“Spying is one of the oldest professions in the world: evidence dates back millennia (which is truly unfortunate for a secret activity should leave no trace).”

The art of spying and secret identities is one of those typical and wonderfully creative childhood fantasies. With SPYOLOGY, young people now have a fun and fascinating introduction and guide to the fantasy. This large book is chock-a-block full of information, games and stories to inspire and challenge. Like all the volumes in the ’Ologies series, readers will come across fantastic illustrations and flaps and pockets galore in these pages. The red jewel on the cover is even a “magnifying filter decoder” that can be used to find hidden messages and pictures in the book.

SPYOLOGY, the publisher tells us, is actually a declassified document. It was the book of a spy named “Spencer Blake” on a top-secret mission that no nation will claim. The first thing spies-in-training will find is the mission he received, still in the envelope marked “top secret.”

Mixed in with Blake's notes is information on a variety of spycraft topics such as secret intelligence organizations, disguises, surveillance, codes, information gathering, gadgets, the history of spying and much more. There are several short case studies, spy glasses for disguise tucked neatly in a pocket, paper clues and pieces of ephemera. There are also codes to crack and secret messages, notes and letters to and from Spencer Blake, bills of counterfeit money and a wheel to decipher codex codes.

SPYOLOGY can be read as an adventure story, as a manual for learning the craft of espionage, or leafed through item by item as it catches the reader’s eye. It is a book that children (and adults) can easily get lost in!

      --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman