The City Spies series is so much fun and full of adventure and found family! It’s a great middle grade series, perfect for fans of Ally Carter. I devoured the first three books last year and I am so excited to celebrate the release of the fourth installment this week with an interview with author James Ponti.
Interview with James Ponti
The City Spies series takes place all around the world. What kind of research do you do for each book? Have you been to any of the cities before?
Research is a big part of these books. From a geography standpoint, I try to find out as much as I can about a destination, including the off the wall elements. When possible, I travel to them and explore. If I know that I’m going to include a specific building or landmark, I try to arrange a special tour. For example, the New York Public Library is a setting for City Spies 5 and I was able to get a behind the scenes tour to look around the stacks and see things like the automated system that moves books around.
I also do tons of distance research. I interview people who’ve lived in the cities so I get a local perspective. I read books, scour YouTube, find websites. Anything and everything. I couldn’t go to Egypt because of Covid, so I interviewed an Egyptologist, watched a slideshow of a family’s trip to Cairo, and practically lived on a website that maps out of the tombs at the Valley of the Kings.
Each kid brings a unique skillset to the team. What role would you play (or wish you could do) if you were a part of the team?
I would be a terrible spy. I get scared easily. I don’t like secrets. And I’m pretty clumsy. The spies in my books have all the skills I wish I had. The character who I most identify with is Mother, (who is actually the father for those who haven’t read the books). If I could be any of the kids for one of the adventures, I would probably pick Paris. He’s all brains and courage and steadfastness. It would be neat to feel that way for a little while.
What excited you most while writing the fourth installment, City of the Dead?
Two things: Kat and Egypt. The main character switches in each book and for this one Kat takes the lead. That’s fun for me because she’s the most different from who I am. And, as a setting, Egypt feels the most Indiana Jones-ish. It’s great when the location adds so much history and a built-in sense of mythology.
What other books would you recommend for young readers who are fans of the City Spies?
My buddy Stu Gibbs writes two great spy series: Spy School and Charlie Thorne. I highly recommend both of those. Some other great spy books I’d recommend are Concealed by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls by Beth McMullen and a great new non-fiction book by Rebecca Barone called Unbreakable: The Spies Who Cracked the Nazi’s Secret Code.
So, far, the City Spies have traveled to London, Paris, San Francisco, Beijing, and Cairo—can you share a sneak peek about where their next adventure will be?
Cairo and the Valley of the Kings are the big destinations in City Spies: City of the Dead. I’m currently writing City Spies 5 which starts off in Venice before heading to Washington, D.C., and New York. It involves a teenager who’s become a world-famous environmental activist and finally gives Rio his first time as the lead character. It’s been great fun to research and write.
Release Date: March 10, 2020
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In this thrilling new series that Stuart Gibbs called “a must-read,” Edgar Award winner James Ponti brings together five kids from all over the world and transforms them into real-life spies—perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls.
Sara Martinez is a hacker. She recently broke into the New York City foster care system to expose her foster parents as cheats and lawbreakers. However, instead of being hailed as a hero, Sara finds herself facing years in a juvenile detention facility and banned from using computers for the same stretch of time. Enter Mother, a British spy who not only gets Sara released from jail but also offers her a chance to make a home for herself within a secret MI6 agency.
Operating out of a base in Scotland, the City Spies are five kids from various parts of the world. When they’re not attending the local boarding school, they’re honing their unique skills, such as sleight of hand, breaking and entering, observation, and explosives. All of these allow them to go places in the world of espionage where adults can’t.
Before she knows what she’s doing, Sara is heading to Paris for an international youth summit, hacking into a rival school’s computer to prevent them from winning a million euros, dangling thirty feet off the side of a building, and trying to stop a villain . . . all while navigating the complex dynamics of her new team.
No one said saving the world was easy . . .
Release Date: March 9, 2021
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In this second installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies returns for another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls.
After thwarting a notorious villain at an eco-summit in Paris, the City Spies are gearing up for their next mission. Operating out of a base in Scotland, this secret team of young agents working for the British Secret Intelligence Service’s MI6 division have honed their unique skills, such as sleight of hand, breaking and entering, observation, and explosives. All of these allow them to go places in the world of espionage where adults can’t.
Fourteen-year-old Sydney is a surfer and a rebel from Bondi Beach, Australia. She’s also a field ops specialist for the City Spies. Sydney is excited to learn that she’ll be going undercover on the marine research vessel the Sylvia Earle. But things don’t go exactly as planned, and while Sydney does find herself in the spotlight, it’s not in the way she was hoping.
Meanwhile, there’s been some new intel regarding a potential mole within the organization, offering the spies a lead that takes them to San Francisco, California. But as they investigate a spy who died at the Botanical Gardens, they discover that they are also being investigated. And soon, they’re caught up in an exciting adventure filled with rogue missions and double agents!
This mission is hot! The City Spies are a go!
Release Date: February 1, 2022
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In this third “thrilling” (Kirkus Reviews) installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies help a fellow agent in another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls.
After taking down a mole within their organization, the City Spies are ready for their next mission—once again using their unique skills and ability to infiltrate places adults can’t. The sinister Umbra has their sights set on recruiting a North Korean nuclear physicist by any means necessary, and the City Spies plan to keep an eye on his son by sending Paris to the chess prodigy’s tournaments in Moscow and Beijing.
Meanwhile, Sydney’s embedded as a junior reporter for a teen lifestyle site as she follows the daughter of a British billionaire on tour with the biggest act on her father’s music label to uncover what links both the band and the billionaire have to a recent threat from an old Soviet missile base.
From a daring break-in at one of London’s most exclusive homes to a dangerous undercover mission to a desperate search and rescue operation on the streets of Beijing, the City Spies have their work cut out for them on their most dangerous mission yet.
Release Date: February 7, 2023
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In this fourth installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies go codebreaking in Cairo in another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls.
Codename Kathmandu, better known as Kat, loves logic and order, has a favorite eight-digit number, and can spot a pattern from a mile away. So when a series of cyberattacks hits key locations in London while the spies are testing security for the British Museum, it’s clear that Kat’s skill for finding reason in what seems like randomness makes her the perfect candidate to lead the job.
And while the team follows the deciphered messages to Egypt and the ancient City of the Dead to discover who is behind the attacks and why, Kat soon realizes that there’s another layer to the mystery.
With more players, more clues, and involving higher levels of British Intelligence than ever before, this mission is one of the most complex that the group has faced to date. And it’s also going to bring about a change to the City Spies . . .
About James
James Ponti is the New York Times bestselling author of three middle grade book series: City Spies, about an unlikely squad of five kids from around the world who form an elite MI6 Spy Team; the Edgar Award–winning Framed! series, about a pair of tweens who solve mysteries in Washington, DC; and the Dead City trilogy, about a secret society that polices the undead living beneath Manhattan. His books have appeared on more than fifteen different state award lists and he is the founder of a writers group known as the Renegades of Middle Grade. James is also an Emmy–nominated television writer and producer who has worked for many networks including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, History, and Spike TV, as well as NBC Sports. He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida.
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