Middle School Monday: Spy on History Blog Tour and Giveaway

We are pleased to be today’s stop for the Spy on History blog tour! Here is the question put to me: If you could go back to anytime or place in history, where would you put your spy skills to use?

This is such a difficult question! So many times in history would be fascinating to take part in – but which ones could really use me? If I have to choose, I’d like to go back to the United States during the late 1930’s and infiltrate the lives of government officials who made decisions that excluded Jewish refuges from entering the U.S. In light of recent current events, I’ve been thinking about this part of our collective history quite often. We can look back on that time and see what a horrible mistake we were making – but it doesn’t seem that enough of us have learned that lesson.

Mary Bowser and the Civil War Spy Ring is an engaging read, with enough detail to really get a feel for the time and place. While it would be a good way to introduce a study of Civil War history, it also would be a great inspiration for a writing project. I enjoyed the first entry in this series, and would recommend them for use with third through sixth grade students.

More about the book:

Book Summary: Mary Bowser and the Civil War Spy Ring introduces an exciting interactive series for middle grade readers—Spy on History, where the reader gets to experience history in a whole new way.

Meet Mary Bowser, an African American spy who was able to infiltrate the Confederate leadership at the highest level. Enigma Alberti dramatizes Mary Bowser’s suspenseful story—how she pretended to be illiterate, how she masterfully evaded detection, how she used her photographic memory to “copy” critical documents.

Using spycraft materials included in a sealed envelope inside the book, a canny reader will be able to discover and unravel clues embedded in the text and illustrations, and solve the book’s ultimate mystery: Where did Mary hide her secret diary?

Author: Enigma Alberti is the nom de plume of a secret cadre of authors who are each writing a book in the Spy on History series.

Illustrator: Tony Cliff is the author and artist behind the New York Times bestselling Delilah Dirk graphic novel series. Find more on Tony at www.tonycliff.com and @TangoCharlie on Twitter.

If you’d like a chance to win three Workman titles (Spy on History, Who Wins?, and Boss Babes) please leave a comment below with your Twitter handle.

Filed under: Middle School Monday