Date: December 8, 2024
Author: Amy Butler Greenfield
Genre: young adult YA, nonfiction, biography
Absolutely phenomenal! Mz. Greenfield, may I say, bra-vo! Your attention to detail and your interpretation of what Mz. Elizebeth Friedman accomplished in her career of code breaking during the height of World War II while the American bootleggers of the time were getting as much of America drunk as they could while trying to stay under the radar.
To me, one of Elizebeth’s most impressive accomplishments was when she cracked a code written using Chinese characters.
Included in this work is a picture of memorabilia from a newspaper dated February 15, 1938. The article states, ‘These women were selected by Durwood Howes, editor of the reference book, “American Women,” as outstanding in careers unusual for their sex.’ Women in careers unusual for their sex. At this time in history that meant anything other than mothering and housework. Mz. Friedman was in fact not only taking care of her family but also she was out there teaching and learning how to break codes. Her ideas eventually became the basis for binary coding; the ones and zeroes used for computer files and computer programming.
Weird and fun fact #1Elizebeth’s name is spelled uniquely Eliz-E-beth. Mine is pronounced and normally spelled Danielle. Much like Elizebeth’s mom, mine also wanted a way for her daughter to stand out and in doing so came up with Dan-Y-elle. Weird and fun fact #2, I was born 10/13/1980, Elizebeth died 10/31/1980. Weird, indeed.
In summing up my findings concisely my recommendation is to get your hands on this book ASAP. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!