The Dark Game: True Spy Stories from Invisible Ink to CIA Moles

Teenage spy thrillers like the Alex Rider and Cherub series are always popular -- everyone loves the action, danger and derring-do in those stories! Paul Janeczko has researched and collected the stories of American spies through history, from the Revolutionary War days up to modern times. Did you know that George Washington, First President, was also our First Spymaster? It was his ability to recruit and use spies that gave him the information he needed to win battles, and eventually the war! During the Civil War, some of the most successful spies were women and African Americans, including Harriet Tubman. I love that this isn't just a story of various spies -- it's also about the ways they encoded information and got that information show more to their contacts. The right kind of underwear hanging on a clothesline was a signal for one spy! Janeczko includes the story of invisible ink, and how official ID papers and money for spies had to be aged so they would be believable. The history of secret codes includes the American soldiers who created the first unbreakable secret code during World War I, using their native Choctaw language. World War II featured Navajo codetalkers, who followed in their footsteps. Spy cameras, hidden listening devices, and secret tunnels all get a turn in this book too! Exciting storytelling with rich detail, historical photos and images of spy-related primary source documents make this a fascinating trip through many secretive events and people in our history. Strong 6th grade readers and up. show less

The Dark Game is an interesting and engaging history of a popular subject: spying. I really liked how it looked at historical events and people that aren't well known and both told their stories while tying them to the larger sweep of history. The book is structured into short sections of two or three pages. This can be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on the reader's attention span. It is somewhat of a niche interest book, but for readers interested in spies it is a lot of fun.

Provides an account of spies involved with the United States from the Revolutionary War in the late 1770s to moles of the CIA and FBI in the 2000s. I found it a bit harder to get through since there wasn't any one story to really follow, and think I might have enjoyed a work focusing solely on one person or group more, or even more descriptions of gadgetry. I found the story of the U-2 stealth plane interesting, as well as the account of Virginia Hall, aka the "Limpin' Lady". However, I think that only adolescents interested in espionage or working on a book report on it would be interested in the book; it's somewhere between a textbook and a series of small biographies.

This book was a fantastic review of different spies both for and against the U.S. throughout history from the Revolutionary War to the Cold War. The book has many different sub-sections in each chapter that highlight certain people or groups. It also has great examples of different methods of code used (invisible ink, codebooks, ciphers, etc). I thought I would learn a little bit about certain spies, but I learned so much more. Well worth the read.

A good follow-up to Top Secret, his book about secret codes, Janeczko writes with great enthusiasm about spies and spying from the American Revolution through the Cold War.

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A brief, intriguing history of spies in the US, focusing on the role of spies and intelligence in major wars from the Revolutionary War to the Cold War, concluding with the stories of two modern traitors in the CIA and FBI, as well as some modern means of spying. The language was perhaps a bit too simple in places, and the history more anecdotal than fleshed out in detail, The focus generally alternated between spies, such as Elizabeth Van Lew and Juan Pujol, and various means of spying, such as invisible ink and balloons.

Award-winning poet and storyteller Paul Janeczko explores his fascination with the shadowy world of espionage throughout history. This collection of true spy stories includesGeneral Washington's network that helped win the American Revolutionary War, Elizabeth Van Lew's intelligence gathering during the Civil War, Mata Hari the double agent, and the incredible engineering involved in digging a tunnel into East Berlin during the Cold War. Profiles of colorful persoanalities, daring missions, the feats of the loyal and the damage of traitors and moles are interspersed with information about the technological advances such as cyber espionage that continue to change the rules of gathering intelligence. Cryptology basics and other show more intelligence-gathering techniques are revisited but the main focus is on the spies themselves. The intriguing mysteries will draw in avid and reluctant readers alike , and the appended source notes and bibliography will bolster the curricular appeal. show less