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bdietrich 's review for:
Code of Honor
by Alan Gratz
Middle grade read
Kamran, an Iranian-American, lives in Arizona with his parents. Life is good for this high school senior: homecoming court, gorgeous girlfriend, football star, Westpoint-bound. Until his older brother Darius, also a Westpoint graduate and Army Ranger, is seen on tv dressed in Al-Qaeda robes, threatening American lives. Then, he's ostracized by his friends and harassed by news crews camped on his front lawn. Even worse, he's pulled from his bed in the middle of the night, arrested, and flown to some mysterious location. There, is interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security, mainly a CIA operative named Mickey Hagan. With Mickey's help. Kamran is able to decipher the coded messages in Darius's videos. But whose side is Darius on? And will Kamran be able to find him and save him? Save the world from another terrorist strike?
Despite the fact that the protagonist is 17 years old, Code of Honor is very much so a middle grade book. Gratz dumbs Kamran down more than would be authentic for a Westpoint-bound high school senior so as to help the reader come to the correct conclusions. This would inspire eye-rolling in anyone 14 or older. While this is somewhat annoying, it is necessary for the story to work. Darius must be in his mid-twenties, and if Kamran were only a 7th grader, the age gap would be too big; Darius and Kamran would never have played make-believe all those times as kids, and then the coded messages to Kamran in the videos wouldn't have existed.
There are some other aspects of the storyline that are too outrageous to be authentic, but Gratz has to blow these out of proportion because it's an espionage thriller at the middle school level. Adults expecting James Bond will be disappointed, but adults are not Gratz's audience; 5th-8th grade boys are. And they will love it!
Kamran, an Iranian-American, lives in Arizona with his parents. Life is good for this high school senior: homecoming court, gorgeous girlfriend, football star, Westpoint-bound. Until his older brother Darius, also a Westpoint graduate and Army Ranger, is seen on tv dressed in Al-Qaeda robes, threatening American lives. Then, he's ostracized by his friends and harassed by news crews camped on his front lawn. Even worse, he's pulled from his bed in the middle of the night, arrested, and flown to some mysterious location. There, is interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security, mainly a CIA operative named Mickey Hagan. With Mickey's help. Kamran is able to decipher the coded messages in Darius's videos. But whose side is Darius on? And will Kamran be able to find him and save him? Save the world from another terrorist strike?
Despite the fact that the protagonist is 17 years old, Code of Honor is very much so a middle grade book. Gratz dumbs Kamran down more than would be authentic for a Westpoint-bound high school senior so as to help the reader come to the correct conclusions. This would inspire eye-rolling in anyone 14 or older. While this is somewhat annoying, it is necessary for the story to work. Darius must be in his mid-twenties, and if Kamran were only a 7th grader, the age gap would be too big; Darius and Kamran would never have played make-believe all those times as kids, and then the coded messages to Kamran in the videos wouldn't have existed.
There are some other aspects of the storyline that are too outrageous to be authentic, but Gratz has to blow these out of proportion because it's an espionage thriller at the middle school level. Adults expecting James Bond will be disappointed, but adults are not Gratz's audience; 5th-8th grade boys are. And they will love it!