by James Ponti (Author) (a middle grade book)

A Book Review by Jackie Houchin

I loved this book!  I ate it up!  I could hardly put it down. I sped through all 400 pages in no time, and this is pretty good for me, as I usually like much shorter books.  But James Ponti wrote CITY SPIES in such an interesting, exciting, fast-paced, and suspenseful way, that it’s no wonder it won a Best Book award for middle graders.

It is set in a remote place on England’s deserted coast which is attached to the secret service organization, MI6.  Five young teens, rescued from harsh circumstances, evaluated as top in several sneaky (oh, I mean secret) talents, and recruited to very important world-changing missions. Each kid takes on the name of the city in which they were initially found, hence; Paris, a homeless African boy and oldest, Kat a girl from Katmandu, Sidney, a girl from Australia, Rio, the youngest, a boy from Rio de Janerio, and the most recent girl, recruited for an emergency mission after the former expert teen was dismissed… Brooklyn who was in a disasterous foster-care situation in…New York, of course.

She is a computer hacker extrordinaire. The team trains hard for three weeks, testing and proving Sidney’s worth, and then the gang travels to France, with the MI6 house mom, and their leader, a man they call… Mother.  Yep, no trans stuff here, it’s just another weird spy name.

The book is fantastically exciting, as the team races to save someone’s life and also to prevent a world-class villain from letting a deadly virus into the world. They learn to accept Sidney and work together as a team.  (There are even moments of bravery and camaraderie that make your throat ache and eyes sting.)

I am so looking forward to the next two books, set in San Francisco, California, and Beijing, China. WOW! and WHOA!!

FIVE STARS

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