Blurb: Over the centuries, a small clan of spies called the Tabula Rasa has worked ceaselessly to fight oppression. They can pass unseen through enemy lines and “become” other people without being recognized. They are, essentially, faceless. Alice and Louise Winfield are sisters and spies in the Tabula Rasa. They’re growing up in wartime England, where the threat of Nazi occupation is ever near. But Louise wants to live an ordinary life and leaves the agency. Now, as Alice faces her most dangerous assignment yet, she fears discovery, but, most of all, she fears losing her own sister.
There are moments reading this book that I am sure, like me, you will begin to think perhaps all of this is real - perhaps this is the way spies work - perhaps the Tabula Rosa was a real resistance organisation in World War II. Of course, there is no way children were used like this for espionage let alone as part of the plan to assassinate Hitler, but other parts of this story are linked with just enough history of this period and so it will appeal to Young Adult fans of historical fiction.
The story begins in London early in 1944 and the final scenes come with the news in 1945 that Hitler is dead. Alice and her mother and father travel to Berlin. Her father gains a job as a motor mechanic working on cars for high-ranking Nazi officers. Alice goes to school with the idea of becoming a perfect student so that she too can get close to the German authorities. She has to learn the culture, the language, and above all she has to be completely 'forgettable'. She also has to know every part of Wagner's Ring Cycle - a favourite of Hitler. Later she even has to perform parts of this for Hitler himself.
Here is the full review/plot summary from Publisher's Weekly (quoted by Kathryn Lasky on her blog):
Set during WWII, Newbery Honoree Lasky’s intense historical drama follows a white family of spies whose tradition of serving Great Britain dates back to Henry VIII. Thirteen-year-old Alice Winfield has for years trained for her first A-level mission, and her celebrated older sister, Louise, once promised to be her guide. But when Louise opts out of the family business, only Alice and her mother join the teens’ undercover father on a secret mission in Berlin: taking down Hitler. Upon arrival, Alice becomes Ute, a German girl “certified to be... Aryan, with no contamination of foreign blood.” As Alice works to achieve high marks in school and remain as unnoticeable and unmemorable as the “tabula rasas” from which she is descended, she finds herself dangerously drawn to an unhoused boy. With a well-detailed historical backdrop and a puzzling familial mystery, this novel delivers intrigue via tense scenes involving Hitler himself. Albeit fictional, this up-close glimpse at the historical figure’s inner circle and last days centers an unnervingly calm protagonist maintaining an elaborate ruse while navigating the increasingly dangerous streets of Berlin, where knowing who is friend and foe determines survival.
Fascinating and riveting, especially for history buffs and spy aficionados. Kirkus
Take a look at this review from the Jewish Book Council and this one from the Historical Novel Society.
I did enjoy Faceless but it is a long book with nearly 300 pages of very small print. I think it will best suit readers aged 12+. Parts of the plot from Faceless do overlap with the two books I have put as companion titles - All the Beautiful Things and Max in the House of Spies (or more specifically the sequel Max in the Land of Lies).
Kathryn Lasky comes from a Jewish family. Here are three other Young Adult books she has written about World War II and which can be linked with Faceless.
Companion books:
Kathryn Lasky has a huge and impressive body of work - over 100 books. I think the first book I read by Kathryn Lasky was Night Journey. In 1985 in one of my first school libraries the Principal (without reference to the Teacher-Librarian) ordered nearly every book from the Puffin Books catalogue. The Night Journey was published in 1981 so it was among the books that arrived from a distant bookshop. In some ways having him order all of these books was very frustrating but now I realise it gave me the opportunity to read so many fabulous 1980s children's books such as The Night Journey which is where I read about the samovar for the first time. I also had her Show and Tell Bunnies picture book series in my two of my previous school libraries and all of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole books. On this blog I recently talked about the first book from the Glendunny series.
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