of a terrible war into a story of thrilling adventure, deadly risks, and devastating tragedy.
(NZ Listener) ▼
This Kiwi take on Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, with its uber cliff-hanger endings, is the second in the New Zealand expat author's World War II schoolboy spy series that began with Katipo Joe: Blitzkrieg.
Unlike Horowitz's orphan Alex, however, Joseph St George, son of a diplomatic family resident in Berlin when war breaks out, has at least one surviving parent: at the end of the previous book, his mother's existence was revealed to him, in secretarial garb, in a photo of Hitler's entourage. On a mission to rescue her before the Gestapo can "make her talk", Joe must parachute into enemy territory and once more attempt to insinuate himself into the Hitler Youth movement - this time in the guise of a propaganda film exercise involving real-life film-maker Leni Riefenstahl and a group of teen girls and boys at the Fuhrer's Eagle's Nest retreat in the Bavarian Alps. As with the first book, a good glossary and bibliography plus a swag of relevant photos not only support the author's solid research but point to further avenues of investigation.
(The Sapling) ▼
You know you're in the hands of a master storyteller when you find a glossary, a set of historical photographs and a bibliography at the back of the book, plus a web link for discussion of “the fact vs fiction elements of this story” at the front. This is a World War II adventure story stitched so firmly into the context of Nazi Germany of 1941 that you could almost be convinced that it's true. Almost.
Fifteen-year-old New Zealander Katipo (codename) Joe St George who grew up in Berlin is on a mission to find his diplomat-cum-British spy mother who has returned to Germany but has lost contact with British Intelligence – or so he thinks. In fact, his assignment becomes much more complex as he infiltrates the Hitler Youth movement becoming part of an elite group of teenage boys and girls competing for parts in a propaganda film and vying for the approval of Hitler himself. “Welcome to the machinations of military intelligence … Wheels within wheels and circles within circles. Nothing is what it seems. Get used to it,” Joe's contact in Germany tells him. He does. And between 26 May and 5 June 1941 he attempts to foil the Nazis and their plan to invade Britain, and to find his mother.
People on both sides of the conflict die, however, the violence is never gratuitous but compelling, and there's a hint of romance that leavens the tension. There are subplots, well developed minor characters and a running collection of excerpts from “the memoirs of Joseph (Katipo) St George” that preface chapters and add structure and a moral dimension to the story. “If we think of them only as monsters and demons, we may lose sight of the fact that they were very much like you and I. They had the same number of eyes, ears and limbs. If we forget what humans are capable of, we risk it happening all over again.”
There are references to people and happenings from the previous Katipo Joe book in the series and sufficient possibilities for the next volume of adventure. There are also some nice touches for Kiwi readers: “You never name the lambs,” Joe reminds himself as he steels himself to kill the girl whom he likes but suspects will betray him. Details like the U-boat stench of “forty or so unwashed men stuck in a closed tin can for a few weeks” are surprising and informative, and the everyday scene of swastika flag-waving children chasing each other through excited sightseers beside a hotel guarded by Gestapo officers is chilling.
But Falkner is at his best in the full-on, nail-biting action sections. Chapter one's description of Joe's abandoning of the now uncontrollably spinning Halifax bomber that has returned him to Germany, and the near calamity of ‘hide and seek' in the Nazi Party's Eagle's Nest in chapter 16 are riveting. In the end, Joe rescues his mother and sees her on her way to Yugoslavia and, presumably to safety. Joe, however, has unfinished work and another book to be written, and heads back ‘into the heart of the beast'.
(kiwireviews.nz) ▼
Since I was already familiar with the character of Joseph (Katipo) St George, having already read "Katipo Joe: Blitzkrieg", the first book in the series, I was quickly immersed once again in Joe's unfolding story. The pace is just as frantic as that of its predecessor, demanding the reader's full attention: Joe's story is compelling in its meld of history and fiction.
Joe deals with the usual challenges of puberty, working through the transition from boy to man, but most young men do not have to simultaneously cope with warfare and death. The real people (and animals) who interact with Joe - Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler, and Eva Braun, right down to Hitler's dog Blondie, make the story come alive and in many ways plausible. I had to remind myself periodically that Joe and his comrades from Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls had their origins in the author's inspiration - even though the groups they were attached to were real, designed to seduce young people into the Nazi philosophies.
The story begins with a couple of chapters that set the scene for what is to follow, but after that the reader is on a fast-paced track to follow Joe's journey. As he encounters one danger after another, he grows in confidence and continues to hone his survival skills. Miss 14, who also read the book, said she found it drew her in to a much greater extent than the first in the series, and kept stopping to talk to me about what she had just read. We spent some time discussing it, and I was interested in her comment that she thought this book would appeal to a slightly older audience - reflecting possibly on Joe's own personal development and growing maturity. She liked the way the story introduced the theme of teenage romance; without being too explicit, it hints at the growing attraction between young people forced to interact together in a contrived situation.
Both of us found the inclusion of authentic monochrome photographs helped to illustrate the feel for the period. Today, when wars are fought via technology and long-distance attack, it is difficult for many to imagine the hands-on warfare of the 1940s. Very few people remember this time, and even if they are old enough to remember some of the history, they may have been only children themselves and in many cases be unaware of the huge differences that time has brought about.
As with the first book in the series, many of the chapters are prefaced by a single page statement which provides additional comment on the action. These pages contain quotes, either from Katipo's own memories, or from real people like Hitler or Shakespeare. The words are presented in a font which differs from that used in the rest of the book, and they are displayed against a watermark which resembles a sheet of creased paper.
The German terms used in the book are either explained in context or included in the glossary - something which I, and Miss 14, found extremely useful. I am a German speaker but she is not, and this made the book more accessible to her than would otherwise have been the case. Some of the terms are indeed familiar to most English speakers, but certainly not all. She already knew the meanings of Blitz and Luftwaffe, but the idea of Kristallnacht was beyond her. Even with a dictionary, she could get as far as "Kristall" and find it meant "glass" or "crystal", but the full meaning of Kristallnacht would not have made sense without the full explanation supplied.
Both of us could see that the last few pages of the book almost certainly foreshadow a third in the series. We will be looking forward to that!
