CHERUB is the generic title of a series of children’s books written by Robert Muchamore. It tells the adventures of agents of a fictitious UK agency, composed only of minor agents from 10 to 17 years old. After the success of the original series of twelve volumes where the main character is James, the sequel ( three tomes ) tells this time Ryan’s adventures, which « succeeds » James. Robert Muchamore has also written a series of books called Henderson’s Boys, which tells the beginnings of Cherub and its founder Charles Henderson during the Second World War.

We can see several meanings about the CHERUB acronym:

• CHERUB is the name of that agency, being the acronym of Charles Henderson’s Espionage Research Unit B1.

• CHERUB also means « angel » or « cherub » in English, which is related to the logo of the organization.

• And of course this is related to the fact that all the selected agents are children.

The CHERUB agents are recruited in all orphanages in the country for most of them for simple reasons: it’s necessary that agents have no connection with the outside world, and that no one has to leverage on them or the agency. The criteria are based on physical and intellectual abilities. The future agents can be received at any age, but are often recruited at the age of seven. From this age, they receive an education of the highest level: in addition to the subjects taught in regular schools, they learn two foreign languages ??(one using a foreign alphabet). They are also subjected to intensive physical workouts and are all specialists in martial arts. The purpose of CHERUB is to use juvenile criminals do not have the same mistrust that deal with adults. This branch of the British secret service was created because no one would imagine that such an organization exists.

Within this organization, there is since 1957 a special hierarchy among agents, thetis is visually perceptible : the T-shirts colors they wear indicate their rank.

What a life ! What child has not dreamed of becoming a secret agent when he is an adult ? And there it’s possible to become one as young as 10 years ! The story is full of twists , action , adventure and humor. It is amazing to find secret agents so young and yet the recipe works. We quickly become attached to the characters.

It’s fun to see the reactions of teenagers facing adult situations. And although their condition of secret agents seems to grow faster, they are teenagers after all.