Contents Introduction 3 1 Best All-Around Agent 355 4 2 Most Likely to Cook Up a Plan Julia Child 6 3 Most Clever Barbara Lauwers 8 4 Most Likely to Sign Up for Anything Nancy Wake 10 5 Most Loyal Noor Inayat Khan 12 6 Most Charming Zheng Pingru 14 7 Biggest Transformation Sarah Emma Edmonds 16 8 Best Survivor Dahteste 18 9 Best Team Mary Bowser and Elizabeth Van Lew 20 10 Biggest Heroine Harriet Tubman 22 11 Biggest Rebel Manuela Sáenz 24 12 Most Likely to Win at Trivia Agnes Meyer Driscoll 26 Your Turn 30 Consider This 31 Glossary 31 Index 31 2
Introduction We are celebrating girl spies Spies collect and report intelligence Intelligence means information Spies take down enemies Some wear disguises Some pretend to be other people Some use special gadgets Gadgets are special tools and machines Spies risk their lives They overcome challenges Challenges are hard tasks But it’s not easy being a girl spy Some people think spying is too dangerous for women Throughout history women have shown they’re brave They’re strong They’re smart The girl spies in this book rise to the top They paved the way for today’s girl spies Spies are more than just secret agents though Agents are officers They’re loyal They’re creative They’re problem solvers You just might have the qualities to be the next best spy Here’s to you and all the girl spies in our lives 3
4 chapter 1 CLASSIFIED BEST ALL-AROUND Agent 355
The Americans did not outfight us they out-spied us British soldier The Best All-Around award goes to Agent 355 Agent 355 was the best spy No one knows who she was Agent 355 was a code name Code names are secret names Agent 355 worked for George Washington She was part of his Culper Spy Ring Ring means group Agent 355 worked during the American Revolution This was the war for independence from England She discovered a traitor’s plans Traitors are people who betray their countries The British caught Agent 355 in 1780 People believe that she was taken on a prison ship Some say she had a baby boy on the ship They think she died on the ship We don’t really know what happened to her But we do know she’s one of the first American female spies 5
