James Ponti: City Spies (Aladdin 2020)
Sara Martinez is a hacker, surely one of the best in the world. Now, however, she is sitting in court and thinking about her not-so-nice situation. Then a man, who is not an attorney, but has three passports with different names, rushes to her aid. This could scare Sara, but for some reason she trusts the man who tells her to just call him Mother. Mother is an MI6 agent who organizes a team of children to work as spies. Paris, Sydney, Kat and Rio only kept the name of their former residence, leaving the rest of their past behind. Sara becomes Brooklyn and soon she takes part in an action, at an international youth summit in Paris, where they have to protect someone.
The story is very unique, fast-paced, full of action, but we also have time to get to know the characters. The book’s humor captured me the most, because the author finds positive moments in every situation and gave the characters such natural humor that we feel as if we know them and are with them during their adventure. Another special feature of the story is that, unlike most middle-grade books, here, the adult characters also have important tasks and help the children. I won’t tell you more about this story, but the kids’ next mission will be in the US. I cannot wait to read it!
James Ponti started writing when he was still in elementary school. The characters of his first story were Mickey Mouse and his friends. It’s funny that years later he wrote scenes for Disney Channel Mickey Mouse Club. He also had another link to Disney, as he worked at Disney World during his summers in college, where he entertained people on canoe tours with funny stories. During these summers, he learned how jokes work and what really makes people laugh. The author also has three middle-grade book series. The idea of City Spies first came to his mind in Paris, where he decided to write a series with episodes set in different big cities. The series currently has five volumes, the fifth, Mission Manhattan, was published in English this February.
