Pair this intriguing historical novel with Sheinkin’s The Notorious Benedict Arnold (2010).” A glossary of eighteenth-century terms and an author’s note are appended. Working within the bounds of credibility, Avi manages to keep the fictional narrator on the scene for a good deal of the action and uses real moments to bring the imagined story to its dramatic heights. Few historical novels are as closely shaped by actual events as this one during the last 100 pages. * “The book’s riveting opening scene, in which Sophie watches as Nathan Hale is hanged as a spy, foreshadows the danger she knowingly accepts by engaging in espionage.

Master storyteller Avi shows exactly how personal politics can be in this “nail-biting thriller” ( Publishers Weekly) that is rich in historical detail and rife with action. And if she fails, she’s facing an execution of her own. But the identity of the would-be traitor is so shocking that no one believes her, and so Sophia decides to stop the treacherous plot herself, at great personal peril: She’s young, she’s a girl, and she’s running out of time. Through her work she becomes aware that someone in the American army might be switching sides, and she uncovers a plot that will grievously damage the Americans if it succeeds. Recruited as a spy, she becomes a maid in the home of General Clinton, the supreme commander of the British forces in America. Sophia is horrified by the event and resolves to do all she can to help the American cause. In 1776, young Sophia Calderwood witnesses the execution of Nathan Hale in New York City, which is newly occupied by the British army. Lives hang in the balance in this gripping Revolutionary War adventure from a beloved Newbery Medalist.

Sophia's War by Avi