The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

 When Lizzie's mother goes missing in Poland in 1939, and is presumed dead, Lizzie refuses to believe it.  She is sure her mother is still alive, and defies her American grandmother's attempts to bring her to the relative safety of Cleveland. Instead Lizzie seeks out her 19 year old brother, Jakob, who has been recruited to work at the top secret Bletchley Park as a codebreaker. While Jakob tries to unlock the secret of hacking the Enigma Machine, Lizzie continues her relentless pursuit of the truth of her mother's disappearance, even when evidence seems to suggest that Lizzie's mother is not at all what they thought she was. 

I was excited to listen to this book primarily because of the authors.  Sepetys wrote some of the most popular historical fiction books in our library, and Sheinkin has written some of my favorite nonfiction books for middle grade readers. Perhaps, because of my high expectations, this turned out to be a little underwhelming. Don't get me wrong, it was a good book and I would definitely recommend it to middle grade readers interested in World War II, but it felt like two characters put into a historical story, instead of two real people living it. Lizzie was a bit too perky, and Jakob a bit to, I don't know, big-brotherly. They didn't seem to have realistic emotions. It was all to gung-ho, and upbeat. They didn't deal with the real horrors and  heartbreaks of losing a parent while facing foreign invasion. It may have just been the choice of reader, but I don't think so. I guess it was emotionally appropriate for the age group, but I can't help but compare it to The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubanker Bradley. That book was also written for middle grade readers, but Bradley had to courage to deal with the real raw emotions the setting demanded. (2024, 400)