Imagine if kids had the fate of the whole world right in their hands as part of a secret spy organization. This is exactly what happens in the novel City Spies by James Ponti. In City Spies Sara Martinez is a hacker, well sort of. Sara hacked the New York foster care system from a school computer to expose her parents for abusing the right to get money to pay for kids you adopt. Well, although Sara thought she was a hero she was still sentenced to years in juvenile detention and many years without the use of a computer. Then, one night when Sara was talking with her “Lawyer” (Randall Stubbs) when a mysterious man called Mother entered the room. Mother is a British spy in MI6 in search of one more kid for his top secret mission in Paris. Once he learned about Sara and her computer abilities and he knew she was right for the job. Mother was looking to get Sara out of juvy, but to do that they had to convince the judge,which only made it right for Mother to defend Brooklyn in court. Once the court case came Mother said his goal to Sara which is get her out of court and not have to go to juvy. After the court case Mother tells Sara that she is going to be taking her tech savvy skills to the FARM in Scotland. Not knowing anything about the FARM and whoever Mother is, Sara starts to become suspicious only to find out there is nothing to worry about. She is there with Paris, Rio, Sydney, and Kat, who are all kids aging from 12-15 also training to be a M16 spy. Furthermore, she has to become friends with kids from around the world and get to know everyone before the top secret mission. Once Sara gets to the FARM she gets a completely different name (Brooklyn) and a whole new place to live. Next, she would eventually figure out that Mother needs her for a top secret mission against Umbra (an evil spy organization). She then has to become friends with kids from around the world and get to know everyone before the top secret mission. Will Brooklyn and her team prevail against Umbra and save all of Paris? Or M16 and Brooklyn be discovered to the whole world and conquered by Umbra?

If you are interested or liked City Spies, then Greetings from Witness Protection! by Jake Burt would be a great fit for you. These two books connect because both main characters are trying to keep a big secret all the while facing an evil organization trying to defeat them. This book follows the main character Nicki, who is an orphan that used to be a pickpocket, but now part of the Witness Protection program. She then gets assigned to the Marshall’s family to protect them. The Marshalls are hiding from some of America’s most notorious criminals. This is where Nicki comes in, she was added to the Marshalls as a decoy so the criminals would not think the Marshalls were the people they were looking for. Will Nicki help the Marshalls stay protected and hidden? Or will the criminals figure out their secret and find and punish them? To find out, read Greetings from Witness Protection! by Jake Burt, but make sure you also read City Spies by James Ponti!