CODE NAME VERITY, by Elizabeth Wein

Quick Facts:
- Michael L. Printz Honor Book
- shortlisted for Carnegie Medal
- 368 pages
- review based on audiobook:
   + read by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell
   + 10 hr, 7 min

This book floored me.

No really.

It had me on the floor.

Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein, is not a book for elementary students. It was recommended to me by a sixth grader (which is why I picked it up), but after reading it I would hesitate to recommend it for the average 11 year old. I think that thematically and in terms of the background knowledge required, it's better suited to eighth grade and up. That said, it is very likely that advanced middle school readers of all ages (like the sixth grader to suggested it to me) will be reading it, so it is certainly a book teachers should place on their to-read lists.

And also it's incredible. That's the main reason teachers and everyone else should read it.

Set in 1943, in Nazi-occupied France, Code Name Verity opens with a female, un-named prisoner of war being tortured for information by a commanding SS officer. The reader quickly learns three things about the narrator: she's Scottish, she's an Allied spy, and she is selling information to pay for her life. Wein, who has been praised for her historical accuracy, walks a careful line of accurately depicting the conditions of an Allied prisoner of war, without being sensational. Thus, although all of the Nazi hideousness we expect is present, it is not so explicitly drawn as to make the book too painfully uncomfortable to read, or developmentally inappropriate for upper middle and high school students.

This is a heavy place to begin. And yet, the narrator's voice comes through with such clarity, such humor, that it tempers the horror of her ordeal. One recurring point of frustration for our narrator is that her captors persist in calling her English:

“[I'm] . . . filthy, it goes without saying, but whatever else the hell I am, I AM NOT ENGLISH.”
- Code Name Verity

"I'M SCOTTISH!"
- Code Name Verity

This serves a duel purpose of developing the narrator as a character while also lightening the tone of the prose.

The conceit of Code Name Verity is that our narrator is writing for her captors a prose account of how she came to be in Nazi-occupied France, revealing secret Allied code and protocols as she goes. This is buying her niceties in her captivity. Like her own clothes returned so she doesn't freeze in her cell. Over the course of her account, she tells of her friendship with an female Allied taxi pilot named Maddie, and it becomes evident that the entire novel is ultimately a backdrop for the story of their friendship.

There is little more I can say about the plot or the structure of Code Name Verity without ruining a massive twist for future readers. That said, I will comment on the strikingly warm and authentic way in which Wein depicts a female friendship.

The Bechdel Test for evaluating film asks viewers to consider the following in movies they watch:

1. Are there two or more female characters with names? 
2. Do these characters talk to each other? 
3. Do they talk about something other than men?

This is a perfectly acceptable test to apply to literature as well, particularly literature written for young adult women. Too often books aimed at young women define their female characters by their relationships with men (see: Gossip Girl, Twilight), or feature an otherwise almost exclusively-male cast (see: The Fault in Our Stars). For anyone upset with me for calling out John Green's tale of teenage love, consider the following:

• There are three female characters with names: Hazel Grace, Mrs. Lancaster, and Lidewij.
• They do talk to each other, but besides Hazel's medical condition, the only thing two things they talk about are Gus and Van Houten. Men.

Which is not to belittle The Fault in Our Stars. Only to say that when even some of the most celebrated and wide-read literature for young women barely passes the Bechdel Test, books like Code Name Verity stand out in stark and reassuring contrast.

The friendship our narrator (who is eventually named) and Maddie share is complex. They talk about everything from food to planes to affecting foreign accents and working for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). Though men enter their conversation at times, it is always as a side note, and the men most often discussed are the narrator's brothers in the context of her family. Both these women, as well as the others in this story (who shall at this time remain anonymous in the interests of keeping this post spoiler-free) are well-rounded, dynamic female characters in their own right, and seeing them in contact with other well-rounded, dynamic female characters is such a refreshing change.

The audiobook was beautifully read, and I recommend it to anyone who has limited time. However, after picking up a print copy of Code Name Verity, I realized that the book is really designed for (and rewards!) a traditional reader. There are many choices Wein makes with the text, print and structure of the traditionally bound book that give greater depth to the story.

As I've said, I think that Code Name Verity is a bit too mature a book for most upper elementary/lower middle school students. However, it is an incredibly beautiful, heartbreaking, and intellectually rewarding read for those ready for it.

And it will leave you on the floor. A little weepy, a little numb, a lot exhausted, but not regretting a single bit of the ride.