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Spy Runner
An illustrated middle grade novel set in the 1950s in which 12-year-old Jake gets caught in Red Scare paranoia when his mother takes in a peculiar lodger who may or may not be a Russian spy.
346 pages, Hardcover
First published February 12, 2019
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March 21, 2019
Don’t let it get around, but have you noticed that a lot of the middle grade fiction books out for kids this year (2019) are horrendously, incredibly, shockingly depressing? I mean, you get a bit of that every year, but 2019 appears to be shaping into something particularly dreary. There’s a running gag amongst my librarians that if you run across a novel for kids between the ages of 9-12 and at least one of the parents in the book isn’t dead, check the publication date because it probably came out last year. For the most part, the books I’ve encountered have dealt with grief. Grief and death and guilt and a smothering sense of helplessness in a cold, cruel world. What can we read into that? Well, the times in which we live aren’t exactly fodder for cheery fare, I’ll grant you. You’ve got ideologues pandering to humanity’s worst instincts, war, bloodshed, addiction, malaise, and worse and worse. I guess for a lot of authors of children’s books there’s a temptation to just sink into that feeling and draw from it. Ultimately those books find that tiny, gold, gleaming bit of hope in all that darkness. But if kids are anything like me, they’re going to get sick of that stuff pretty quickly. Here’s an idea: Why not take the idea of a world gone mad and give it a jolt of lightning to the veins? Set your book in another era when America went a little crazy, then liven things up with spies, car chases, murder attempts, gunshots, traitors, double agents, and that’s just the first few chapters! A book for the kids that want to read a response to our age that will thrill them to the core, and maybe plant a couple of seeds of rebellion in their craniums at the same time.
For Jake, life is simple. His father disappeared during WWII and the boy is fairly certain that means the man’s a P.O.W. with the Russians. Someday Jake will fly into that godless Communist country, find his father, and save him. In the meantime, it’s 1953 and the Cold War is in full swing. One day, Jake comes home to find that his mother has rented out the attic to a strange man named Shubin. A Russian man, no less. Convinced that Shubin is a Communist spy, Jake wastes no time in investigating the clear criminal. Unfortunately for him, the more Jake digs into the man’s life and dealings, the more dangerous things become for him. Is someone is tailing Jake all the time? Why is the FBI speaking to him during school hours? Is a man with gold teeth really staring through his bedroom window at night? And why, oh why did Jake steal those airplane plans out of Major Armbruster’s car? The more answers he receives the stranger things become, until Jake must face unspeakable truths about the country he loves and serves.
I was talking with a colleague the other day about what makes a children’s book memorable. Let’s say thirty years pass and you still remember the name and plot of a book written for kids. Why? What makes it stick in your brain? For me, a good children’s novel is one that isn’t afraid to get weird. Harriet the Spy? Chock full of really weird people and elements. The Westing Game? same story, only you set it in an apartment complex and you get to know the cast of characters better. And to this list I would add Spy Runner. It doesn’t start off weird, initially. When I thought it was just some safe little story about a boy coming to terms with McCarthyism I felt I’d heard this tune a couple times before. This is all The Loud Silence of Francine Green territory, right? But then I got to the scene when we first meet Jake’s new border, Shubin. Jake has come home to find his mom’s car precariously parked, one of her shoes still inside and the other one in the grass, the front door partly open and her purse on the doorstep. When he comes inside his mother is barefoot, laughing, bantering with a strange man as she angles a large trunk down the stairs with him. From that moment forward, this high tenor of weirdness imbues the text. Like Jake, you know something’s going on, but you aren’t sure what the nature of it is yet (though, as an adult reading a children’s book, you can probably guess).
Yelchin, born in Russia and who left the Soviet Union when he was twenty-seven, should not be read by new American-born children’s authors. Why? Well, if a man can live twenty-seven years in another country, then come to our own and, in the course of things, write better and more succinctly than so many of the Yanks I read in my daily work, that’s could be depressing to a debut writer. For me, there’s always one moment in a well-written book for kids that wins me over. Makes me fall in love with the book. In the case of Spy Runner it’s a different scene, a little later, between Jake, Shubin, and Jake’s mom. They’re in the living room and something is … off. Jake’s mom seems expectant. Jake is paused. Shubin isn’t doing what the mom wants or expects, and Jake has no expectations but he can feel this odd tension. It’s like watching a scene from a Eugene O’Neill production. Just the below the surface of the niceties, something strange is brewing. For Jake, and for the reader too, there’s an increasing sense that no one in his life is telling the truth and no one can be trusted. How many children’s novels, like this one, choose not to give their heroes confidants? Too few.
I’m also a sucker for a killer line. That sentence that turns all the ones before it on their heads. Listen to this: “Trudy Lamarre had beautiful red hair and eyes that made him stutter: deep, dark brown eyes. Jake despised her.” Or how about this description later of his mother. “He looked at her thin fingers, white from grasping the purse; at her small, delicate ear; at the side of her face; and at a thread of her hair the color of roasted chestnuts, shaped like a question mark hanging upside down.” Or even, quite possibly best of all, this moment when Jake accidentally discovers Shubin in his mother’s bedroom. The two of them, together, are trying to guide a moth out the window. It’s innocuous, but both Jake and the reader have the sense that they’ve just witnessed something incredibly tender pass between the two people. "He lifted his eyes to the ceiling, where their shadows swayed together as if dancing in time to the sound of the soft hollow tapping of the moth and of his heart beating hard against his rib cage and wanting to explode."
Of course, I guess the best evidence that Yelchin’s a good writer is the fact that he’s managed to write a whole book starring a protagonist that is very difficult to like. Jake, put plainly, is an idiot. A friend of mine remarked after reading this book that if adults ever wanted to, they could make a drinking game out of every time Jake nearly meets his demise (don’t try it – you’d be passed out before you got to Chapter Seven). But what you dislike about him is, to a certain extent, his surety that everything he’s been taught about America and Communism and spies, is true. It’s only when he begins to lose his grip on this certainty that you start to like him a little more. Before that, he’s just a dolt. Still, even an idiot can be sympathetic if he’s treated unjustly, and Jake gets a bit of that. You’re also rooting for him to either confront or escape the dark forces tailing him time and again. Even if you don’t wholly like him, you want him to win in the end.
When I was in high school my French class had us read a fairly simple novel over the course of several weeks. And the plot of this novel appeared to be perfectly calibrated to bore me, specifically, into a state of catatonic malaise. It was about thwarting spies who wanted to steal plans for military planes. SNORE! The degree to which I didn’t care about French teenagers solving crimes could only be matched by the degree to which I didn’t care about jet schematics. For this reason, I am going to grant Mr. Yelchin some extra points for actually making a reader care about this sort of thing. I mentioned earlier that the book is exciting, sometimes shockingly so. Though there isn’t anything in the least bit supernatural about it, you still get this otherworldly feeling when strange, exciting things start happening. About the time Jake spits out a tooth from a fall, you’re all in.
