Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls) by Ally Carter
When your average girl wonders what a boy is really like, she and her friends will maybe ask around among brothers and lab partners, or even, if he is majorly good-looking, try to trail him around town on a Saturday morning. But the girls of the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women do things differently. They have access to top-secret files. They have been trained to disguise themselves for covert operations. They know how to read the slightest hints drawn from a person's body language. When they get curious about something, there's very little chance it will stay hidden. But now their skills are really being put to the test. Cammie's room-mate Macey, the daughter of a senator on the campaign trail, has been attacked. It will take everything her friends have learned, and more, to protect her and solve the mysteries which surround them.
| Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls) by Ally Carter | |
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| Category: Teens | |
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Reviewer: Linda Lawlor
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| Summary: In this third outing for the Gallagher Girls, girl-spy-in-training Cammie and her school-mates have to deal with political activists, secret societies and, of course, mysterious but seriously cute boys! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 304 | Date: January 2011 |
| Publisher: Orchard | |
| ISBN: 978-1408309537 | |
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The Gallagher Girls series is proving very popular on both sides of the Atlantic, with its combination of smart, funny girls, kick-ass action and romance. The girls have been chosen for their extraordinary gifts, and their school day is just as likely to involve a trip to a political rally to spot and observe the Secret Service in action as it is to learn one of the fourteen languages they are required to use at meal-times. Their teachers, and some of their parents, are active spies: making sure the mums and dads who have no idea what their daughters are really being taught are kept in the dark is simply one of the tasks they have to undertake. The students are a sisterhood, founded a hundred years before by a woman who realised girls, as well as boys, had to be trained to save the world from evil of various sorts, and for many of them their first loyalty will always be to the school and each other.
The girls are courageous and resourceful, and their training allows them to move in any circle of society with ease. But they are still teenagers, studying in the hothouse environment of a single-sex boarding school, and the ways of boys intrigue and perplex them. Much of the light-hearted fun which fills these books comes from this, and is an excellent counter-balance to the violence, injury and fear they encounter as they struggle to protect their friend. Romance is doubly hard for them because they have to conceal so much about themselves and their daily lives, but what there is never strays beyond a brief, chaste kiss. Confident readers at the upper end of the age-range will probably enjoy this as much as their older sisters.
This book is a little more serious and introspective than the previous two. There are still plenty of eccentric teachers and girly gossip sessions, but Cammie is growing up and she spends more time wondering about the world of spies and what she and her friends have lost by accepting this life. Constant secrecy will prevent any kind of real relationship with anyone apart from other spies. Danger and the possibility of death will always dog them: Cammie's own father was killed in circumstances she does not yet understand. She and Macey are both badly injured in a botched kidnap attempt, and the scars this leaves are not only physical: they can never be ordinary girls, never relax and take a day off, for the rest of their lives.
Still, the overriding feeling in this book is joyous, exuberant girlhood lived to the full. It depends a little too much on familiarity with the previous books, and there are plenty of questions left unanswered at the end to fill the three more books planned for the series, but it is a book well worth reading, not least for the girl-power/Buffy-style message it imparts. Girls can be martial arts experts, brilliant hackers and extraordinary linguists, but still live life to the full and have a lot of fun on the way. And there's not a single werewolf or vampire in sight.
Many thanks to Orchard Books for sending us this delicious book.
Further reading suggestion: For more stories about strong, fearless girls with a sense of fun, you could try Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No. 1: Night of the Living Rerun; Coyote Moon; Portal Through Time by John Vornholt, Arthur Byron Cover and Alice Henderson. And although Halo, the Ancient Greek heroine of the thrilling book of the same name by Zizou Corder, might lack Buffy and Cammie's sense of humour, she'd have no difficulties otherwise with the entrance requirements for Gallagher's Academy.
Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls Series in Chronological Order
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You can read more book reviews or buy Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls) by Ally Carter at Amazon.com.
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