On the coolness scale, kids rank George Washington just above Chester B. Arthur and just below... oh, I dunno... pickled yams. Which is to say, GW's PR department needs some help. Enter the National Geographic publishing company. Continually churning out fine fine non-fiction titles for kiddies everywhere, the good folks at the National, with the help of author Thomas B. Allen, have done their darndest to make Mr. Washington less the kind of guy you're supposed to remove your hat in memory of, and more the kind of guy who'd give James Bond a run for his money when it comes to espionage. Sporting a cover on which George smirks slyly from beneath a dark and shadowy cape collar, the book makes the claim that the only reason we really won the Revolutionary War was because our first president was a whiz at spying. It's an intriguing premise and an amusing little book.
Let's say you're an up-and-coming young republic. You've been ruled by a distant country over the sea for quite some time but recently that rule's been chafing you. What is the answer then? Well, if you happen to be America the answer is open rebellion (if you happen to be Northern Ireland, good luck to you). As George Washington came of age in America, he learned how important a good intelligence network was in a time of war. Having served in the French and Indian War, George saw good spying done firsthand. When America next attempted to pull away from the British, Mr. Washington was able to put this theory into practice. Chronicling the course of the war and the significant changes wrought due to both American and British intelligence, Allen gives fresh insights into everything from Paul Revere's Ride to the heroism of Lafayette. Kids reading this book will learn how to create invisible ink, hide a message within a message, and codify their writing. There's even a complete word for word Tallmadge code at the back of the book for future use, and the book hides hidden messages on selected pages for translation.
So how readable is "George Washington, Spymaster"? Well, it has its moments, that's for sure. Allen is at his best when the action is at its peak. The sections describing Benedict Arnold's betrayal are fairly riveting as are the parts of the book that talk about double agents. One of the problems with the story, however, is the number of characters that randomly pop up in it. Keeping one spy apart from another is a hazardous undertaking. Allen provides the reader with a makeshift spy chart at the beginning of the book, but if you're able to refer to it then you're a better man than I, Gunga Din. I did enjoy seeing how many women and African-Americans aided the spy cause. What struck me as a little odd, however, was the fact that the blacks helped out the Revolutionaries at all. I mean, slavery was illegal in England and legal in America. Wouldn't the African-Americans have wanted to align themselves with a nation that disapproved of such a barbaric practice? Allen leaves such questions unaddressed and unanswered.
If you've a kid who has enjoyed the tricky techniques and clever underground networking of this title, then may I suggest the similarly tricky if fictional, "The Year of the Hangman" by Gary Blackwood. That book offers the what-if premise of "What if the British DIDN'T lose the Revolutionary War?" and utilizes all the spy techniques mentioned in "George Washington, Spymaster". The two books tackle the same subject from different angles and end up complimenting one another nicely. Not every kid is going to glom onto the notion that Washington was as cool a spy as 007 or whatever spy cartoon is currently all the rage. Still, this is one biography that's just a bit less fuddy-duddyish than its contemporaries. If I have a kid come into my library moaning that they need to read a bio on a Revolutionary War figure, this will be the first book I pluck from the shelves. A great addition to any collection.
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