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Orphan Monster Spy
by: Emma Zelasko
Summary
A blond haired and blue eyed fifteen year old girl named Sarah is on the run from the Nazis in the Third Reich-ruled Germany after her mom is shot and killed at a checkpoint. While trying to escape Sarah meets a mysterious man with a unidentifiable accent, and empty apartment, and lockbox full of weapons. She takes shelter with him to find out that he is a British spy who is trying to figure out the Nazi’s plans. He asks her a favour, to infiltrate an elite boarding school that is attended by the daughters of the Nazi elite.
Sarah accepts his mission and is to hide in plain sight. She must become friends with the daughter of a key scientists to gain access to blueprints of a bomb and steal them, as they could destroy cities of Western Europe.
Sarah may look like all the other girls, young, innocent, blond haired, and blue eyed but she protests to become like the monsters she is surrounded by. Even though she is living with the fear of being identified she is a bright con artist as she convinces them she is one of them. She is determined to get her vengeance on all of them for what they have done.
Setting
Setting
1939 Germany during World War II. The story starts in a car while Sarah and her mother are trying to escape Germany. The second prominent setting is Captain Floyd’s hotel apartment. The third most prominent place is the school and lastly Elsa Schafer’s house.
Sarah
Main character, spy, actrous, becomes Ursula Haller, called Sarahchen by her mother. Sarah is a round and dynamic character as there is many sides to her and she has changed a lot throughout the book.
Characters
Captain Floyd
He's a British spy and Sarah's saviour. He becomes Herr Haller. He is a round character as he becomes many different people within the story.
Ice Queen
Leader of a group of monsters (girls), school mate to Sarah. She is a flat character as we don’t know very much about her.
Elsa Schafer
Friend of the Ice queen and the one who Sarah is supposed to be friend to get blueprints, schoolmate of Sarah. She is a dynamic character because she helps her dad take advantage of girls but ends up killing him because she knows its wrong.
Stumbannfuhrer Foch
A teacher at the school who makes Sarah play the piano for him as it reminds him of someone. He is a flat character.
Gretel
Daughter to Foch who used to play piano for him, but he had to kill her as she had a disability which we would call Down Syndrome these days. She is a flat character.
Mouse
Sarah’s friend at the school, a spy for her father as he works in making the schools better. Schoolmate of Sarah’s. She is a static character because her views on life never changed.
Fraulein Langefeld
A teacher at the boarding school who is known for being very violent with the students. She is a flat character.
Mutti
Sarah’s mother, a round character as we hear what Sarah thinks she would say to her during the story even though she is dead.
Hans Schafer
Father to Elsa and is a scientist for the Germans, he is a very generous and understanding person as he expects something out of the girls his daughter brings home for him. He is a stock character and would be considered the mad scientist.
Stern
Young SS guard who helps Sarah get a horse out of mud while trying to direct them away from hurt Captain Floyd. He is a flat character.
Lise Meitner
A spy and scientist that Captain Floyd know.
Point of View
The point of view switches between first and third person, as sometimes she will tell the story from her point of view but then there is also someone who we don't know telling her story too.
Narrative/ Point of view
Language
In the book there is a few different fonts that are used. The normals text is talking about the present time. The italicized letters are what her mother might be telling her if she was in that situation and still alive, the thin writing is either dreams or flashbacks and the typewriter style represents letter she is receiving. The writing that is supposed to be the mother’s is very cold, uncaring and demanding. Throughout the story she switches between English, German, Jewish and a little Czech.
literary Device #1
Literary Devices
The stick that Fraulein Langefeld uses to beat the children is a symbol of power as all of them are afraid of Langefeld until Sarah purposely lets her beat her to show everyone that the pain doesn't scare her. Sarah steps in when Langefeld is about to hit Mouse with the stick and tells her not to. The stick is broken in half and Langefeld is sent away with all her stuff to never come back to the school.
