City Spies by James Ponti

 

Yesterday, I finished reading City Spies by James Ponti. This thriller is about Sara Martinez, a twelve-year-old girl who faces years in a juvenile detention facility with no computer privileges for hacking into the New York City foster care system to expose her parents as frauds. Just when things are looking bad, a mysterious British spy, named Mother, shows up to replace her public defender and offers her a home in Scotland as part of a team of young spies from all over the world within MI6, a secret agency. Although some of Sara's new teammates have doubts about her, over the next few weeks they help her prepare for their upcoming mission to an international youth summit in Paris where they will have to stop a nefarious organization from carrying out its plans.

So far, this book is my favorite of the Rebecca Caudill nominated books this school year and I was hooked from the very first chapter because of its light humor and Sara's emotional backstory. It was so easy to root for Sara and I thought it was really cool that she was already a skilled computer hacker at the young age of twelve. Although many skills of a great spy come easy to her, she is afraid of heights because of what happened in her last foster home, making it very difficult for her to learn how to climb up a building's wall. I also liked how her teammates each had a different specialty. Sydney was my favorite of the four because of her fast friendship with Sara, but I was also intrigued by her skill of blowing things up. Additionally, Mother was an interesting character and, like Sara's, his backstory really moved me. Most of all, the action in this book was amazingly cinematic. I could definitely see this book and the rest of the series being adapted as a movie or TV show. All in all, City Spies is fantastic for those who like action, adventure, and spy thrillers.