Newbery Honor-winner Kathryn Lasky, author of the Guardians of Ga’hoole series, delivers a riveting middle-grade historical fiction novel about young British spies on a secret mission in Germany in WWII.
FACELESS
by Kathryn Lasky
HarperCollins Children’s, May 2021
Ages 8 -12
Over the centuries, unbeknownst to all, a small clan of spies has worked ceaselessly to fight oppression. They are called the Tabula Rasa. They can pass unseen through enemy lines, eavesdrop on conversations, and « become » other people without being recognized. They are, essentially, faceless. Alice and Louise Winfield are sisters and spies in the Tabula Rasa. They’re growing up in war-time England, where the threat of Nazi occupation is ever near. But Louise wants to live an ordinary life, and she tires of spy missions. When she leaves the agency, Alice must face her most dangerous assignment yet, without her sister at her side. As Alice prepares for her new mission, she must head into Hitler’s inner sanctum in Germany to report on the Nazis. She fears the threat of discovery, but, worst of all, she fears losing her own sister. This novel is a mix of espionage and historical adventure. Lasky masterfully spins a tale filled with mystery, suspense and intrigue.
Kathryn Lasky is a New York Times bestselling author of many children’s and young adult books, which include her Tangled in Time series; her recent picture book She Caught the Light, her bestselling series Guardians of Ga’Hoole, which was made into the Warner Bros. movie Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole; and her picture book Sugaring Time, awarded a Newbery Honor. She has twice won the National Jewish Book Award, for her novel The Night Journey and her picture book Marven of the Great North Woods. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband.
1860, Louisiana. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades, Madame Sylvie Guilberthas decided, in spite of her family’s indifference, to sit for a portrait—a testament to all the hardships she has overcome, and the glory that her life ought to have had. But there are other important stories to be told on the Guilbert plantation. Like that of Thisbe, the young enslaved woman who must stand silent by her mistress, but who observes everything. Or Byron, the heir to the plantation, whose desires cannot possibly fit with his family duty. Stories that span generations, from the big house to out in the fields, of routine horrors, secrets buried as deep as the family fortune, and a tangled lineage of descendants and dependents who have never forgotten who they are.
Katharina Edgeworth seems to have the perfect life. She is the daughter of immigrants, Ivy-League-educated, and speaks four languages. As a single girl in 1940s Manhattan, she is employed as a translator at the newly formed United Nations, devoting her days to her work and the promise of world peace—and her nights to cocktails and the promise of a good time. Now, in 1954 Katharina has the ideal husband, two healthy sons, and enjoys the luxuries of Fifth Avenue; but she is desperate to break free from the constraints of domesticity before depression breaks her for good. When the FBI approaches her to become an informant, Katharina seizes the opportunity. A man from her past has become a high-level Soviet spy, but no one has been able to infiltrate his circle. Enter Katharina, the perfect woman for the job. Navigating the demands of the FBI and the secrets of the KGB, she becomes a courier, carrying stolen government documents from Washington D.C. to Manhattan. But as those closest to her lose their covers, and their lives, Katharina’s secret—which fills her with purpose and reignites her self-worth––soon threatens to ruin her. With the fast-paced twists of a classic spy thriller, a celebration of post-war New York City, and a nuanced depiction of the complexity of motherhood, A WOMAN OF INTELLIGENCE shimmers with Tanabe’s trademark acerbic wit, attention to historical detail, and sharp understanding of human desire.
When Betty and John meet in London at a rally for nuclear disarmament, both are living with secrets about what that war did to them. After fleeing from Germany with her father in 1945, Betty lives with her memories of the Russian occupation, a young Russian officer, and the mysterious disappearance of her sister. John too, is plagued by flashbacks to his time as a translator for the top-secret T-force which uncovered Nazi scientific secrets, and to a young German woman who was brutally murdered, and for whose murder he was framed unless he talked… As their relationship develops, their lives unfold, unravel and entwine. But when a man from the past surfaces, he threatens to reveal secrets. Secrets which will embroil them in the Cold War and threaten their very existence.
Paris, 1750. Madeleine, a young maid with a scarred face and a hidden past, goes to work for an automaton-maker, Dr Reinhart, and his clever daughter, Angelique. Only Madeleine knows the real reason she is there: there are rumours that Reinhart’s mechanical creations are the devil’s work, and she is in the employ of the police as a mouche, to spy on him and report back on his every move. Meanwhile, in the streets outside, children are quietly disappearing – and Madeleine fears for her young nephew. No one knows who can be responsible, but rumours abound around the clockmaker, and even the King of France himself… As Madeleine is drawn further into the household and its secrets, she comes to fear that she has stumbled upon an even greater conspiracy. One which might even reach to the heart of Versailles itself.