Conflict
Imagery
#2
The River Run is a symbol of her determination and not to conform to fit in. If everyone was to be the same the world would be very boring and dull.
#3
Another symbol is the axe that she uses to escape from the lab which she sets on fire. This is a symbol of freedom from the school and hiding.
Metaphor/ Simile #1
Metaphors/ Similes
One metaphor in the story that is used is when Sarah compares herself to the box where she stores all her emotions, and how is used to be small like a jewelry box but now has gotten larger to the size of a traveling trunk.
#2
Another metaphor is used while Sarah is laying on the roof of a building watching the zeppelin passover head thinking it was like a wolf in a poorly made set of woolen robes because they had cover the swastikas with paint but you could still see them.
#3
Another metaphor that was used was “All the world's a stage, and all the man and women merely players.” on pg 83. This is said when the caption and Sarah are talking about Sarah (a Jew) is playing on going to a Nazi party school.
Conflict #1
One conflict is person against society as the germans don’t like the the jewish people and have prejudice against them.
#2
The second conflict within the story is person against self this is shown as she has her mother talking in her head trying to help her act and herself in her head too saying if she should do what her mother is telling her to or not.
Imagery
From the very first page we are introduced to the imagery of the book. The narrator says “Finally, the car came to a stop. Which difficulty, Sarah opened her eyes, blinked to clear her vision, and looked up from her hiding place in the footwell. Her mother was slumped in the driver’s seat, her head against the top of the steering wheel. She was gazing through the spokes to where Sarah crouched her mother’s eyes were almost the same, wide and pretty. Her pupils were so big Sarah could nearly see herself in them. But now they seemed dull. Her mother was no longer in there. Sarah reached out, but something hot dripped onto her hand, and she snached it back. Her palm was bright red next to her white fingers.”
Theme
Theme
The theme I chose for this novel is things don't look as they always seem. I chose this because everyone in the book had a backstory which they are trying to fight themselves. Shara is trying to fight the battle of not being caught and her mother in her head giving her acting advice. Elsa is trying to fight herself as she shoots her father because he made her bring him girls that he can sexualy harrass and Mouse is fighting the thought of being sexually harassed by Elsa’s dad as we find her name on his list near the end of the book.
Quote #1
Quotes
I chose the quote “ Art is a lie that make you realize the truth.” on page 105. I chose this quote because in dance you wear costumes, makeup, and do their hair but you can really see how the person feels underneath all of it thought their dancing. You can sense if they are scared, happy, mad, or completely in sync with themselves. You can also see how someone is feeling through a sports performance or piano performance.
#2
I chose the quote “ I’m the perfect little monster already.” on page 203. I chose this because many people wear a mask to try to get people to like them and so they don't get hurt. We don't always know who they really are but just a fragment of who they are. This also tells me that people act different around different people.
#3
The third quote I chose is “Pretty. Fresh. Full. Warm. Comfortable. Safe. Sarah allowed herself to bask in the moment. Just for a second. Then she took that moment and tidied it away for safekeeping. She now had two new boxes.” on page 402. I chose this quote because it shows how Sarah has been able to find some happiness in the face of such evil time. This shows me that even through the rough times everyone is able to get through it if they are willing to fight for the happier times.
Biography of the Author
The author of Orphan Monster Spy is Matt Killeen and he was born in Birmingham UK in the 70s. His mothers best friend was German and he spent most of his summers with her family, they were not allowed to play any games with guns or war. As he got older he learned more about segregation and the horrors of the Nazi’s. This is where his idea for Orphan Monster Spy came from as it interested him so much.
Everybody's Fool By: Evanescence
Song
The theme being expressed in both the song and the novel is nothing is as it seems. For example in the video the girl is putting on a show for everyone but it isn't who she is and in the book Elsa is putting in a show that she is perfect and her family is perfect but her dad is really a pedophile and makes her get innocent girls for him. Sarah is also putting on a show for all the people at the school by trying to be German and strong like the other girls.