Carter, Ally.
I'D TELL YOU THAT I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU
New York : Hyperion, 2006
IL YA
ISBN 1423100034

(4 booktalks)
 

Gallagher Academy is just your typical girls boarding school filled with rich, spoiled girls.  At least that is what they would have you believe.  But behind those ivy covered walls is a very different kind of school.  The kind where the girls take courses like Covert Operations and where the girls learn the art of following without being seen.  You see, Gallagher Academy is a school for future spies.  That's right.  All these girls are being trained to be top notch spies.  It isn't easy to get into the academy -- especially since it's so hush-hush!  Cammie has an in of course since her mother is the head mistress.  But Cammie has done something that may jeopardize her stay at Gallagher.  She has formed a crush on a local boy!

Booktalk #2

Cammie Morgan goes to an all-girls private boarding school, The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women.  Her friends come from all over the world.  Like her they speak 14 languages, and are math, computer and chemistry experts. A couple of things are unusual about Cam’s school. Her mother, the headmistress, is a retired CIA operative.  Since you all have level four clearance you already know what is special about this school.  It is a training ground for future spies.  While on her first covert operation, Cammie meets a boy.  A normal, cute, friendly, nice boy named Josh.  With a little spy help from her friends, Cammie gets to know and REALLY like Josh.  They go through his trash, his email, his history.  As a cover she creates a new life story, because if Josh knew the truth about her … as she says “I’d tell you I love you, but then I’d have to kill you.”     (New Hampshire Isinglass Teen Read Award committee)

Booktalk #3

To all appearances, The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is an exclusive prep school for spoiled rich girls. From outside the high protective walls, it seems no different from any other prep school. Oh, but it is different. Behind the carefully crafted façade, the Gallagher Academy is a super-secret training ground for future master spies. 

In addition to an accelerated high school curriculum, Cammie and her friends study 14 languages, covert operations, advanced encryption, and explosives. Her future as a super-spy in service of her country seems clear, until an incident on her first covert ops practice assignment in town turns her life upside down. 

What could cause such a gifted, assured teen to question all she holds dear? Why, a boy of course. A cute boy. Local boy Josh assumes that Cammie is just an ordinary local girl, and she does nothing to correct his impression of her. She must then construct an elaborate fictional life, rope in her friends to cover for her, and outsmart her headmaster mother to sneak out of school to meet him. But who better to live a complicated double life than a spy in training? 

I’d Tell You I Love You but Then I’d Have to Kill You is full of smart girls who face situations ranging from slapstick-funny to deep questions of loyalty and ethics. Just like real teens, they sometimes handle challenges with grace and style, at other times with bumbling confusion. As Cammie herself puts it, “All these years I'd thought being a spy was challenging. Turns out, being a girl is the tricky part."  (Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers, 2007-2008)

Booktalk #4

 Have you ever imagined being a spy? When you go out to dinner and order spaghetti, do you think of killing a person with a noodle? Well, life for an ordinary 13 year old girl isn't necessarily like every other.  Cammie Morgan is a typical 13 year old girl except she attends Gallagher Academy. Gallagher Academy is supposed to be a school for children with exceptional talents but it's far from that.   At their school they learn many unusual things many things normal people will never learn.  Cammie likes this boy but if she tells him, she will have to kill him because she is a undercover CSI spy.  If you want to know the rest and find out if she continues her life as a Gallagher Academy student, stay tuned in I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You, by: Ally Carter!  (Jackie S., student)