Golden Gate: City Spies, Book 2
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this book.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Golden Gate is the second installment of James Ponti's City Spies series, which features five kids age 12-15, from five different continents, wildly different backgrounds, and with mad skills that include codebreaking, martial arts, computer hacking, mathematics and more. Book 1 found them first working together as a special, top-secret project for British spy agency MI6 with adult mentors Mother and Monty. The action-packed sequel opens with a hijacking and kidnap attempt at sea by agents of Umbra, a shadowy, greed-driven enterprise -- foiled by 14-year-old Sydney and 12-year-old Brooklyn. The pace never lets up as the kids travel from Scotland to Oxford, London, and other interesting locations before landing in San Francisco -- all as part of their secret but determined quest to help their mentor Mother find his long-lost family. There's a murder in the recent past, and considerable effort to dodge the murderer, who may also be an Umbra mole in MI6. Family, friendship, teamwork, and respect for each other's talents and achievements are strong themes -- as is mending things with your friends when you fall out. Along the way there's a steady bombardment of information on subjects from the Fibonacci series to the habits of birdwatchers and the fine points of mirrorless single-lens reflex cameras with Bluetooth capabilities. Also dialogue in Norwegian and Chinese.
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What's the Story?
GOLDEN GATE will eventually find the City Spies -- young MI6 agents Paris, Sydney, Kat, Rio, and Brooklyn -- seeking a spy's murderer in San Francisco, to say nothing of helping their mentor find his long-lost family. But it all starts on what's supposed to be a marine biology research cruise in the North Sea, where Sydney (14) and Brooklyn (12), disguised as regular students, are assigned to protect a politician's daughter and a bratty royal from an unknown threat -- which materializes in the form of hijackers planning to kidnap their two targets and blow up the boat with everyone else on it. This is only the first of many perilous adventures that will call on the kids' many talents and skills, including those they didn't know they had.
Is It Any Good?
James Ponti's diverse team of youthful MI6 agents foils terrorists, dodges would-be murderers, and rides cable cars in this action-packed sequel. Golden Gate is packed with with arcane knowledge, relatable emotions, and lots of suspense. As the fast-moving plot takes Paris, Sydney, Kat, Rio, and Brooklyn from the North Sea to the Golden Gate, with lots of excitement along the way, brilliant talents are on full display. There are also comic moments, as here, where Brooklyn is trying to rescue a couple of girls before the kidnappers get there:
"'Apple jack!' blurted Brooklyn.
"'What?' asked Judy, confused.
"'Apple jack,' Brooklyn replied, although this time with less certainty. 'That is the code, isn't it? Didn't your parents tell you about "apple jack"?'
"MI6 had given this emergency code to the parents of both girls with the instructions that if someone used the term they were supposed to follow that person's directions without question. Neither Alice nor Judy had taken it very seriously, and if at all, they expected it to come from someone in authority wearing a uniform, not a twelve-year-old girl in Harry Potter jammies."
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the kid spies in Golden Gate. Why do you think this is such a popular theme? How does the City Spies series compare with other spy tales you've read?
Sydney and other characters have a problem sometimes with the amount of deception it takes to be a good spy. How would you feel about doing a job where you had to lie all time time -- even if it were for a really good cause?
Now that you've traveled to Oxford, London, San Francisco, and other interesting places with the City Spies, do you think you'd like to visit those places yourself?
Book Details
- Author: James Ponti
- Genre: Adventure
- Topics: Adventures, Friendship, Great Boy Role Models, Great Girl Role Models
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Aladdin
- Publication date: March 9, 2021
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 8 - 12
- Number of pages: 432
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: April 29, 2021
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