I would be amiss if I didn’t mention Yelchin’s photography. Yelchin has mentioned that film noir has had a bit of an impact on the writing of this book, and indeed he holds a graduate film degree himself. But the photographs that grace the text don’t resemble film stills (though they rely on many of the tropes, particularly The Third Man) so much as they do photographs taken on the sly. I once saw, and very much enjoyed, a Bill Morrison film called Decasia constructed entirely from film footage that had deteriorated over time. The photographs in this book feel akin to that movie. Where Yelchin chooses to blur, to deteriorate, to stress, or to wear down is carefully considered. The end result is that even the most innocuous image, like that of a marching band coming down a street, feels vaguely nightmarish. The innocent and everyday are rendered untrustworthy through Yelchin’s gloss. But they are also, and I mean this truly, beautiful, wonderful photographs. You could hang them on a gallery wall and no one would so much as blink. When Yelchin illustrated M.T. Anderson’s The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, it was the first time I’d encountered an unreliable visual narrator. When I look at the photographs in Spy Runner it is no longer a question of reliable and unreliable. It is literally a question of whose lens you’re looking through.
In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about how one of the many roles librarians can choose to fulfill is to act as educators to children and patrons about truth and facts. If we can teach people that not everything they read on the internet is true and comes from a reliable source, we’ll be doing a public service. At one point early in the novel Jake’s teacher mentions that you can’t believe everything you hear on the radio, a statement that shocks the boy considerably. Already, the children of the early 21st century are, like Jake, learning that they must be canny, be clever, and question everything. Complacency can be put aside when you start to get a glimpse of what you’re up against. For these kids, they’ll want a book that’s unafraid to talk about the price of truth in a world that relies on understood lies. Yelchin isn’t mapping the era of McCarthyism on our current times. He’s holding it up to the mirror of where we are now, showing us the similarities between the eras, and asking what we’re going to do about it. More of this, please, Mr. Yelchin. More of this, please.
For ages 10-14.
For Jake, life is simple. His father disappeared during WWII and the boy is fairly certain that means the man’s a P.O.W. with the Russians. Someday Jake will fly into that godless Communist country, find his father, and save him. In the meantime, it’s 1953 and the Cold War is in full swing. One day, Jake comes home to find that his mother has rented out the attic to a strange man named Shubin. A Russian man, no less. Convinced that Shubin is a Communist spy, Jake wastes no time in investigating the clear criminal. Unfortunately for him, the more Jake digs into the man’s life and dealings, the more dangerous things become for him. Is someone is tailing Jake all the time? Why is the FBI speaking to him during school hours? Is a man with gold teeth really staring through his bedroom window at night? And why, oh why did Jake steal those airplane plans out of Major Armbruster’s car? The more answers he receives the stranger things become, until Jake must face unspeakable truths about the country he loves and serves.
I was talking with a colleague the other day about what makes a children’s book memorable. Let’s say thirty years pass and you still remember the name and plot of a book written for kids. Why? What makes it stick in your brain? For me, a good children’s novel is one that isn’t afraid to get weird. Harriet the Spy? Chock full of really weird people and elements. The Westing Game? same story, only you set it in an apartment complex and you get to know the cast of characters better. And to this list I would add Spy Runner. It doesn’t start off weird, initially. When I thought it was just some safe little story about a boy coming to terms with McCarthyism I felt I’d heard this tune a couple times before. This is all The Loud Silence of Francine Green territory, right? But then I got to the scene when we first meet Jake’s new border, Shubin. Jake has come home to find his mom’s car precariously parked, one of her shoes still inside and the other one in the grass, the front door partly open and her purse on the doorstep. When he comes inside his mother is barefoot, laughing, bantering with a strange man as she angles a large trunk down the stairs with him. From that moment forward, this high tenor of weirdness imbues the text. Like Jake, you know something’s going on, but you aren’t sure what the nature of it is yet (though, as an adult reading a children’s book, you can probably guess).
Yelchin, born in Russia and who left the Soviet Union when he was twenty-seven, should not be read by new American-born children’s authors. Why? Well, if a man can live twenty-seven years in another country, then come to our own and, in the course of things, write better and more succinctly than so many of the Yanks I read in my daily work, that’s could be depressing to a debut writer. For me, there’s always one moment in a well-written book for kids that wins me over. Makes me fall in love with the book. In the case of Spy Runner it’s a different scene, a little later, between Jake, Shubin, and Jake’s mom. They’re in the living room and something is … off. Jake’s mom seems expectant. Jake is paused. Shubin isn’t doing what the mom wants or expects, and Jake has no expectations but he can feel this odd tension. It’s like watching a scene from a Eugene O’Neill production. Just the below the surface of the niceties, something strange is brewing. For Jake, and for the reader too, there’s an increasing sense that no one in his life is telling the truth and no one can be trusted. How many children’s novels, like this one, choose not to give their heroes confidants? Too few.
I’m also a sucker for a killer line. That sentence that turns all the ones before it on their heads. Listen to this: “Trudy Lamarre had beautiful red hair and eyes that made him stutter: deep, dark brown eyes. Jake despised her.” Or how about this description later of his mother. “He looked at her thin fingers, white from grasping the purse; at her small, delicate ear; at the side of her face; and at a thread of her hair the color of roasted chestnuts, shaped like a question mark hanging upside down.” Or even, quite possibly best of all, this moment when Jake accidentally discovers Shubin in his mother’s bedroom. The two of them, together, are trying to guide a moth out the window. It’s innocuous, but both Jake and the reader have the sense that they’ve just witnessed something incredibly tender pass between the two people. "He lifted his eyes to the ceiling, where their shadows swayed together as if dancing in time to the sound of the soft hollow tapping of the moth and of his heart beating hard against his rib cage and wanting to explode."
Of course, I guess the best evidence that Yelchin’s a good writer is the fact that he’s managed to write a whole book starring a protagonist that is very difficult to like. Jake, put plainly, is an idiot. A friend of mine remarked after reading this book that if adults ever wanted to, they could make a drinking game out of every time Jake nearly meets his demise (don’t try it – you’d be passed out before you got to Chapter Seven). But what you dislike about him is, to a certain extent, his surety that everything he’s been taught about America and Communism and spies, is true. It’s only when he begins to lose his grip on this certainty that you start to like him a little more. Before that, he’s just a dolt. Still, even an idiot can be sympathetic if he’s treated unjustly, and Jake gets a bit of that. You’re also rooting for him to either confront or escape the dark forces tailing him time and again. Even if you don’t wholly like him, you want him to win in the end.
When I was in high school my French class had us read a fairly simple novel over the course of several weeks. And the plot of this novel appeared to be perfectly calibrated to bore me, specifically, into a state of catatonic malaise. It was about thwarting spies who wanted to steal plans for military planes. SNORE! The degree to which I didn’t care about French teenagers solving crimes could only be matched by the degree to which I didn’t care about jet schematics. For this reason, I am going to grant Mr. Yelchin some extra points for actually making a reader care about this sort of thing. I mentioned earlier that the book is exciting, sometimes shockingly so. Though there isn’t anything in the least bit supernatural about it, you still get this otherworldly feeling when strange, exciting things start happening. About the time Jake spits out a tooth from a fall, you’re all in.
