{"id":5418,"date":"2016-03-15T19:24:33","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T19:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/?p=5418"},"modified":"2016-12-06T19:41:57","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T03:41:57","slug":"kids-writing-workshop-spies-and-secret-codes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/2016\/kids-writing-workshop-spies-and-secret-codes\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids’ Writing Workshop: Spies and Secret Codes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On Friday, February 11, kids between 8 and 12 came to Central Library to write stories about spies and encoded messages. First we read excerpts from a couple great stories involving codes: Ruby Redfort Take Your Last Breath<\/a> by Lauren Child, and The Spotted Dog Last Seen<\/a> by Jessica Scott. \u00a0Ruby Redfort is a code decryption genius, a kid hired by a super spy agency at the center of a series of middle grade spy novels. \u00a0The Spotted Dog Last Seen<\/em> is a book with a premise somewhat similar to Holes<\/em> by Louis Sachar, in which kids are doing manual labor for an unknown purpose. \u00a0The graveyard and the people who run it are a mystery to the kids.<\/p>\n

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I had these books set out on a cart along with other books like Spyology: The Complete Book of Spycraft<\/a> by Spencer Blake, Top Secret: A Handbook of Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing<\/a> by Paul Janeczko, and The Journal of Beatrix Potter<\/a>. I asked kids which one of these books didn’t belong; they said the Beatrix Potter one, of course.<\/p>\n

But it was a trick question \ud83d\ude09 I showed them that Beatrix Potter created her own code for writing her journal in, and gave them a copy of the code key, copied from the book. Then I had them decrypt some secret messages written in Beatrix Potter’s code. The secret messages were all spy-themed, and kids were asked to write a story about what the message means, what the spy’s mission is, and what the spy’s next steps will be.<\/p>\n

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Here are some videos of kids sharing their spy stories:<\/p>\n