Common Sense Media Review
By Mary Eisenhart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Action-packed tale celebrates friendship, family, teamwork.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 9+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
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 :
- Genre : Adventure
- Topics : Adventures , Friendship
- 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, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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