Abby's Book Review: Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz   

          Imagine if you suddenly were asked to be a spy, right now in Middle School. Imagine that you learned your uncle was killed in a car accident. Imagine that you find out that your uncle wasn't killed in a car accident, but was killed while returning home from a mission.

     A spy mission.

     This is what fourteen year old Alex Rider goes through in Anthony Horowitz's 234 paged Stormbreaker. After he discovers his uncle is dead, he gets a bit suspicious. He knew his uncle was a safe driver. So Alex goes and finds his uncle's car and finds bullet holes in it. After a very exciting adventure at the junk yard, Alex visits Royal and General Bank, where his uncle, Ian Rider worked. He is visiting the manager, Alan Blunt. But he soon learns there is no Royal and General Bank, and that it's just a cover. That's when Alex finds out his uncle was a spy, and that he, Alex, needed to take his uncle's place.

          Given almost no choice but to be a spy, Alex, under the direction of chief of MI6, Alan Blunt, heads out to train. The training proves to be very difficult and Alex struggles at the camp of full grown fit men. But soon enough he's leaving there to go to Port Tallon. Alex is going undercover as a boy who won a contest to visit the place. His name is Felix Lester. He is investigating a man named Herod Sayle, who is making high tech, advanced computers called Stormbreakers, and giving them as a gift to all the schools in England. He says it's a gift for the Prime Minister, whom he went to school with when he was a kid. MI6 is suspicious of Sayle for several reasons.

     Using cool gadgets and going through life- threatening adventures, Alex discovers the truth about Herod Sayle and his computers.

     I think a powerful moment in this story is when Alex becomes a spy. Like I said, Alex was pretty much forced to become a spy, and he really doesn't want to be one. However, I think that by the end of the story, Alex almost enjoyed his mission. This is also like the start of the whole adventure that Alex goes through.

     I really liked this book because I LOVE spy stuff. Alex gets to use cool gadgets and has awesome, yet dangerous adventures. And since Alex is fourteen, you can relate to his teen years and really feel what he experiences through the mission. Also, this book makes you feel like you can do stuff like this. (No, I am not saying you should go and get a job with the FBI right now.) But you see Alex figure out problems and it makes you feel like if Alex can do a mission, you can solve problems too.

     I recommend this book because it's adventure packed and you won't want to put it down. I said to my family quite a bit, "This chapter is so cliff hangerish!" Teens can feel the thrill of being a spy and will be compelled to read more. 

     This book was awesome and I really think you should read it!

" That's why it's essential for us to send someone else to Port Tallon. Someone to continue where your uncle left off."

Alex smiled queasily. "I hope you're not looking at me."

~Stormbreaker

~Stormbreaker