Parents' Guide to City of the Dead: City Spies, Book 4

Parents need to know that City of the Dead is the fourth book in James Ponti's City Spies series, featuring a band of orphan kids from diverse backgrounds (Rwanda, Australia, Nepal, Brazil, Puerto Rico), recruited by England's MI6 for spy work due to their unusual talents, from pattern recognition and strategic planning to sleight of hand and codebreaking. This episode takes the kids and their mentor/adoptive father "Mother" from a break-in at the British Museum to even wilder adventures amid the tombs of the Pharaohs in Egypt, and there's never a dull moment. Particularly since Mother's long-lost son, urgently sought since Mother's spy spouse Clementine left her husband to die in a burning building and absconded with their kids, suddenly returns. Trust is a big issue, both because spycraft involves tricking nice people, as seen in numerous incidents, and because young Robert and an increasingly visible Clementine are clearly up to something as Robert gets to know his adoptive siblings. There's lots of detail about computer hacking, codes, Egyptian mythology and current culture, the British Museum, the trouble history of looted artifacts, and lots more. Characters Brooklyn, who's Puerto Rican and a brilliant hacker, and Kat, a Nepali refugee who struggles with sensory overload but is a genius at codes and puzzles, are in the spotlight here, with a lively, diverse supporting cast. Getting along, learning to be a family, and mutual support are strong themes, with danger and betrayal always looming.