I'll admit that I bought this book because of the movie Zodiac. The movie is one of my favorites and I've always been curious about ciphers, so when I found the same edition as was in the movie, I snatched it up for myself.

This is a fascinating book that doesn't just talk about how to encrypt a message, but also goes into the history of secret writing and how it was used over the centuries. There were certain historical topics that I wished Laffin could have gone more in depth on, but for an overview and book that, I'm assuming, was written for kids, it was pretty informative without being too dry. What I appreciated the most, though, was all the opportunities Laffin gives to practice enciphering/deciphering throughout the text. Each time a new type of cipher is introduced, Laffin includes an example message that has already been encrypted using that cipher, so you can follow along with his explanation or even attempt to decipher it on your own and see how you did. There's even a section in the back with sample cryptograms for you to practice with. 

This is such a fun and informative book, especially if your interested in ciphers or just want to feel a little bit more like Jake Gyllenhaal's character in Zodiac.