Agent Most Wanted

Starred review from July 1, 2022
Grades 5-9 *Starred Review* In the late 1930s, Virginia Hall was a free-spirited young woman who had studied in Paris and Vienna before beginning a career in diplomatic service at U.S. embassies abroad, performing mainly secretarial duties. She was capable of much more. When WWII began, she became an ambulance driver for a French regiment, but a special-operations branch of British intelligence hired her to gather information about German operations in Vichy France. She was uncommonly successful at eluding the enemy. Smart and resourceful, she would ultimately identify local French resistance groups, arrange for the British to supply them with arms, and direct secret operations against German forces. While Hall's cover as a credentialed American journalist provided some protection from the Gestapo, her courage, her ingenuity, and the loyalty of her allies were more vital. The young people's edition of Purnell's acclaimed A Woman of No Importance (2019), this riveting biography provides the framework of Hall's life, concentrating on the war years and her phenomenal ability to fade into the background while gathering intelligence, communicating with the British, and undermining German control within occupied France. Young readers intrigued by espionage during World War II will find this a well-researched, smoothly written, and completely riveting account of Hall's experiences.

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Starred review from October 28, 2022

Gr 5-7-Purnell adapts her bestselling A Woman of No Importance for a younger crowd in this gripping nonfiction work that reads like a spy thriller. Virginia Hall was known throughout her life by many names. She was Dindy to her family, Marie Monin to the French Resistance, and (because of her prosthetic leg) the "Limping Lady of Lyon" to Hitler's Gestapo and Abwehr secret police forces, but for many years, she was no one to most of the world, the true weight of her role in World War II unknown. Strong-willed Dindy's family was not surprised that she was unwilling to settle for a life as a housewife. After running off to France to escape a fianc�, Virginia came back to the States, went to college, and set her sights on a career as a diplomat. Though she never rose above a secretarial position in the deeply sexist state department, she worked in Europe as Hitler rose to power. Refusing to sit idly by, Virginia joined the fight, first as a volunteer ambulance driver in France and then, through some chance encounters, as the only U.S. citizen on the British spy force. The Brits trained her in spycraft and guerrilla war tactics, her primary objective being to recruit, train, arm, and maintain a French resistance behind enemy lines. The account of her many exploits is wonderfully written and made even more phenomenal by her determination. Readers will walk away inspired. VERDICT A first purchase where WWII history and riveting tales of adventure are popular.-Abby Bussen

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 15, 2022
An essential player in the French Resistance was an American woman. In this young readers' edition of A Woman of No Importance (2019), Purnell relates how Virginia Hall, from a once-moneyed Baltimore family, was a natural leader among her peers who was fond of riding and hunting. Hall found herself thwarted in pursuing a career that didn't sideline her because of gender. In a civilian assignment with the British Special Operations Executive, she trained as a spy and went to France in 1941. There, she gathered and relayed intelligence about the occupying Nazis and identified, organized, trained, and outfitted French citizens opposed to the complicit Vichy government. The narrative, pitched to middle-grade readers, follows Hall closely, providing just enough fully documented, concisely delivered information about the settings and circumstances of the Resistance to deliver a real sense of the danger and isolation faced by its subject. Well-chosen, key moments convey Hall's reliance on both luck and her own instincts, her quick thinking, her immense skill at assessing perilous situations, and her frank courage. A timeline and maps might have been useful, but this close-up look at the Nazi occupation of France--and the Resistance--will undoubtedly encourage further exploration. That Hall had a prosthetic lower leg she called Cuthbert makes even more dramatic her hike over the Pyrenees to escape from Nazi pursuers. A captivating account of a remarkable woman. (source notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

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