YA - Code Name Verity - by Elizabeth Wein - 2012

Elizabeth Wein’s New York Times best selling historical fiction novel, Code Name Verity was awarded the 2013 Honor Book from the Michael Printz Award for Excellence for Young Adult Literature. The book begins in Great Britain during World War 2.  The story focuses on two women who have varying levels of skill in supporting the war efforts.  Maddie is focused on flying planes.  While Queenie aka Verity has been trained as a German-speaking interrogator and spy.  Both women’s friendship grows throughout the novel.

As the war escalates, Maddie & Verity are called to duty to fly to France with the intent to destroy a Gestapo headquarters and interrogation center.  Maddie’s plane is hit and Verity must jump to allow a safe landing.  Maddie lands safely, but Verity is captured by the Germans.    

The story is written in a journal format beginning from Verity’s point of view.  Then it switches to Maddie’s and the stories become intertwined to reveal a shocking twist.

There is an over arching theme of breaking gender roles, not because it was important to either woman rather they had natural gifts that could be utilized at that time in history.

CRAFT TECHNIQUE: Tone and voice are craft techniques this author employs.  It is written in an informal manner in which conveys a conversational style that allows for quick reading.   Because the author chooses to narrate this story through a journal format, a mysterious and suspenseful adventure emerges.

CONNECTION TO MN STANDARDS: Throughout the novel, the pieces of history are carefully woven into the story.  But, I’m not entirely sure this novel could be directly tied to any Minnesota social studies standard.  Although it contains numerous tidbits of historical accuracy, i.e. women in the war, strategic air campaigns, but the overall theme of the book carries more weight towards spy thriller, espionage, and friendship.

At a minimum, this book could satisfy a reading benchmark for the 7^th grade language arts classroom.  This book could help students to contrast points of views of different characters.

Language Arts Standard

7^th grade reading benchmark:

7.4.6.6 Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text, including those from diverse cultures .