#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, October 24 Edition

Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
Audio published by Listening Library
Publication Date: March 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-0525589778

Orphan Monster Spy by debut novelist Matt Killeen is a suspenseful thriller set in WWII Germany about a orphaned Jewish girl-turned-spy. As the daughter of an unmarried stage actress, Sarah’s childhood was filled with theatre and music—until the Third Reich came to power. Suddenly, her mother’s Jewish heritage puts their lives in danger, even with Sarah’s blond hair and blue eyes. After her mother is shot at a Nazi roadblock, Sarah sacrifices her one chance for escape by using her acting abilities to save the life of a British spy. Soon, Sarah is enmeshed in his mission to stop the development of a bomb with “enough destructive power to flatten a city”. She must go undercover at a Nazi boarding school for girls and befriend the daughter of a Nazi physicist. Sarah soon realizes that surviving amongst the “little Aryan monsters” is as dangerous as her directive to gain entry to the physicists home, gather intel, and do whatever she can to thwart the development of the first nuclear weapon.

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#BFYA2019 Nominees Round Up, August 31 Edition

Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen
Viking Books for Young Readers / Penguin
Publication Date: March 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-0451478733 

Readers who enjoy a little intrigue and action with their historical fiction will devour this gripping tale of a 15 year-old spy, set against the backdrop of Austria during WWII.

After her mother’s death, Jewish teen, Sarah, avoids capture by the SS thanks to a British spy named Captain Jeremy Floyd. Captain Floyd obtains a false identity for Sarah and convinces her to join help him infiltrate the home of one of Hitler’s nuclear scientists, Hans Schafer, by befriending Schäfer’s daughter. To do so, Sarah must enroll in a Nazi boarding school, where surviving and fitting in is tougher than Sarah could have imagine.

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