How to Make and Break Top Secret Messages
July 3, 2017
Publishing simultaneously with the first two books in the Secret Agents Jack and Max Stalwart series, a spin-off of Hunt’s Secret Agent Jack Stalwart chapter books, this informative workbook highlights more than 25 cryptographic techniques. A wide-ranging introductory section traces cryptography to the ancient Greeks and documents the use of codes and ciphers through history. Hunt then shows readers how to make and use invisible ink, perfect their mirror writing, and hide messages in crossword puzzles. More detail-oriented challenges come in the form of letter, number, and symbol ciphers that readers can practice both deciphering and creating. Fans of Hunt’s spy series are a natural audience, but any readers with an interest in codes and ciphers should be intrigued by this accessible introduction. Ages 7–12.
June 15, 2017
Simple directions for using codes, ciphers, and steganography to send secret messages to friends or fellow spies. After opening with an overview of historical cryptography from the "Caesar cipher" and an ancient Chinese script called Nushu (used exclusively by women) to the Enigma machine and other World War II-era coding devices, Hunt proceeds to describe over two dozen ways to hide or disguise messages. Along with substitution codes, letter and number grids, anagrams, a tic-tac-toe cipher, a Vigenere table, and like techniques, she provides recipes for invisible ink, instructions for creating paper decoder bracelets or rings, and templates to copy for an Alberti cipher wheel. Most of the illustrations are charts or simple line drawings, with a sprinkling of human figures (all seem to be white). The author adds frequent practice pages with blank lines and short secret messages to decode, and she closes with a series of longer puzzles (answer key included) in a final "Cryptographic Challenge." But young would-be coders hoping to find more than passing nods to computer programs or cellphone tools--or even that much about modern advances in cryptography--will be disappointed. A reasonably comprehensive handbook, though it's confined to classical low- to no-tech methods. (sources) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
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