I would be amiss if I didn’t mention Yelchin’s photography. Yelchin has mentioned that film noir has had a bit of an impact on the writing of this book, and indeed he holds a graduate film degree himself. But the photographs that grace the text don’t resemble film stills (though they rely on many of the tropes, particularly The Third Man) so much as they do photographs taken on the sly. I once saw, and very much enjoyed, a Bill Morrison film called Decasia constructed entirely from film footage that had deteriorated over time. The photographs in this book feel akin to that movie. Where Yelchin chooses to blur, to deteriorate, to stress, or to wear down is carefully considered. The end result is that even the most innocuous image, like that of a marching band coming down a street, feels vaguely nightmarish. The innocent and everyday are rendered untrustworthy through Yelchin’s gloss. But they are also, and I mean this truly, beautiful, wonderful photographs. You could hang them on a gallery wall and no one would so much as blink. When Yelchin illustrated M.T. Anderson’s The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, it was the first time I’d encountered an unreliable visual narrator. When I look at the photographs in Spy Runner it is no longer a question of reliable and unreliable. It is literally a question of whose lens you’re looking through.
In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about how one of the many roles librarians can choose to fulfill is to act as educators to children and patrons about truth and facts. If we can teach people that not everything they read on the internet is true and comes from a reliable source, we’ll be doing a public service. At one point early in the novel Jake’s teacher mentions that you can’t believe everything you hear on the radio, a statement that shocks the boy considerably. Already, the children of the early 21st century are, like Jake, learning that they must be canny, be clever, and question everything. Complacency can be put aside when you start to get a glimpse of what you’re up against. For these kids, they’ll want a book that’s unafraid to talk about the price of truth in a world that relies on understood lies. Yelchin isn’t mapping the era of McCarthyism on our current times. He’s holding it up to the mirror of where we are now, showing us the similarities between the eras, and asking what we’re going to do about it. More of this, please, Mr. Yelchin. More of this, please.
For ages 10-14.
July 17, 2020
"Kafkaesque" is the term I seem to come back to in describing Eugene Yelchin's novels. The style worked brilliantly in Breaking Stalin's Nose—a 2012 Newbery Honor book—and the same surrealism is employed in Spy Runner as twelve-year-old Jake McCauley realizes his humdrum life is anything but. In 1953 the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union is in full swing. Jake's father served in the American military for World War II but went MIA near the end and never came home. Mrs. McCauley seems to have accepted he's dead, but Jake believes his dad is a prisoner of the Soviets, locked up and tormented to extract government secrets from him. Jake would gladly sign up for a spy mission to Russia with the goal of liberating his father, but he has no way of knowing he's about to be pulled into a mission right in his own town.
Jake's best pal, his next-door neighbor Duane Ambruster, lately seems unhappy. His father, Major Ambruster, is a military officer and avowed enemy of Communism, an ideology that has leaked into the American national identity. Major Ambruster respects Jake's anti-Communist values; he wishes Duane were that excited about the subject. But Jake's path on the straight and narrow skews off course when his mother accepts a boarder to live with them in the finished attic room Jake's father used as his office. Victor Shubin is a gaunt-faced, shady character who doesn't hide his Russian origins. Jake's father's belongings remained untouched in the attic for more than a decade, but Shubin clears it out with hardly a second thought; worse, Mrs. McCauley doesn't object. Seeing the gadgets that Shubin owns, Jake feels sure he's a Russian spy, but when he shares his suspicion with Duane, the kids at school turn against Jake. If his mother harbors a Commie, doesn't that make Jake one too? Their teacher, Mr. Vargas, has warned of the herd mentality that takes over when people panic, but Jake has never seen Americans act this way, and it's scary.
If only Shubin were Jake's sole reason for concern. Tailing the possible spy like an amateur G-man, Jake gets caught in a crazy web of foreign and domestic covert operatives. Living close to an Air Force base, Jake sees things no other kid does, but he isn't sure if he should report suspicious activity or dig for more evidence first. Is Shubin the espionage artist he appears to be? How about Kathy Lubeck, the supposed boss at the photography center where Shubin works? Jake spots a beefy man with gold teeth skulking outside the McCauley home more than once. Jake hears him called Mr. Bull, but is Bull for or against the American cause? What about Bambach and Bader, who claim to be American FBI but behave strangely? Are they connected with the Buick automobile that stalks Jake around his neighborhood? Law enforcement and political philosophy blend into an ugly brew of Deep State corruption, and Jake's survival depends on sorting out his allies from his foes. His childhood idealism regarding the Cold War may turn out to be a pack of half-truths and outright lies.
Spy Runner is in the conversation for most convoluted book I've read. The absurdly complicated plot wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if Eugene Yelchin kept it untangled enough for readers to follow. As far as I can tell, Spy Runner fails in that respect; I can't say for sure it doesn't make sense, but that's because the mass of knots is so stubborn I can't get it undone all the way. I loved Breaking Stalin's Nose and came to this book expecting another morally challenging story with thrills and suspense of the best kind; unfortunately, it wasn't to be. I rate Spy Runner one and a half stars; had I seen any rationale to round up to two I would have, but I don't. For a vastly better junior novel set during the Cold War, I recommend Avi's Catch You Later, Traitor. I still admire Eugene Yelchin's work, but be advised that if you're a fan of Breaking Stalin's Nose you might not be as bullish on Spy Runner. It's definitely an unconventional piece of literature.
Jake's best pal, his next-door neighbor Duane Ambruster, lately seems unhappy. His father, Major Ambruster, is a military officer and avowed enemy of Communism, an ideology that has leaked into the American national identity. Major Ambruster respects Jake's anti-Communist values; he wishes Duane were that excited about the subject. But Jake's path on the straight and narrow skews off course when his mother accepts a boarder to live with them in the finished attic room Jake's father used as his office. Victor Shubin is a gaunt-faced, shady character who doesn't hide his Russian origins. Jake's father's belongings remained untouched in the attic for more than a decade, but Shubin clears it out with hardly a second thought; worse, Mrs. McCauley doesn't object. Seeing the gadgets that Shubin owns, Jake feels sure he's a Russian spy, but when he shares his suspicion with Duane, the kids at school turn against Jake. If his mother harbors a Commie, doesn't that make Jake one too? Their teacher, Mr. Vargas, has warned of the herd mentality that takes over when people panic, but Jake has never seen Americans act this way, and it's scary.
If only Shubin were Jake's sole reason for concern. Tailing the possible spy like an amateur G-man, Jake gets caught in a crazy web of foreign and domestic covert operatives. Living close to an Air Force base, Jake sees things no other kid does, but he isn't sure if he should report suspicious activity or dig for more evidence first. Is Shubin the espionage artist he appears to be? How about Kathy Lubeck, the supposed boss at the photography center where Shubin works? Jake spots a beefy man with gold teeth skulking outside the McCauley home more than once. Jake hears him called Mr. Bull, but is Bull for or against the American cause? What about Bambach and Bader, who claim to be American FBI but behave strangely? Are they connected with the Buick automobile that stalks Jake around his neighborhood? Law enforcement and political philosophy blend into an ugly brew of Deep State corruption, and Jake's survival depends on sorting out his allies from his foes. His childhood idealism regarding the Cold War may turn out to be a pack of half-truths and outright lies.
