Spying on spies : how Elizebeth Smith Friedman broke the Nazis' secret codes
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

From bestselling and award-winning author-illustrator Marissa Moss, praised for her accessible blend of narrative nonfiction with graphic novel-style chapter openers in The Woman Who Split the Atom: The Life of Lise Meitner, comes another fascinating story of a groundbreaking woman in STEM. One of the founders of U.S. cryptology who would eventually become one of the world's greatest code breakers, Elizebeth Smith Friedman (1892-1980) was a brilliant mind behind many important battles throughout the 20th century, saving many lives through her intelligence and heroism. She became the Treasury Department's and Coast Guard's first female codebreaker and created her own top-notch codebreaking unit, where she trained and led many male colleagues. During Prohibition of the 1920's, her work solving and intercepting coded messages from mobsters and criminal gangs lead to hundreds of high-profile criminal prosecutions, including members of Al Capone's gang. Her crowning achievement came during World War II, when Elizbeth uncovered an intricate network of Nazi spies operating in South America, a feat that neither law enforcement nor intelligence agencies had been able to accomplish. Despite her unparalleled accomplishments, she was largely written out of history books and overshadowed by her husband. Only in very recent years has her name begun to receive the attention it deserves, including the U.S. Coast Guard naming a ship in her honor and the U.S. Senate passing a 2019 resolution to honor her life and legacy.--,Provided by publisher.

Ages 10 to 14.,Abrams Books for Young Readers.