CHERUB: The Recruit
"A terrorist doesn’t let strangers into her flat because they might be undercover police or intelligence agents, but her children bring their mates home and they run all over the place.
The terrorist doesn’t know that a kid has bugged every room in her house, cloned the hard drive on her PC, and copied all the numbers in her phone book.
The kid works for CHERUB.
CHERUB is not James Bond. There are no master criminals or high-tech gadgets. CHERUB kids live in the real world. They slip under adult radar and get information that sends criminals and terrorists to jail."
Welcome to the world of Cherub, a place where you can be inducted into the world of espionage from the age of six years old. Just imagine it, the only limit could be your imagination, proving your strength and bravery to your comrades.
Well, I hate to break it to you, but this book (or, should I say, series of books?) doesn't quite run like that. For those of you that are familiar with the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz (yes, THAT Horowitz), be prepared to see the tale take on a whole new spin.
This series sees 'kids' taken in off the streets (they only ever take in kids who are orphaned, or who are the children of ex-cherub agents who are happy for them to go) and given a variety of skills, which include combat training (of course) and training in two foreign languages, which the agents usually attain fluency in by the time they begin their basic training. The agents are also expcted to keep up with a fitness regime, and if possible, assist with teaching the younger children in the classrooms in a variety of subjects.
Anyway, 'The Recruit' follows twelve year old James Adams, who, after being a bit of a tearaway, ends up in a childrens home. It is here, that another CHERUB agent on an undercover mission finds him, and puts him forwards.
James finds himself thrown into what could almost be deemed an 'alternate universe', and struggles to adjust the the everyday rules and regulations that accompany the life of the agents, as well as overcome a few of his own personal obstacles along the way.
He finds a true comrade in Kerry Chang, his assigned partner for the hundred days basic training. Together, they storm through through the challenges set by the instructors, using teamwork, sneakery and pure stubbornness to pull them through.
I'm not going to spoil the plot for you, Im just going to say it's a very well written book, the pace never drops throughout, and, in comparison to the Alex Rider books (much as I love them), it seems more 'believable' in terms of character interaction and the general behaviour. That is to say, the kids act exactly so...like kids. Alex always seemed a bit too serious for me.
But don't just take my word for it, go check it out for yourself. They even let you read some of the stuff online, how cool is that!