Spy Runner is in the conversation for most convoluted book I've read. The absurdly complicated plot wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if Eugene Yelchin kept it untangled enough for readers to follow. As far as I can tell, Spy Runner fails in that respect; I can't say for sure it doesn't make sense, but that's because the mass of knots is so stubborn I can't get it undone all the way. I loved Breaking Stalin's Nose and came to this book expecting another morally challenging story with thrills and suspense of the best kind; unfortunately, it wasn't to be. I rate Spy Runner one and a half stars; had I seen any rationale to round up to two I would have, but I don't. For a vastly better junior novel set during the Cold War, I recommend Avi's Catch You Later, Traitor. I still admire Eugene Yelchin's work, but be advised that if you're a fan of Breaking Stalin's Nose you might not be as bullish on Spy Runner. It's definitely an unconventional piece of literature.
August 4, 2019
The mad happy action plot and the author’s exploration of the hysteria around society’s roundup of so-called communists during McCarthyism made this a page-turner for me. The plot shows children turning in adults and those adults losing jobs because someone labeled them Communist. The Principal, who survived the Holocaust, says, “Oh no, not again.” The plot reveals adults who lost jobs based on unfair allegations that were untruthful or rumors or ruses to get rid of adversaries or hiding intolerance. Public fears at this time were manipulated by the media and justice or fairness was oftentimes missing in leaders.
The protagonist, Jake, represents a teen who just follows the crowd and believes everything he hears on the radio. He is a dork and unlikeable at first because he has fallen for the extreme public opinion that everyone is Communist who talks about the Russians or questions what is on the media. However, when people are unfairly accused of being Russian spies, his attitude changes and he starts to question the status quo, especially after his Mom takes in a Russian renter named, Shubin. Jake is convinced he is a Russian spy and tells his best friend who tells the entire school and people begin to reject Jake through violence and shunning. It’s one thing, Jake realizes, to accuse others of spying and quite different when he becomes the target of malevolent peers.
Jake is determined to figure out if Shubin is a spy and the ensuing fun involves crazy chases, double agents, spies, and more making for an unpredictable plot. The author’s message of the dangerousness of following public hysteria and not standing up for tolerance is skillfully layered into a plot that will appeal to young readers who can pretend they have little parental authority and are James Bond solving a crime. Not that Jake has any gadgets… just a rusty old bike and a lot of courage. This timeless message can lead to discussions with older readers on our country’s past and present history of prejudice and intolerance in institutions and people, particularly immigration. Highly recommended.
The protagonist, Jake, represents a teen who just follows the crowd and believes everything he hears on the radio. He is a dork and unlikeable at first because he has fallen for the extreme public opinion that everyone is Communist who talks about the Russians or questions what is on the media. However, when people are unfairly accused of being Russian spies, his attitude changes and he starts to question the status quo, especially after his Mom takes in a Russian renter named, Shubin. Jake is convinced he is a Russian spy and tells his best friend who tells the entire school and people begin to reject Jake through violence and shunning. It’s one thing, Jake realizes, to accuse others of spying and quite different when he becomes the target of malevolent peers.
Jake is determined to figure out if Shubin is a spy and the ensuing fun involves crazy chases, double agents, spies, and more making for an unpredictable plot. The author’s message of the dangerousness of following public hysteria and not standing up for tolerance is skillfully layered into a plot that will appeal to young readers who can pretend they have little parental authority and are James Bond solving a crime. Not that Jake has any gadgets… just a rusty old bike and a lot of courage. This timeless message can lead to discussions with older readers on our country’s past and present history of prejudice and intolerance in institutions and people, particularly immigration. Highly recommended.
Read
October 23, 2019DNF
August 31, 2019
Great middle grade read about the Cold War. I really enjoyed how Yelchin brought the fear of communism from that era to life. If you like action,and spy stories, this one will keep you guessing.
February 12, 2023
Who is the spy??
November 19, 2019
loved this book! It was super mysterious! totally leads you on. Def recommend if u r looking for a good mystery book.
November 16, 2019
The book was really good. It was sometimes it was very cofusing tho.
I recomend this book
I recomend this book
June 23, 2020
Spy Runner by Eugene Yelchin, 345 pages. Henry Holt, 2019. $18. Content: Language: PG (3 swears); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13
BUYING ADVISORY: MS – OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Jake McCauley is a 7th grader who misses his father who disappeared in World War II. Jake’s school teaches them about fighting communism and his best friend Duane reads spy comics that he shares with Jake. When Jake’s mom puts a male border in the attic and Jake finds out he’s Russian, Jake starts to suspect the renter, Shubin, of being a communist spy. Jake quickly finds himself wrapped up with G-men and a top-secret spy case and he doesn’t know who he can trust.
I enjoyed learning more about what it was like during McCarthyism and the Cold War, so the historical part of this novel was interesting. The plot however was all over the place and there were so many different characters and possible spies that everyone felt like a suspect before I got to the end. Jake’s inability to make a good decision was also hard to read, especially when he stole a Top Secret file from someone in the military and kept running away from anyone who tried to help him. Jake got beat up multiple times and the ending was weird. The content includes a kidnapping, physical fighting, chocking and shootings.
Reviewer, C. Peterson
https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2020...
BUYING ADVISORY: MS – OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Jake McCauley is a 7th grader who misses his father who disappeared in World War II. Jake’s school teaches them about fighting communism and his best friend Duane reads spy comics that he shares with Jake. When Jake’s mom puts a male border in the attic and Jake finds out he’s Russian, Jake starts to suspect the renter, Shubin, of being a communist spy. Jake quickly finds himself wrapped up with G-men and a top-secret spy case and he doesn’t know who he can trust.
I enjoyed learning more about what it was like during McCarthyism and the Cold War, so the historical part of this novel was interesting. The plot however was all over the place and there were so many different characters and possible spies that everyone felt like a suspect before I got to the end. Jake’s inability to make a good decision was also hard to read, especially when he stole a Top Secret file from someone in the military and kept running away from anyone who tried to help him. Jake got beat up multiple times and the ending was weird. The content includes a kidnapping, physical fighting, chocking and shootings.
Reviewer, C. Peterson
https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2020...
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October 28, 2025I don’t know if I loved this book or hated this book, so I’m going to give it no rating. It’s a nonstop, action-filled story about a boy being raised by a single mom, whose father was declared missing in action during WW II. He gets caught up in spies and international intrigue during the Red Scare. It’s completely disconcerting because from the kid’s point of view, you don’t know who to trust. Even his classmates turn on him. Is his teacher a communist? What about his principal? Not to mention, the new Russian boarder. It’s all made more complicated because the kid is very imaginative, a bit hyper, and easily influenced. The level of paranoia throughout this book was hard to bear witness to, and the perils that the kid gets in are disturbing for this mom to read about. Yet, the writing was stunning, and I kept wanting to turn the page, even though it wasn’t fun at all. What a trip!
March 24, 2019
Yelchin astonishes again. Bam! following on Brangwain Spurge: which was like nothing else, comes Spy Runner - Non-stop action, cold war era anxiety, more violence and dark humor, and political complexity than anything middle grade literature has seen before. It is as if Dashiell Hammet, Kafka and Philip K. Dick wrote a kids book. (O.K., a little less weird than Dick.) Plus, instead of Medieval woodcut illustrations, this time we have Cinema-Noir style art photographs.
