Bibliographic data
Carter, Ally. I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You. New York:
Hyperion, 2006. ISBN 9781423100041
Critical analysis
This story follows Cammie who attends Gallagher, a school for extremely gifted girls. Girl spies run very few in the mystery/adventure world, especially those with genius IQs and that can assassinate someone using a spaghetti noodle.
Cammie is dealing with her mother being the head mistress of the Gallagher house. Cammie’s father was killed in a covert operation, which is also difficult for her to deal with because many instructors and other VIPs she meets send along their condolences.
Carter’s book is not full of “girl-power” and fluff. These young women are smart and witty. However, Carter does not reach the heights of more popular Young Adult authors that write adventure stories for other females. The Gallagher house is full of secret passageways, hidden rooms, secret gadgets, and CSI/FBI/CIA-type of classes. Some of these descriptions remind readers of a Hogwarts-type environment, such as the group house with different passageways.
When Cammie meets a cute boy she handles the situation as any normal girl would…a normal Gallagher girl, that is. Cammie and her friends wire tap his house, dig through his trash, hacks into his email accounts, and finds out anything else that the can using their skills they’ve learned in the Covert Operations class. Despite her intelligence and familial ties to the Gallaghers, Cammie struggles to find her true self outside of the house, staff, and cohort. Cammie feels a stereotype about outsiders just as outsiders have a stereotype pegged on the Gallagher girls.
This story is a great adventure for readers to enjoy. It has many aspects that young girls will appreciate. The novel is easy and fun to read, filled with witty humor, typical teenage-girl conversations but mixed with a secret agent attitude.
Excerpt:
Report of trash taken from the home of Josh Abrams
Number of empty cardboard toilet paper rolls: 2
Preferred variety of canned soup: tomato (followed closely by Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom).
Number of empty Ben & Jerry’s containers: 3 – two mint chocolate cookie, one plain vanilla. (Who buys plain vanilla ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s, anyway? Is there a greater waste?)
Number of Pottery Barn catalogs: 14 (No items marked or otherwise identified, even though the Windsor Washable Throw Pillows were on sale and appeared to be quite a bargain.) – (p. 124-5).
Practical suggestion
This novel would be fun to get some classmates together and have them create a book talk video for a class assignment. It could be in a “James Bond” type theme.
Follow up with readings of the rest of the series:
Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover
External assessments
http://www.allycarter.com/
http://www.allycarter.com/blog.html
Awards
Carter, Ally. I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You. New York:
Hyperion, 2006. ISBN 9781423100041
Critical analysis
This story follows Cammie who attends Gallagher, a school for extremely gifted girls. Girl spies run very few in the mystery/adventure world, especially those with genius IQs and that can assassinate someone using a spaghetti noodle.
Cammie is dealing with her mother being the head mistress of the Gallagher house. Cammie’s father was killed in a covert operation, which is also difficult for her to deal with because many instructors and other VIPs she meets send along their condolences.
Carter’s book is not full of “girl-power” and fluff. These young women are smart and witty. However, Carter does not reach the heights of more popular Young Adult authors that write adventure stories for other females. The Gallagher house is full of secret passageways, hidden rooms, secret gadgets, and CSI/FBI/CIA-type of classes. Some of these descriptions remind readers of a Hogwarts-type environment, such as the group house with different passageways.
When Cammie meets a cute boy she handles the situation as any normal girl would…a normal Gallagher girl, that is. Cammie and her friends wire tap his house, dig through his trash, hacks into his email accounts, and finds out anything else that the can using their skills they’ve learned in the Covert Operations class. Despite her intelligence and familial ties to the Gallaghers, Cammie struggles to find her true self outside of the house, staff, and cohort. Cammie feels a stereotype about outsiders just as outsiders have a stereotype pegged on the Gallagher girls.
This story is a great adventure for readers to enjoy. It has many aspects that young girls will appreciate. The novel is easy and fun to read, filled with witty humor, typical teenage-girl conversations but mixed with a secret agent attitude.
Excerpt:
Report of trash taken from the home of Josh Abrams
Number of empty cardboard toilet paper rolls: 2
Preferred variety of canned soup: tomato (followed closely by Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom).
Number of empty Ben & Jerry’s containers: 3 – two mint chocolate cookie, one plain vanilla. (Who buys plain vanilla ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s, anyway? Is there a greater waste?)
Number of Pottery Barn catalogs: 14 (No items marked or otherwise identified, even though the Windsor Washable Throw Pillows were on sale and appeared to be quite a bargain.) – (p. 124-5).
Practical suggestion
This novel would be fun to get some classmates together and have them create a book talk video for a class assignment. It could be in a “James Bond” type theme.
Follow up with readings of the rest of the series:
Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover
External assessments
http://www.allycarter.com/
http://www.allycarter.com/blog.html
Awards
2007-2008 Texas Lone Star Reading List Book
2007-2008 Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers
2007 Amelia Bloomer List
School Library Journal
Subplots include Cammie's relationship with her mother–the headmistress at Gallagher–and her grief over the loss of her father, who died while on a spying assignment. The teen's double life leads to some amusing one-liners, and the invented history of the Gallagher Girls is also entertaining, but the story is short on suspense. The stakes never seem very high since there are no real villains, and the cutesy dialogue quickly becomes grating. However, the novel has been optioned for a film and will likely attract readers who enjoy lighthearted, frothy tales and squeaky-clean romances. Unfortunately, it lacks the warmth and appeal of other teen books turned into movies, such as Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries (HarperCollins, 2000) and Ann Brashares's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
VOYA
Think Alias meets Gilmore Girls. The causal explanation for the complex inner workings of the secretive Gallagher Academy and the diversity of the group inside its walls make a unique and enjoyable setting. The characters and their relationships, including Cammie's mother-Headmistress of the Gallagher Academy-propel this story beyond just being an action-packed novel into something special. The promise of a second Gallagher Girl book is the promise of good times to come.
School Library Journal
Subplots include Cammie's relationship with her mother–the headmistress at Gallagher–and her grief over the loss of her father, who died while on a spying assignment. The teen's double life leads to some amusing one-liners, and the invented history of the Gallagher Girls is also entertaining, but the story is short on suspense. The stakes never seem very high since there are no real villains, and the cutesy dialogue quickly becomes grating. However, the novel has been optioned for a film and will likely attract readers who enjoy lighthearted, frothy tales and squeaky-clean romances. Unfortunately, it lacks the warmth and appeal of other teen books turned into movies, such as Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries (HarperCollins, 2000) and Ann Brashares's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
VOYA
Think Alias meets Gilmore Girls. The causal explanation for the complex inner workings of the secretive Gallagher Academy and the diversity of the group inside its walls make a unique and enjoyable setting. The characters and their relationships, including Cammie's mother-Headmistress of the Gallagher Academy-propel this story beyond just being an action-packed novel into something special. The promise of a second Gallagher Girl book is the promise of good times to come.
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