Max in the House of Spies Review by the Bill. This post contains affiliate links, you can find out more on our policies page or in the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog. 

Know Before You Read

Book: Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II
Author: Adam Gidwitz
Publication Date: February 27, 2024
Pages: 320
Reading Age: 10 and up

Max in the House of Spies Summary 

The title character, Max Bretzfeld, begins our book in 1939 Germany. The world is sealed off to the immigration of Jewish adults, but the Kindertransport program is taking Jewish children abroad. Max is sent to England (with two unexpected guests). His one goal is to return, and the best way to do that may be as a British spy. Adam Gidwitz is an award-winning author of Middle Grade and Children’s fiction. This is the first book in a two-book series. I give it five stars, although I am a bit conflicted. Let’s dive into it.

Max in the House of Spies Review

The book has a central theme – Max wants to go back to Germany. Along the way, the method to accomplish this becomes for Max to be a British spy. There are several sub-themes.

Max is a genius, especially when it comes to building radios. He is eleven when the story begins, and his parents are sending him to England. As Max arrives at the boat, he is surprised to learn he now has two immortal creatures living on his shoulders, a kobold and a dybbuk named Berg and Stein. They provide some commentary and comic relief.

Max is sent to live with a Jewish family, and in one of the subplots is surprised to learn that antisemitism is pervasive in the private school he attends with the family’s children (this subplot, antisemitism in England, shows up in several places. Racism is also referenced). 

Max has one goal – to get back to his parents in Berlin. Ewen Montague, the brother of the family he is with, works for Naval Intelligence. Max comes up with a plan – if he becomes a spy he can go back to Berlin…

It’s a good story. Gidwitz has several pages of documentation in the back and a select bibliography for further research. In places it is brutally realistic about antisemitism. It also makes no bones about espionage/spying being about deceit. 

Max in the House of Spies Discussion Questions

1. There will inevitably be questions about antisemitism. How much has changed since 1939-1940 London? Is it still an issue?
2. What do you think about Berg and Stein? How do they help the story?
3. What did you learn about being a spy?
4. Which of the people at Tring Park do you like the best and why?
5. Emax had to do a lot of different things in his training. What things that he did would you find to be easy? Which ones are hard?

Thanks for reading our Max in the House of Spies Review. For more content, check out our Piece by Piece Quotes and Review

Read Reel Reviews and this Max in the House of Spies Review use affiliate links. We only link products we think you’ll like and you are never charged extra for them. All images used in this post were either original designs from Canva or used from media kits We also use cookies to gather analytics and present advertisements. Find our other reviews with discussion questions here.