EJ12 Girl Hero. Ciao EJ! #18 product reviews

Having just read an EJ Spy School book we were keen to read more about EJ. We were given EJ12 Girl Hero Ciao EJ to review. This was more suited to older readers than the Spy School books so Miss 4.5 and Miss 6 found it hard to follow. It would probably would have been easier if we had read the first book or two in the EJ Girl Hero series as even I had trouble working out who was who since EJ and her friend all had spy names as well as their real names.

Although it was beyond my girls and I gave up reading it to them I finished reading the book myself. I can see that this is a book that girls around eight years of age could really get hooked on just as I was addicted to Trixie Beldon and Famous Five books at that age. As an adult it took me just over an hour total of reading time so it wasn't too long and most readers would happily read a few chapters a night if they were able to put it down.

I really like the positive female role models the characters are. Almost all the characters (both goodies and baddies) were female. They took on traditional male roles of inventors, scientists and secret agents. Even the head of the SHINE agency was a woman. As a parent that teaches my children the gender is no restriction it is great to see a series of books that actively promotes it.

I will be keeping this book for my girls to read in the a few years time and be adding more EJ books to the collection.

My Miss Seven loves the EJ books. She has enjoyed reading the EJ12 series and loves all of Emma Jacks adventures. She frequently gives me a random pages of Morse and other code that I have to crack which is surely an essential skill for all budding spies! I love that she has learnt this skill from reading this series.

Of this latest adventure of Emma Jacks Miss Seven writes "Ciao EJ12 is very good. I liked the part when EJ12 found out that the Diana statues had all been sprayed black with spray paint. I liked the front cover with the pictures because it is colorful. "

Miss Seven really did enjoy this book and loved all the codes in it as well as learning a bit about Italy and its different cities. I also liked this as I felt the information is written at a level that really works for the age group this book is aimed at. There is a good mix of "spy stuff " such as the code cracking and sleuthing as well as geographical information and this is nicely woven in with normal early teen drama's around friendships and secrets. I also liked the theme in this story of "there are two sides to every coin".

If you have enjoyed other EJ 12 Girl Hero or Spy adventures then you will enjoy this and if you haven't then give this book a try. This is yet another great read of Emma Jacks adventures and we both can't wait for book #19 to find out if Nema really is who she appears to be......