“You see, I was never the sort who dreamed of running away to join the circus. … But if I’d known there was a place called the Government Code and Cypher School, I’d have begged my mum to send me,” says 19-year-old Jakob Novis. Jakob is half of the talented brother/sister team at the center of The Bletchley Riddle, a new novel for middle-grade readers by an equally talented team: award-winning writers Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin.
Set in England during World War II, The Bletchley Riddle follows the exploits of Jakob and his 14-year-old sister, Lizzie, as they do their part to win the war, all while searching for information about the recent disappearance of their mother.
While at Cambridge studying mathematics, Jakob is recruited to work at Bletchley Park, Britain’s top-secret cryptography center. Toiling alongside brilliant scholars and mathematicians, including pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing, young Jakob is thrilled to be a part of the team. Their mission is to crack the code of the Enigma machine, Germany’s infamous cipher-generating apparatus. “If we did our jobs, we could read their plans,” Jakob says. “Give our boys a fighting chance. That’s all I want to do. Play some small part in punching Hitler in the mouth. Save the world from the Nazis.”
He is less thrilled when his headstrong sister thwarts their grandmother’s plan to send her to safety in America and ends up his responsibility. Although the siblings have been told that their mother likely died in an explosion, Lizzie refuses to believe she is gone. She vows to follow every lead and run down every clue until she knows the truth — a mission that is not entirely compatible with the heavy shroud of secrecy that, of necessity, hangs over Bletchley Park. Even Lizzie realizes the danger: “I am Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Novis. Despite my good intentions, I often blunder, misstep, and stumble. And to be perfectly straightforward, let’s state the obvious: I am the candidate most likely to violate the Official Secrets Act. And I will be convicted of treason when I do.”
The Bletchley Riddle is briskly paced and instantly engaging. Chapters are short — many only three or four pages long — and narrated alternately by Jakob and Lizzie. Readers will be swept along on their missions to solve puzzles and decode secret messages, set against a backdrop of international espionage. Nashville novelist Sepetys, a Carnegie Medal winner, and historical nonfiction author Sheinkin, a Newberry honoree, are clearly at the top of their game. They do not shrink from presenting an accurate, age-appropriate picture of the danger and deprivation the war brings. In a visit to London, Lizzie enters a familiar world she no longer recognizes, “I step out into the road. The streets are nothing but boarded windows and sandbags. Addresses are obscured. Dozens of gray barrage balloons float overhead. Directional signs point to air raid shelters. I turn in a slow circle. The sky is blue, but the city is the color of war.”
Young fans will not be able to put down this beautifully written, heart-pounding mystery in which the stakes are literally life-and-death — for the lively and charming narrators, as well as for the world. It’s a tribute to the dogged hope, determination, and humanity of those who gave everything they had in the pursuit of freedom and justice. Even amid setbacks and fears, the stalwart Lizzie remains confident and focused: “Things have not gone to plan. But even so, I don’t feel beaten. After all, this is war. … I will continue my investigation however I am able. I am undaunted. I am unstoppable. I am Lizzie Novis. And I will show them all.”
Tina Chambers has worked as a technical editor at an engineering firm and as an editorial assistant at Peachtree Publishers, where she worked on books by Erskine Caldwell, Will Campbell, and Ferrol Sams, to name a few. She lives in Chattanooga.
Tagged: Book Reviews, Children & YA, Fiction
