Anthony Horowitz’s Secret Weapon is a collection of Alex Rider spy stories for 11 year olds, and the first one has him crawling through a mountain in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Alex is fourteen and his school is shut for at least another week. So he’s at home in Chelsea with a pile of homework and no lessons. Then Mrs Jones and Crawley from MI6 turn up at the door (they waited until Jack had gone out shopping).<\/p>\n
They want him to go to Afghanistan. A war photographer called Darcus Drake has turned terrorist and moved into an ancient fortress known as Falcon’s Edge. MI6 thinks there’s an old Soviet machine hidden in the mountain that could make uranium for nuclear bombs. They need photos to prove it.<\/p>\n
Why Alex? Because the only way in is through the ventilation pipes, and those are too narrow for a grown man.<\/p>\n
He tries to get out of it by listing every bit of homework he hasn’t done. It doesn’t work, obviously! Crawley makes everyone coffee in Alex’s kitchen and then grumbles that there aren’t any biscuits.<\/p>\n
That mix is what makes it so much fun. One minute Alex is cracking a joke at the men guiding him through the mountains. The next he’s squeezed into a metal pipe deep underground, fighting the urge to panic. If your reader hates tight spaces, those pages will make their palms sweat.<\/p>\n
Smithers, the cheerful gadget man at MI6, has kitted him out too. There are boots that work out how far he’s falling and a belt that fires out suction pads. Who wouldn’t want to try those down a six-hundred-foot air shaft? (Alex is a lot less keen.)<\/p>\n
It’s set early in his spying life, after his first two missions. This first story looks back at those quite a lot, and it gives away a little of how the second one ends. So it’s a much better read once your reader has already met Alex in the novels.<\/p>\n
It’s worth knowing there’s plenty of danger. There are guns everywhere and a lot of talk about terrorists and nuclear bombs. A deadly snake meets a spinning fan in one VERY gory moment, and Alex ends up with its blood on his face. If your reader is fine with that sort of thing in an action film, they’ll probably love it.<\/p>\n
If they haven’t started the series yet, go back to Stormbreaker. That’s where Alex finds out his uncle Ian wasn’t really a banker, and where MI6 first comes knocking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anthony Horowitz’s Secret Weapon is a collection of Alex Rider spy stories for 11 year olds, and the first one has him crawling through a mountain in Afghanistan. Alex is fourteen and his school is shut for at least another week. So he’s at home in Chelsea with a pile of homework and no lessons. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14743,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":10454,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Stormbreaker","lr_seo_hook":"Spy gadgets, a deadly viper and a scary drop down a mountain air shaft.","lr_series_id":234,"lr_series_name":"Alex Rider","lr_series_position":12,"lr_series_label":"","lr_author_order":"119"},"book_tag":[1050],"age_group":[28],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[119],"class_list":["post-14744","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-action-books","age_group-books-for-11-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-anthony-horowitz"],"yoast_title":"Secret Weapon by Anthony Horowitz | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Spy gadgets, a deadly viper and a scary drop down a mountain air shaft. For ages 11+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n