By Royal Command by Charlie Higson
Puffin, 2009.
(Ages 11+) Recommended. The fifth in
the series, Young James Bond, sees
James rescue one of
his
schoolmates from certain death on the slopes of the Austrian Alps,
where Miles,
an arrogant and disliked young man, falls after drinking before skiing.
James
puts himself at incredible risk to rescue him, and when the two are
hospitalized, James sees something he perhaps shouldn't have, a raving
von
Schlick prior to surgery. It is a few years before World War 2, and
Higson
includes the future king of England, Edward and Wallis Simpson along
with some nasty
Communist spies and Nazis to mix together an amazingly readable plot.
James
sees
von Schlik again in Miles' home, when his parents thank James for
rescuing
their son. Following him amongst the hallways, he stumbles upon Edward
and Mrs
Simpson, who are then joined by von Schlik and several other men. The
conversation turns to the sympathy shown by Edward towards Hitler, and
the
downturn of Britain's fortunes. James leaves and taking his aunt on a
tour of
the school for King George's birthday, realises that the huge load of
garden
fertilizer delivered to the school the day before, could be used as a
bomb to
kill the king, Edward's brother. Sure
to be a
hit with middle school readers By Royal
Command has all the elements of a gripping read. James is involved
in a
life and death plot, one which could change the course of history. His
cunning
and skills save the day of course, and along the way the brutes from
his school
get their just deserts. The episodes where James is abused at the hand
of the
older boy at school are tough to read, and recall Tom
Brown's Schooldays
and others in exposing the stupidity of the class system, and the
lessons he
learns from his experiences there certainly underpin the morality of
the spy,
James Bond in Ian Fleming's stories.
Fran Knight