June 21, 2019
I have thoroughly enjoyed each of the books by Eugene Yelchin that I have read. He is excellent at characterization and storytelling. And, he is one of my favorite authors of historical fiction. In this book he brings to life the "Red Scare" paranoia of the 1950s. Although his books are listed as juvenile fiction, I highly recommend them for teens and adults as well.
July 6, 2019
First few chapters were exciting but it became hard to follow, with a few things being predictable.
July 21, 2019
Was a bit confusing and unbelievable.
May 19, 2022
Michael R. Brown, editor/chief @GPC is also the leader of "THE BEST SELLER'S BOOK CLUB" currently reviews the book "Spy Runner" by author Eugene Yelchin. "Spy Runner" an action packed adventure YA (young adult) fiction about the 1950's ERA "communist threat" in America, is actually a very entertaining book. And for adults readers it's a "fun-return to the past" with a nostalgic theme and throw-back nod to spy movies that feature trench coats, dark sun glasses, double agents posing as ordinary citizens and "Pre-Teens" on Summer break, just after the last day of school...!
"Spy Runner" is a fun read because of it's narrative style- conveyed by it's main character Jake McCauley, who's deeply concerned about the "evils" of communism and the anticipation of a nuclear bomb being dropped on the Heartland made worse by the early days of the "Cold War"! Tensions bubble beneath the surf of this suburban Community as "normal" Americans impacted by the "Communism threat" endure daily "emergency drills", "ducking under desks" and news reports of spy's infiltrating American society". Intensifying all this drama is Jake's own personal trauma,- the loss of his father, (MIA) "missing in action", after WWII had ended. Jake privately dreams of scenarios in which his dad returns home. "If only he could just finishes with his heroic efforts overseas, or escapes his captivity, or complete his spy missions in the Soviet Union, they would all be together once again!" "Just your average American family...!"
But it's 1953, and WWII has been over for 8 years and all the fathers of his Community have already come home- and today at his school it's "Bring Your Father To Class Day", but Jake privately pledges to find his father as he mouths the "Pledge of Allegiance" during the morning ceremonies. The "Spy Runner" uses all the iconic troupes of this ERA with great twists and plenty of turns keeping the readers on edge and entertained with all the details of this mystery adventure. Details like Jake McCauley's "mystery renter", his best friend's "top gun" air pilot- dad, the "schwinn bicycle chase", the "soda" at the "malt shop, the back-drop of a "4th of July Parade" and yes, "Top Secret Plans" that fall into the hands of infiltrators!
The "Spy Runner" is a romp, full of action and visuals that combine two Steven Spielberg's-films- "Indiana Jones" and kids from "Super 8". The dialogue becomes spicy when Jake's classmates label him as disloyal when they discover his mother's new Russian House guest. So, Jake must become the "secret agent", who solves the mystery of the "black Buick" that follows him around town, the "fat man" with the "gold teeth" who stares at his house at night and discover who is the new tenant (Mr. Shubin) that his mother is devoting a lot of attention to, possibly because she is being manipulated, or because she is being forced against her will? There's plenty going on, as Jake unravels mystery, after mystery, one at a time, until the "spy tingling" ending- (get it?- "spine" tingling) conclusion at the end...! Author Eugene Yelchin brings it all together in this terrific spy novel...!
Highly regarded by the entire BEST SELLER'S GROUP- The "Spy Runner" is enjoyable, "cozy" and nostalgic giving the reader everything they can handle in a short- story- adventure- mystery...!
Recommended for all story book lovers...!
Enjoy,
Michael R. Brown, editor/chief
Ghettostone Publications Company
ghettostone/facebook
ghettostone/ twitter
ghettostone/ amazon
"Spy Runner" is a fun read because of it's narrative style- conveyed by it's main character Jake McCauley, who's deeply concerned about the "evils" of communism and the anticipation of a nuclear bomb being dropped on the Heartland made worse by the early days of the "Cold War"! Tensions bubble beneath the surf of this suburban Community as "normal" Americans impacted by the "Communism threat" endure daily "emergency drills", "ducking under desks" and news reports of spy's infiltrating American society". Intensifying all this drama is Jake's own personal trauma,- the loss of his father, (MIA) "missing in action", after WWII had ended. Jake privately dreams of scenarios in which his dad returns home. "If only he could just finishes with his heroic efforts overseas, or escapes his captivity, or complete his spy missions in the Soviet Union, they would all be together once again!" "Just your average American family...!"
But it's 1953, and WWII has been over for 8 years and all the fathers of his Community have already come home- and today at his school it's "Bring Your Father To Class Day", but Jake privately pledges to find his father as he mouths the "Pledge of Allegiance" during the morning ceremonies. The "Spy Runner" uses all the iconic troupes of this ERA with great twists and plenty of turns keeping the readers on edge and entertained with all the details of this mystery adventure. Details like Jake McCauley's "mystery renter", his best friend's "top gun" air pilot- dad, the "schwinn bicycle chase", the "soda" at the "malt shop, the back-drop of a "4th of July Parade" and yes, "Top Secret Plans" that fall into the hands of infiltrators!
The "Spy Runner" is a romp, full of action and visuals that combine two Steven Spielberg's-films- "Indiana Jones" and kids from "Super 8". The dialogue becomes spicy when Jake's classmates label him as disloyal when they discover his mother's new Russian House guest. So, Jake must become the "secret agent", who solves the mystery of the "black Buick" that follows him around town, the "fat man" with the "gold teeth" who stares at his house at night and discover who is the new tenant (Mr. Shubin) that his mother is devoting a lot of attention to, possibly because she is being manipulated, or because she is being forced against her will? There's plenty going on, as Jake unravels mystery, after mystery, one at a time, until the "spy tingling" ending- (get it?- "spine" tingling) conclusion at the end...! Author Eugene Yelchin brings it all together in this terrific spy novel...!
Highly regarded by the entire BEST SELLER'S GROUP- The "Spy Runner" is enjoyable, "cozy" and nostalgic giving the reader everything they can handle in a short- story- adventure- mystery...!
Recommended for all story book lovers...!
Enjoy,
Michael R. Brown, editor/chief
Ghettostone Publications Company
ghettostone/facebook
ghettostone/ twitter
ghettostone/ amazon
June 24, 2019
Jake McCauley is twelve-years old, lives just outside an air force base with his mother, and it is the early 1950s. Jake's dad was listed as MIA in World War II, and Jake still holds out hope that his dad is alive. Jake and his mom get along okay, but they never have a lot of money. Which is why his mom decides to rent out the attic to a boarder. And Jake is immediately suspicious of the new boarder, Mr. Shubin, because Shubin is Russian. Well, Shubin's parents were Russian, so that makes him a disgusting Commie, right? This is the early 1950s, the Cold War is hot, and the Red Scare permeates all aspects of American life. And with a Russian living upstairs, who is probably spying on the air force base and Jake's next-door neighbors, and who is getting uncomfortably sweet and flirty with Jake's mom, Jake's life turns upside-down. The kids at school no longer trust him, he has a run-in with the FBI, and now he's trailing Shubin, looking for proof that the Russian is a spy. Except, the spy business is really, really confusing. And Jake is beginning to wonder if his dad will ever come back home. And, maybe, all this hatred of communism is getting out of hand. Jake just wants to know the truth. And truth is, if anything, elusive.
