Code Name Verity

Code Name Verity
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Series: Books to Re-Engage Your Brain When It's Spent
Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Tags: France, World War II
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Year: 2013
ASIN: 1423152883
ISBN: 1423152883

This is one of the more unusual World War II books I've ever read. Told through a journal written by "Verity," a female English pilot captured in German-occupied France, and by her friend Maddie in the second half of the book. Verity has been tortured and she is writing for her life, charged by her captors with revealing codes and information about the Allies. Both to fulfill her obligation and to maintain some sense of sanity, she weaves the tale of  a friendship and how she landed in her present situation. Often written with surprising humor given the dark circumstances, this book often has a light tone throughout that is only one of the misleading elements.  If you haven't read this one, don't read much more before picking it up--the twists and spy games will be all the more satisfying.

About the Book

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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.

Look Inside
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