Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case

Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case, by Mordecai Richler, is a silly school caper for 9 year olds about the littlest boy in a big family who makes friends with the spy next door.

What happens

Jacob Two-Two is eight and the youngest of five. He says everything twice because nobody listens the first time. His big brothers and sisters think he's a nuisance, and he's pretty sure he never gets anything right.

Then three things happen in one day. A wiry old man in a pith helmet moves in next door with crates of carrier pigeons and a trunk marked SECRET CODES. His card says he's a master spy. At school the gentle headmaster retires and in comes Mr Greedyguts, a former prison warden. And the school lunches are handed to Perfectly Loathsome Leo Louse, a miser who plays nasty tricks on Jacob at Dad's poker nights.

The lunches are VILE (soup made by pouring hot water over a carrot, anyone?). Meanwhile Mr Greedyguts tucks into steak and banana splits at the top table. Jacob's parents think he's exaggerating. So he takes his problem to Mr Dinglebat next door.

It's pure silliness to read. Mr Dinglebat talks almost entirely in wordplay (he once had a bath in Turkey and ate turkey in Bath). He floats up to his window on a balloon and leaves secret messages in a tree. And Jacob's revenge on Leo Louse, a card trick worked over the phone at the poker table, is SO satisfying.

There's real warmth under the jokes too. Jacob is frightened before the big trick, and his friend tells him no secret agent worth the name ever went into action without being scared. Who hasn't felt like the smallest person in the room?

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Some of the humour is very much of its time. Mr Greedyguts is described mostly by how fat he is (and he's sorry Chinese water torture is now banned). Dad jokes about his whisky. Leo Louse is a family friend who flicks Jacob's nose and tells him he's being swapped for a girl. None of it is dwelt on, but it's worth a chat if anything jars.

If your reader likes a cartoonish grown-up to boo at and a small hero who gets one over on him, this is a lot of fun.

What to read next

For more of the same noisy family, try Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur. Jacob's parents fly off on safari to Kenya and leave the children with the perfectly horrid Aunt Good-For-You, and the title tells you where things are heading.