Like any good suspenseful spy novel, this story kept me on my toes. Yelchin has always found the perfect way to let readers know the complexities and contradictions inherent in all ideologies. His characters are always living in an adult world, full of scary things like atomic bombs, death camps, government agents, and propaganda. Yelchin's characters are always trying to navigate their lives through messy adult ideologies. And Jake's story is no different. This kid risks his life over and over again, and the reader is just as confused as Jake as to what is really the truth. Just like an Alfred Hitchcock movie, the reader is kept in suspense, never knowing exactly who is the real spy, and who should Jake trust. There is an excellent plot-twist at the end that I definitely did not see coming. Every page is full of action, and the story moves quickly. Jake is battered, beaten, and exhausted, with multiple attempts on his life, all by the end of this 300+ book. At times, it felt like a bit much, but the violence is more suspenseful than it is actually violent, if that makes any sense.
Recommended for: middle grade, beginning young adult
Red flags: violence (the kid nearly dies about three or four times, being run over by cars, trucks, and horses, wrecking his bike, nearly being strangled to death by a spy, nearly being shot by an American spy, in a shoot-out between tommy gun-wielding FBI agents and a Russian spy . . . and the list goes on)
Like any good suspenseful spy novel, this story kept me on my toes. Yelchin has always found the perfect way to let readers know the complexities and contradictions inherent in all ideologies. His characters are always living in an adult world, full of scary things like atomic bombs, death camps, government agents, and propaganda. Yelchin's characters are always trying to navigate their lives through messy adult ideologies. And Jake's story is no different. This kid risks his life over and over again, and the reader is just as confused as Jake as to what is really the truth. Just like an Alfred Hitchcock movie, the reader is kept in suspense, never knowing exactly who is the real spy, and who should Jake trust. There is an excellent plot-twist at the end that I definitely did not see coming. Every page is full of action, and the story moves quickly. Jake is battered, beaten, and exhausted, with multiple attempts on his life, all by the end of this 300+ book. At times, it felt like a bit much, but the violence is more suspenseful than it is actually violent, if that makes any sense.
Recommended for: middle grade, beginning young adult
Red flags: violence (the kid nearly dies about three or four times, being run over by cars, trucks, and horses, wrecking his bike, nearly being strangled to death by a spy, nearly being shot by an American spy, in a shoot-out between tommy gun-wielding FBI agents and a Russian spy . . . and the list goes on)
April 19, 2023
I was really hoping this book would be a winner, especially because I loved Breaking Stalin's Nose. Unfortunately, this book doesn't hit the mark.
It's the decade following World War 2. The Cold War is ramping up. There is a strong anti-communism, anti-Russian sentiment in the United States. Jake is on board. Then to his horror, his mom rents out his MIA father's attic office to a Russian boarder named Shubin. Jake makes the mistake of telling his best friend and now everyone is branding him a communist sympathizer. Going off the details in his favorite comic series, Spy Runner, Jake begins spying on Shubin, trying to determine if he's a Russian spy. But he may be in way over his head. He's being followed by a black Buick, questioned by G-men (government men), and chased down by a huge guy called Bull. Quite a lot for an average American kid.
And that's the problem. The book is way over the top with the whole spy angle. Through the majority of the book Jake is running around town after Shubin. It got boring after awhile. I liked the book's beginning where Jake was in school or over at his friend's house. That felt natural. The rest of it was more like a comic book. 100% not realistic. And the ending is not satisfying in the least. It's unfortunate because I do have students with an interest in the Cold War. A book my students really like is called The Enemy: Detroit, 1954.
It's the decade following World War 2. The Cold War is ramping up. There is a strong anti-communism, anti-Russian sentiment in the United States. Jake is on board. Then to his horror, his mom rents out his MIA father's attic office to a Russian boarder named Shubin. Jake makes the mistake of telling his best friend and now everyone is branding him a communist sympathizer. Going off the details in his favorite comic series, Spy Runner, Jake begins spying on Shubin, trying to determine if he's a Russian spy. But he may be in way over his head. He's being followed by a black Buick, questioned by G-men (government men), and chased down by a huge guy called Bull. Quite a lot for an average American kid.
And that's the problem. The book is way over the top with the whole spy angle. Through the majority of the book Jake is running around town after Shubin. It got boring after awhile. I liked the book's beginning where Jake was in school or over at his friend's house. That felt natural. The rest of it was more like a comic book. 100% not realistic. And the ending is not satisfying in the least. It's unfortunate because I do have students with an interest in the Cold War. A book my students really like is called The Enemy: Detroit, 1954.
September 4, 2019
Jake McCauley is a proud and patriotic American teenager who grows up in the post-war era. His father has not returned from the war and was declared Missing In Action, but Jake is sure that he is out there somewhere. The young boy has sworn himself that he will rescue his father from the communists that everyone in the United States is so afraid of. When his mother allows a Russian man to move in with them, Jake soon learns what it means to be suspected of supporting communism. Feeling like an outsider, he goes on an action-ridden journey to prove that the Russian who moved in with them, Shubin, is a spy who works for the Russians. Soon, he finds himself in the middle of an adventure that involves dubious agents, mysterious envelopes and the most important question: can he find out more about his father?
Eugene Yelchin’s book provides a plot that bursts with action and suspense and therefore keeps the reader hooked until the end. At the same time, this story is much more than a mere action adventure: Jake’s complicated relationship with his father, whom he has never met but dearly misses, and the arguments with his best friend Duane prove that it is also about growing up. The social commentary on the post-war hysteria regarding communism is strong and its underlying criticism gives an incentive to young readers to reflect on concepts like patriotism and prejudice, inviting them to take a step back and take all political opinions with a grain of salt.
Eugene Yelchin’s book provides a plot that bursts with action and suspense and therefore keeps the reader hooked until the end. At the same time, this story is much more than a mere action adventure: Jake’s complicated relationship with his father, whom he has never met but dearly misses, and the arguments with his best friend Duane prove that it is also about growing up. The social commentary on the post-war hysteria regarding communism is strong and its underlying criticism gives an incentive to young readers to reflect on concepts like patriotism and prejudice, inviting them to take a step back and take all political opinions with a grain of salt.
August 28, 2020
Teachers would be hard pressed to find many books about the Red Scare for their students if they wanted to cover this period in history, which makes this one, set in 1953, have strong possibilities. It captures the paranoia and uncertainty of the time as Jake McCauley, 12, becomes obsessed with a Russian boarder who moves into his home. Suspicious of the man, Mr. Shubin, and his photography equipment and various actions, Jake is sure that he must be a spy. There is just something troubling about his arrival and the fact that he claims to have known Jake's father who is missing. The book relies on interesting images, distorted, grainy photographs that are deliberately left open to interpretation, to support the plot as Jake finds himself way in over his head. It's hard to know who to trust or to make sense of some of the characters' actions, and readers may be just as confused as Jake for much of the book. There were times that I wanted to shake Jake or have him sit down and think things through, and I was frustrated that his mother wasn't more forthcoming while being frightened for him for the risks he took. I'm not sure that I liked the ending, but I enjoyed the strange trip the author took me on. Unless readers grew up during that time period or have a lot of background knowledge about it from prior reading, they'd be lost and would need to do some research into those times. This book is one of those that benefits from a second reading.
