Author: James Ponti
Reviewed by Chloe Fuksa
I know I have previously reviewed Spy School by Stuart Gibbs, so this month I turned to the other popular series in the genre: City Spies, by James Ponti. The first book in this series came out in 2020 and is suited for children aged 8-12. Whereas Spy School takes place in the realm of the CIA, City Spies involves the MI6 program in Britain.
Sara is a twelve-year-old girl living in a foster home in Brooklyn when she gets arrested for hacking into the NYC juvenile justice system. She is just about to be sentenced to juvie when a secret agent recruits her to instead join his team – at a castle in Scotland! There, she meets four other kids like herself, each with a different specialty. Kat, for instance, is a genius at cryptography, while Rio is a master at sleight-of-hand skills. Their first mission together is to protect an asset who is headlining a youth summit in Paris. When two people are found dead in the river, though, and a vial of a deadly virus goes missing shortly before the conference, the team must act quickly to protect everyone in attendance.
While I thought all the characters were fantastic and the friendships that develop between each of them were beautiful, I did think the final climactic scenes were a little weak, a little too lite on the action. But I could see where that would happen in the first book of a series, where the characters need to be developed and the foundation needs to be established. It was still a very enjoyable read though, and a really quick read at that, so I would definitely be intrigued enough to read the next book in the series and see where the characters travel to next!
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