House of spies door Griselda Gifford

Summary

It’s wartime in Britain, so Pippa and her mother have to move from London to a little village at the coast of Britain. When an unexploded bomb falls next to their house, temporary they have to move to the local pub. Pippa is worried about her cat, Thomasina, because she’s still at their house. When she walks back to the pub from searching Thomasina, suddenly a pony comes around the corner. The boy on the pony says his name is Harry and he asks what she’s doing there. Pippa explains that she was searching for her cat, but the soldiers wouldn’t let her in. Harry and Pippa make an appointment for that evening to search for Thomasina and Harry’s goat, Auntie, which probably is there too.

That evening Harry and Pippa go to the house. They see someone running after Auntie and Harry follows them. Pippa doesn’t want to stay alone so she also runs after them. They are just around the corner when there’s a great explosion.

The cottage has to be rebuild, and that is going to take too long, they can’t stay so long in the pub.

Harry’s mother offers that they can stay with them, as long as needed. Pippa’s mother takes the offer so they go with them. There’s a lot to do on the farm so Pippa and her mother need to help a lot.

When the work is done, Harry asks if Pippa wants to go with him to find the boy who kidnapped Auntie. Pippa notices that Harry’s mother Harry ‘her’ and ‘Harriet’ calls, so Harry must be a girl.

When they arrive at the cottage where the boy lives, Harry asks him some questions and the boy, who’s called Max, tells that he doesn’t like animals tied up and that he wanted company. He also tells that he doesn’t want to go back to the cottage, because he thinks that Mr and Mrs Smith, the owners of the cottage, are German spies, originally called Schmidt. Pippa and Harry take him to the den of Harry’s sister, Mel. They promise Max that they will come back with food and candles.

The first time they come back, everything’s all right, and again they promise to come back with more food. When Pippa and Harry arrive home, Pippa goes to the hut where she and her mother sleep. She finds her mother crying and Pippa asks why, doesn't tell anything. Pippa catches the letter which her mother received from her father, and she scans it through. In the letter tells her father that he has fallen in love with someone else, Netta. Pippa is very angry and wishes that her father’s plane crashes and that he dies. She doesn’t have much time to think any further about it, because Harry’s calling her, they have to go to Max to bring him food.

When they arrive they hear people screaming. They find two boys, Harry recognises them, Spike and Benny, and inside the den they find Max tied up. Pippa unties Max and he flees from Spike and Benny.

Benny follows him on one of Harry’s horses. Later they find Benny, with an injured ankle. Pippa stays to help him, but Harry doesn’t want to help the enemy so she rides away. Pippa and Benny try to walk back to the village, when Harry comes back. Together they bring Benny to nurse Robinson.

In the meantime the whole village knows that Max is missing and they think the Smiths have something to do with this. No one trust them, they all think they are German spies. Everyone is against the Smiths and they have some meetings about them.

When Harry and Pippa are at Pippa’s cottage to search for Thomasina, they hear a strange noise from the inside of the house. When they take a look, they find Max. They want to bring him home, so that he can find out if the Smiths are really spies. First he doesn’t want to go, but Pippa and Harry convince him. First Max has to go to the lavatory and Pippa and Harry are waiting outside when Spike comes. He carries a gun and he wants to know where Max is. Harry says they haven’t seen him, but Spike doesn’t believe her so she walks inside to cottage. Pippa calls Max and they flee.

Pippa brings Max home and they make an appointment that evening so that Max can tell what he saw.

That evening they meet Max, but he hadn’t seen anything suspicious. Harry and Pippa don’t believe that they are spies anymore.

The next day Pippa’s mother receives a telegram, which tells them that Pippa’s father is missing, probably dead. Pippa feels guilty she wished her father dead.

Pippa and Harry decide that they have to warn the Smiths so they take the horses and ride to the cottage. Mrs Smith tells them to leave, but first they want to tell them that the PFC wants to get them out. When Pippa is telling that, she’s interrupted by the air-raid warning. Pippa and Harry run back to take a look at the sky and they see some German planes. They are dropping bombs and one of them hits the cottage, with the Smiths and Max in it. Mrs Smith and Max come out of the cottage, but Mr Smith locked himself up in his room. Pippa tries to save him because she still feels guilty about her father. The members of PFC come and say it’s too dangerous for Pippa to rescue him. Pippa climbs down and a PFC member climbs up.

They were too late, Mr Smith already died. Harry’s mother offers Mrs Smith and Max to stay at their farm and they accept.

Main characters

• Pippa – thirteen year old girl, first-person narrator
• Mum (Alice Armstrong) – the mother of Pippa
• Dad – the father of Pippa
• Harry – girl that Pippa stays with
• Max – eleven year old boy who lives with the Smiths
• Hans and Ulla Schmidt (Smith) – couple of which the village thinks they are spies

My opinion

First I didn’t like the book very much, but at the end I liked it. I wanted to know if the Smiths were spies or not, and I began sort of worrying about Max. What would happen to him if they were spies?

I didn’t like Harry very much. She wasn’t very sensitive and she was bossy to Pippa. I liked Pippa and Max the most, I could really sympathize with them.