November 12, 2021
Eugene Yelchin's Spy Runner takes place in 1953, centering on twelve-year-old Jake McCauley, his mother, and their new tenant, Mr. Shubin. Jake is worried about his father, who is Missing in Action during World War II. He holds out hope that his father will be discovered and returned to the U.S. from a prisoner of war camp. Jake idolizes his friend Duane's father, Major Armbruster, who serves in the Air Force and comes to speak to Mr. Varga's students about the threat of Communism and spies who may be around them.
I will admit that I read the first portion, browsed, then jumped to the end as the writing style was more akin to the way spy stories or mysteries might have been told in the 1950's or 1960's. There are large black and white photos throughout, meant to mimic photos taken using spy cameras and relating to Jake's fascination with believing that Mr. Shubin is a spy, for he finds cameras hidden inside a floorboard in the attic, where Mr. Shubin is staying.
Why does Mr. Vargas act so nervous when Major Armbruster visits the classroom? Why is his message about Communism different than the Major's? Why is Mr. Shubin staying with Jake and his mom in the attic of their home? Why does a car seem to be following Jake when he takes a walk or rides his bike around town? You'll have to read Spy Runner to find out!
I will admit that I read the first portion, browsed, then jumped to the end as the writing style was more akin to the way spy stories or mysteries might have been told in the 1950's or 1960's. There are large black and white photos throughout, meant to mimic photos taken using spy cameras and relating to Jake's fascination with believing that Mr. Shubin is a spy, for he finds cameras hidden inside a floorboard in the attic, where Mr. Shubin is staying.
Why does Mr. Vargas act so nervous when Major Armbruster visits the classroom? Why is his message about Communism different than the Major's? Why is Mr. Shubin staying with Jake and his mom in the attic of their home? Why does a car seem to be following Jake when he takes a walk or rides his bike around town? You'll have to read Spy Runner to find out!
July 28, 2022
Very exciting adventure! I think this book would be an exciting read for young people but it also had meaning for me as an adult that kids would probably miss completely. One relatively subtle point the author makes is that during this time period all a person had to do was accuse someone of something and they could destroy that person’s life. No proof needed, no trial, no opportunity for rebuttal. Accuse and destroy. The same thing is happening now. All you have to do is accuse someone and their life is over, you don’t have to prove anything and it doesn’t matter how long ago the alleged misconduct happened. It can be sexual misconduct, racism, anything. If you have a story you can erase all context (if the story is even true), silence all witnesses (if there are any), and judge it by the standards of today (no matter how long ago the incident or action took place), and people will happily tear that person limb from limb in the middle of the streets while the bloodthirsty hoards cheer them on. And if you dare to question the accuser or suggest that consideration should be given to the circumstances in which something occurred, then you will be branded too. As a society we have certainly rediscovered the power of fear and how useful it can be for controlling people.
July 13, 2020
Ta krótka powieść poświęcona jest tak zwanemu zjawisku "red scare" które miało miejsce w latach 50tych minionego stulecia w Stanach Zjednoczonych. Wszystko co złe kojarzone było z komunizmem i Związkiem Radzieckim. Jeśli chciano kogoś obrazić nazywano tego kogoś "komunistą", jeśli ktoś zachowywał się podejrzanie to od razu był nazywany "komunistą". Nawet dzieci w szkole zostały pochłonięte przez to zjawisko. Uczniowie szkół musieli codziennie składać przysięgę lojalności na flagę amerykańską. Wśród dzieci ta cała atmosfera mocno się udzielała i niestety zdarzało się iż niesłusznie niektóre dzieci padały ofiarami przemocy fizycznej i psychicznej ze strony rówieśników ze względu na to iż były uznawane za "komunistów".
W książce śledzimy losy kilkunastoletniego chłopca który samotnie wychowywany jest przez matkę, ojciec jeszcze nie wrócił z wojny i prawdopodobnie jest jeszcze w niewoli sowieckiej. Matka chłopca aby podreperować budżet rodzinny wynajmuje pokój w domu rosyjskiemu emigrantowi. Ten fakt powoduje iż wśród rówieśników chłopiec od razu uważany jest za komunistę i jest przez rówieśników szykanowany.
Historia ma jednak ciekawy Happy End.
W książce śledzimy losy kilkunastoletniego chłopca który samotnie wychowywany jest przez matkę, ojciec jeszcze nie wrócił z wojny i prawdopodobnie jest jeszcze w niewoli sowieckiej. Matka chłopca aby podreperować budżet rodzinny wynajmuje pokój w domu rosyjskiemu emigrantowi. Ten fakt powoduje iż wśród rówieśników chłopiec od razu uważany jest za komunistę i jest przez rówieśników szykanowany.
Historia ma jednak ciekawy Happy End.
notes-on-unfinished-books
July 5, 2019Notes on chapters 1-6
Yelchin creates an atmospheric, character-driven web of mysteries and puzzles. He shows, rather than tells that these characters are confused and secretive. The reader knows that the narrator is mistaken about things, but not sure exactly how. This is an intelligent book for intelligent kids.
If I had a complaint against the first six chapters, it would be that while they set up thematic and character questions, there's not much in the way of actual plot. It's not clear what problem or objective the protagonist will be focused on, and why that problem must be solved.
I miss Yelchin's illustrations, which I think could reinforce a sense of paranoia and distorted reality.
At this point, Spy Runner and The Lost Girl are the books that seem best qualified for the Newbery. I would like to finish both of them in order to form an opinion.
Yelchin creates an atmospheric, character-driven web of mysteries and puzzles. He shows, rather than tells that these characters are confused and secretive. The reader knows that the narrator is mistaken about things, but not sure exactly how. This is an intelligent book for intelligent kids.
If I had a complaint against the first six chapters, it would be that while they set up thematic and character questions, there's not much in the way of actual plot. It's not clear what problem or objective the protagonist will be focused on, and why that problem must be solved.
I miss Yelchin's illustrations, which I think could reinforce a sense of paranoia and distorted reality.
At this point, Spy Runner and The Lost Girl are the books that seem best qualified for the Newbery. I would like to finish both of them in order to form an opinion.
October 28, 2019
First sentence: Every morning the students of Mr. Vargas’s class pledged allegiance to the flag.
Premise/plot: Jake McCauley narrates Eugene Yelchin’s newest book, a historical middle grade novel set in 1953 in an American town. Jake is still missing his missing-in-action father who didn’t return home from the Second World War. He’s gone but not forgotten. But has his mom started to forget...to move on?! Jake worries that this is so when she takes a boarder in the attic rooms that once were his father’s. Because the boarder—this complete stranger—is Russian, Jake fears that he is a Russian spy. He takes it upon himself to investigate. Can he prove that this man is a spy? If he does, will he survive to tell the tale?
