This is such an amazing look at this woman's life. I think that there are so many young girls who could benefit from seeing a story about a woman who did so many amazing things. I also think that the comic portion will help to keep young readers engaged with the story.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for allowing me to read this! Elizebeth Friedman was a true national treasure. She isn’t well known, but as times goes on, hopefully that will change. This book, meant for middle grade students, is the story of her life and her incredible contributions to national security in a time when women had just earned the right to vote, but otherwise were expected to stay home and raise a family. She ended up working for various parts of the US government cracking codes and cyphers. Her work is said to have shortened WWII by two years and to have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of allied forces. Please read this to learn about her, but also some of the basic codes and cyphers she used at the beginning of her storied career.

This is such an interesting non-fiction look at the history of cryptoanalysis in the US government and the important role Elizebeth Friedman played in it. I liked the format of the book which alternates between narrative and comic illustrations. I immediately recommended this to my family members who are interested in codes and puzzles, and would recommend it to all schools and libraries.

This is a little gem of a book. Written for younger readers it tells the story of Elizebeth Friedman, a cryptanalyst who broke the codes of criminals during prohibition in the US and the Enigma codes during World War II. I’m ashamed to saw I had never heard of her before this despite being familiar with Alan Turing and the code breaking work of Bletchley Park. On reading this book it’s hardly surprising really as she was very much kept behind the scenes herself especially during the war.
While the work of Elizebeth was primarily code breaking, and with pen and paper unlike Turing, the book breaks down the history of the time very nicely thereby adding significance to her work.
I hope we hear more about this remarkable woman in the years to come and she earns her place among the Alan Turings of this world. This book should be placed in every school library. As I said, a little gem.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.