Module 3: Adventure, Sports & Mystery
1. BIBLIOGRAHY
Carter, Alley. 2006. I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You. Ney York, NY. Hyperion. ISBN: 9781423100041
2. SUMMARY
15 year old Cammie Morgan attends school at the Gallagher Academy. To outsiders that reside in the community of Roseville, the school appears to be a private girl’s school for the social elite. The Academy wouldn’t want you thinking otherwise. As it turns out, inside the grounds the Gallagher girls are a group of elites ….of the spying kind!
While most young high school students are stressing about English reports and math formulas, Cammie and her classmates are stressing about choke holds and which of the 14 languages they must converse in at lunch. Add to the mix your mom being the Headmistress, a cute boy and some gal pal espionage, Cammie’s life is never dull.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
VOYA reviewer, Stacey Hayman commented in her review “Written in an easy-to-read, conversational tone, this novel combines the real ‘learning how to talk to boys’ and the unreal ‘learning how to be a secret agent for the government’ in a strangely believable way.”
Author, Ally Carter’s first book takes a light heart approach to friendship, love and adventure. Carter creates an all girls school for Spies. The brightest young girls attend this secret school to develop such skills as taking a post-it note and turning it into a murderous ninja star or combining toothpaste and dental floss to create a nuclear type weapon. To the outsiders that live in town, the school warehouses spoiled young ladies of the rich and famous. Typically, the only glimpses they see of these girls are there closely guarded outings in town. Carter does an excellent job of describing both sides of life inside the academy and the outside in which the girls hone their spying skills.
To add to the already present thrill of spy language used throughout the book (tapping phones, hacking computers, code names) things take an interesting turn when Cammie runs into a boy from town while on a class assignment of the spying sort. In the book Cammie states, “All these years I’d thought being a spy was challenging. Turns out, being a girl is the tricky part.” The author uses this part of the story to capture the young reader’s attention with a typical teen relationship.
I found the plot to be on the light side; with climaxes getting no more serious than if Cammie blows her cover. Some characters seem to be forgotten about as is the case for the new girl, Macey, who has a few parts here and there but is never really developed. She may have more of a starring role in later books and her appearance in this book merely an introduction. I kept waiting for a big cliff hanger involving her and it never materialized.
Josh, the boy thrown into the middle of Gallagher girl world and a love interest for Cammie, seems to fall short of character development and I couldn’t ever decide if Cammie really did love him or was she just into him because he was the first boy she had ever been in contact with on a social level. Carter did develop a love interest not typical of one you find in other young adult novels. Josh was not a creep, abusive, lust driven or the jealous type often depicted in those novels. He was more of the boy every mother dreams of for their daughter, as he showed through standing up for Cammie with his friends.
Even with the books few short-comings the author did manage to get you hooked into these easy going stories and makes you want to continue reading the rest of the series. This is a great novel for the younger teens, which will enjoy the light action and simple love story.
4. REVIEWS
SLJ review: Cammie Morgan attends prestigious Gallagher Academy, a girl's private high school for geniuses that actually teaches the latest techniques in espionage. Everything about her life is top secret, so when she meets Josh on an outing in town she lies about her background so that he will think she has a normal life. In order to continue their ever-deepening friendship, Cammie sneaks out through the school's tunnel, exchanges messages under a rock, and has her friends cover for her. By the end of Ally Carter's novel (Hyperion, 2006) the truth is revealed and Cammie has learned more about herself than she has about spying. The unique plot, snappy dialogue, and Cammie's wry asides maintain the interest of listeners. Written in the first person, listeners feel the excitement, frustrations, and insecurities of teenage life. Rene Raudman's overly dramatic narration is appropriate for the story and will keep listeners interested. She gives each character a unique voice and changes pace to heighten the mood. An excellent choice for young teens.-Claudia Moore
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY review: The spy game isn't just a guy game, as witnessed by Carter's diverting entry into the flurry of teen espionage novels flashing loads of girl power. Unfortunately, Raudman sounds like she's straining (and sometimes squeakily so) to sound younger than she is and her intonation is a bit off, giving her reading a falseness that's hard to overcome. Cammie is a sophomore at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women a place that lives up to its name, as Cammie knows 14 languages and is a skilled killing machine. Of course, Gallagher girls become the most elite spies, and Cammie fires ahead on that career track (as was her mother, now the school's headmistress) until romance with an ordinary guy, no less threatens to derail her progress. Despite any shortcomings, aficionados of this burgeoning fiction genre will be tempted to give this title a go. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
5. CONNECTIONS
Continue reading more about Cammie and The Gallagher Academy through these additional titles:
Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover
Only the Good Spy Young
Out of Sight, Out of Time (releasing in March 2012)
Author Website:
Spy Society/Gallagher Girls Website:
http://spysociety.weebly.com/ally-carter.html
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