My thoughts: I greatly enjoyed this one? It was very though provoking. I loved how everything was more complex than it at first appeared. I wish he’d trusted his mom a bit more. But what a read this was! I also enjoyed the illustrations—both the endpapers and within the narrative itself.
Premise/plot: Jake McCauley narrates Eugene Yelchin’s newest book, a historical middle grade novel set in 1953 in an American town. Jake is still missing his missing-in-action father who didn’t return home from the Second World War. He’s gone but not forgotten. But has his mom started to forget...to move on?! Jake worries that this is so when she takes a boarder in the attic rooms that once were his father’s. Because the boarder—this complete stranger—is Russian, Jake fears that he is a Russian spy. He takes it upon himself to investigate. Can he prove that this man is a spy? If he does, will he survive to tell the tale?
My thoughts: I greatly enjoyed this one? It was very though provoking. I loved how everything was more complex than it at first appeared. I wish he’d trusted his mom a bit more. But what a read this was! I also enjoyed the illustrations—both the endpapers and within the narrative itself.
September 6, 2021
I listened to this book, which I think takes away from enjoying the illustrations or photos or whatever, but it allowed me to really pay attention to the words Yelchin used. This books gives great examples of action/adventure writing; I can’t wait to share portions of it with kids. Most of the chapters end with cliffhangers, and the section that described Jake coming home to find his mom’s car parked askew, shoes abandoned…it gave me chills when I heard it, and it’s a great exemplar.
So the story is a little weird…this little boy getting caught up in a Russian spy operation with double agents and FBI agents is a little far-fetched. I love how we really see the whole thing through a child’s eyes—he didn’t know who to believe and he made some mistakes in trusting adults. He questioned everyone’s loyalty to America and held them up to his standards, and then learned that not everything is at it seems.
This book is start of our state reader’s choice list this year for middle school, so we’ll have a lot of readers, and I can’t wait to get their takes on it.
So the story is a little weird…this little boy getting caught up in a Russian spy operation with double agents and FBI agents is a little far-fetched. I love how we really see the whole thing through a child’s eyes—he didn’t know who to believe and he made some mistakes in trusting adults. He questioned everyone’s loyalty to America and held them up to his standards, and then learned that not everything is at it seems.
This book is start of our state reader’s choice list this year for middle school, so we’ll have a lot of readers, and I can’t wait to get their takes on it.
May 30, 2019
Spy Runner is an exciting mystery novel about 12-year-old Jake McCauley and his mission to save his dad and bust the Russian spies. The book takes place in 1953, in the midst of the Cold War and the Red Scare, and it shows just how much Americans hated Russians during this time. When Jake's mother rents out his father's old study to a Russian named Victor Shubin, Jake sees his chance to finally uncover the location of his dad, who has been missing since World War II. When Jake starts spying on Shubin, things get weird. All of a sudden he finds himself in the middle of many secrets from Shubin's mysterious photography business, so the top secret folders kept by Jake's best friend's dad, Major Armbruster. The further into this mystery Jake gets, the more danger he finds himself in. Spy Runner has many thrilling, action-packed scenes, without any boring in-between parts and I would recommend this book greatly.
June 4, 2019
The 50's are all about fighting the dirty Commies. Adults will get a lot that kids won't (especially at 1st), such as the similarity between Commie and American propaganda, snitching on each other and the "disappearances" of those suspected of being "other". Jake is not only "all in", he is a voracious reader of spy comics, and is hoping to rescue his dad, MIA since WWII (and in Jake's mind, a POW in Russia). Non-stop action as Jake investigates the mysterious boarder his mom took in, the strange man staking out his house, and the car following him. Who is the dirty commie enemy? Who the spy? Why can't he have a spiffy Air Force dad like his best friend? I was impressed with Jake's ability to take physical punishment, hunger and thirst as his ADHD drive to find out drives him on. Kids also might not get echoes with today (don't believe everything you hear on the radio), but this would be a good basis for discussion.
November 24, 2019
Really struggled to finish this book. It took me a month and a half to finish a 341, middle grade book. I just could not get into this. I appreciated the author presenting a new type of middle grade, historical fiction novel on a topic not really written about, The Cold War. Apart from that, there wasn’t much I appreciated.
I felt like I was reading the story in hyper speed, and at times had difficulty following the sequence of events. At times, I felt so frustrated, I found myself just glancing over lines to find when the plot changed. I also felt the character’s actions to be completely unrealistic. Yes, he’s a boy looking for an adventure, but this adventure was just a tad bit too unbelievable, especially for the 50s. Then, the end just killed me. Plot: dangerous man enters house, threatens the boy, almost kills someone, gets arrested, and dad and son just go make coffee together.... 😑 Again...I use the word, “unbelievable”.
I felt like I was reading the story in hyper speed, and at times had difficulty following the sequence of events. At times, I felt so frustrated, I found myself just glancing over lines to find when the plot changed. I also felt the character’s actions to be completely unrealistic. Yes, he’s a boy looking for an adventure, but this adventure was just a tad bit too unbelievable, especially for the 50s. Then, the end just killed me. Plot: dangerous man enters house, threatens the boy, almost kills someone, gets arrested, and dad and son just go make coffee together.... 😑 Again...I use the word, “unbelievable”.
March 31, 2019
I actually giving this book about a 3 and a half. This is a historical fiction middle grade novel set in 1953 Arizona. Jake McCauley lives near an air force base and his community is caught up in the Anti-Communism "Red Scare" fervor of the Cold War. Jake's father is still missing in action from serving in WWII and he and his mother are just getting by until she takes in a boarder, Mr. Shubin, who is originally from Russian. This causes problems for him at school until a couple of FBI agents enter his life. Jake starts to suspect Shubin is a Russian spy which causes to suspect everyone. The big reveal of which character is the spy is no big surprise but there are a couple of nice smaller surprises. It's a good yarn that kids who like adventurous historical fictional to their liking.
Currently reading
July 20, 2020My grandson was reading this book, so I read it also.
I was extremely disappointed in the message.
The McCarthy era in US history is a black mark on our country, and this book does not make that clear.
In the middle of the book, there are important messages about the scary anti-Communist times of McCarthy's 1950s. The teacher says the American Way allows freedom of speech and thought, and the Principal, a holocaust survivor says, "This spying on each other is how it started in Germany."
But at the end, Jakes parents WORK for Hoover, the head of the anti-communist movement.
And the teacher and principal are fired in a throw-away line, with no explanation about why that is horrible.
What is the message here? Extremely disappointing and confusing for young readers.
I suggest removing it from Goodreads.
I was extremely disappointed in the message.
The McCarthy era in US history is a black mark on our country, and this book does not make that clear.
In the middle of the book, there are important messages about the scary anti-Communist times of McCarthy's 1950s. The teacher says the American Way allows freedom of speech and thought, and the Principal, a holocaust survivor says, "This spying on each other is how it started in Germany."
But at the end, Jakes parents WORK for Hoover, the head of the anti-communist movement.
And the teacher and principal are fired in a throw-away line, with no explanation about why that is horrible.
What is the message here? Extremely disappointing and confusing for young readers.
I suggest removing it from Goodreads.
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