141. Gallagher Girls Book : Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Cater

Gallagher Girls Book : Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter
Published March 2012 Lothian Children's Books

From the publisher: The last thing Cammie Morgan remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family from the Circle of Cavan - an ancient terrorist organisation that has been hunting her for over a year. Then Cammie wakes up in an Alpine convent and discovers that months have passed. Her memory is a black hole, and the only traces of Cammie s summer holiday are the bruises on her body and dirt under her nails. All she wants is to go home, but once she returns to school, Cammie realises that even the Gallagher Academy holds more questions than answers. Now, Cammie, her friends, and mysterious spy-guy Zach will face their most difficult challenge yet. With only their training to guide them, the group must travel to the other side of the world, hoping to piece together the clues that Cammie left behind. But the Circle is hot on their trail and will stop at nothing to prevent Cammie from remembering what she did last summer.

I read the first Gallagher Girl when it came out some years ago, but I had not read the subsequent books.  Not because I didn't like the first book, because I loved it, more because I never got around to it, I knew what the books were about, the content, who they would be good for, so from a professional point of view I didn't NEED to read the others...and with time being so limited and the number of books published being so exhaustive...it didn't happen.  This is book 5, and I did have my reservations about reading it, when I have missed the three in the middle.  

So, does the book work as a stand alone title?  I think it does.  Yes there are obviously events that have taken place that have lead to this point, events that I know nothing about, but when I thought about it, most books start in the middle of someone's story, we as readers piece together what we need to know based on what is told in the story we are reading. I am sure that the references made in the book would have made more sense to me had I read the others, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment.

Cammie wakes up in a convent in Austria, he last memory is leaving Gallagher Academy at the beginning of summer...and that was months ago.  This book focuses on figuring out where she was, what she was doing there and what happened to her.  Because SOMETHING happened to her, Cammie may not remember anything, but she feels like a stranger in her own body, and she finds herself doing things that the old Cammie wouldn't do...like shoot a man.

I won't give too much away, as I am sure the fans out there don;t need or want any spoilers.  For those of you that aren't familiar with the series at all, it's about the Gallagher Academy, which the outside world sees as a prestigious school for girls.  What actually goes on behind closed doors, is a very different story, Gallagher Academy is a school for spies...girl spies.  This series is  like a little miracle in the field of 'books for girls'  I am finding that primary school libraries are struggling to find things for their girls to read, and by that I mean things that they are happy to have on the shelves,  that girls want to read.  Many primary school aged girls are reading quite sophisticated books aimed more at the 13+ market, and many schools have certain selection criteria which doesn't allow for these books to be in their school library.  I am happy to say that the girls I meet are all avid public library users, so they are reading, but it would be nice for them to utilise their school library too.  This is where a series like Gallagher girls comes in.  The characters are in high school, the story lines are character based and the relationship between the characters is a strong element in the books, and there are boys.  The 'boy' aspect is pretty tame, kissing is as far as we have made it so far, so most schools won't have an issue with that.  For girl's that like a bit of action in their books, we have that too, as these girls are training to be spies, so it's Alex Rider for girls.  Ally Carter has another series which I think is equally good for these girls, and that's the Heist Society novels, we leave spies behind, and meet a teenage girl from a family of jewel thieves.

I highly recommend you try these books they are well worth a read.

Who will like this book: Girls age 11+
Read it if you like: Gallagher Girls or Alex Rider