Top Secret: Spies, codes, capers, gadgets, and classified cases revealed by Crispin Boyer and Suzanne Zimbler

 National Geographic has a long history of browsing nonfiction for kids that feature weird, gross, and unusual facts. I was curious how they would handle a book about "secrets" with the current proliferation of conspiracy theories but, unfortunately, I found the collection disorganized and I didn't care for the way some conspiracies were presented.

The introduction talks vaguely about inducting the reader into secret conspiracies, codes, and spies, followed by an overview of codes which are included throughout the book to solve. The book is divided into chapters, each of which tackles a different collection of "secrets." It follows National Geographic's traditional format, with lots of facts in pop-out squares, bright colors, diagrams, and profiles of famous people. Each chapter ends with a project or activity for kids to try. The first chapter covers secret agencies and gives a good overview of the trend of the book, since despite a brief mention of intelligence agencies in a handful of other countries, it focuses almost exclusively on the US with a few mentions of Cold War spies from Russia and some British operatives during WWII. The second chapter covers historical mysteries and does spread a little wider, talking briefly about a few other civilizations, but also a few debunked conspiracy theories and Egyptian hieroglyphs and theories of "lizard people" are included in the same chapter.

Mysterious people range from famous spies like Virginia Hall to a collection of again, mostly American and British spies, imposters, and ending with an organization of people who pretend to be superheroes and help suggestions on creating your own disguise. Secret plans include a mysterious prison break from Alcatraz, various battles, hoaxes, and the hidden terracotta armies found in China. Secret gadgets include a handful of newer tech devices, drones, as well as more historical artifacts like radar. Secret places has an extensive section on Area 51, as well as natural wonders like the cave system discovered in Vietnam. A collection of codes follows and the final chapter which seems to be a random collection of everything else, from what cats do at night to superstitions of sports stars and secret recipes.

This is a fairly hefty book and the hardcover has a flimsy binding, but it's likely that it will stick together as long as it takes for the first flood of browser nonfiction fans to skim through it and move on. Originally scheduled for publication in 2020, it was postponed and published in April of 2021 and it looks as though National Geographic has resolved their processing issues as a large number of titles are shown as in stock.

Verdict: If you are looking for something to tackle the current plague of conspiracy theories and teach information literacy, you're better off turning to the Two Truths and a Lie series by Thompson and Paquette or some of the excellent books on biases and advertising produced recently by Kids Can Press. There are also a plethora of more thorough books on coding for kids who enjoy those activities. However, if you want more browsing nonfiction for reluctant readers or bored kids to page through, this is likely to satisfy them for quite a while.

ISBN: 9781426339127; Published April 2021 by National Geographic; Originally ordered and then cancelled in 2020; Review copy provided by publisher