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Code Breaker, Spy Hunter: How Elizabeth Friedman Changes the Course of Two World Wars


Genre: Nonfiction/Biography 

Title: Code Breaker, Spy Hunter: How Elizabeth Friedman Changes the Course of Two World Wars

Author: Laurie Wallmark
Illustrator: Brooke Smart
Awards: N/A
Age Range: 7 years old and up

Summary: This is a biography about Elizabeth Friedman who played a significant role in decoding messages that put many Nazi spies in prison. She was able to crack codes most people could not. Elizabeth loved to decode and she needed a better way to do this. She created the first cryptography department at the CIA.

Evaluation: Personally, I love history, so I really enjoyed this book and learning about Elizabeth. I would want to use this in my classroom as a reference if I were talking about WWI or WWII because of the major impact she had on those wars. Since the book is a little long, I would not read the whole book in one day. I would select certain portions I found to be the most important and read those or I would read a few pages every day. At the end of the book, there is a "crack the code" activity that I would make copies of, then have the students work together in small groups to crack the code. I would use this book with upper elementary and middle school students. 
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