City of the Dead and Whale Done

Ponti, James. City of the Dead (City Spies #4)
February 7th 2023 by Aladdin

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

The fascinating, unexplored storyline in City Spies, Golden Gate, and Forbidden City that has most intrigued me was Mother's abandonment in a burning building by his wife and fellow spy, Clementine. He was rescued by the first City Spy, Paris, but Clementine has been on the run with their two children, and the suspicion is that she is working for Umbra, which is evil. We've heard snippets of the story, but are usually too caught up in the current mission to learn more. This time, Mother's past seems bound up with the current problem. The children are sent to "retrieve" items from the British Museum, which seems a bit odd. After some underground adventures and some explosives, they find out that there is more to this mission than they first believed. Kat, in particular, starts to see some patterns emerge in seemingly random outages of the subway system and other London locations. A coded scavenger hunt of sorts sends our intrepid young spies on a number of different sorties to find information, and they eventually end up in Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings! I find that I don't want to say too much about why they do there, or what they do, because everything unfolds in such a fun way, and I don't want to ruin anything. 

Strengths: Even though there is a rather large cast, I am able to keep the characters separated in my mind, which speaks to the quality of the character development. We learn a lot more about Kat and her abilities in this volume. The biggest draw for me is always the travel, and I recommend these to students who want vicarious adventures when stuck in study hall! Including information about the King Tut exhibit is fantastic, sixth our sixth graders study ancient Egypt, and makes this a great companion to Fleming's The Curse of the Mummy! The issue of countries having appropriated cultural artifacts in the past and thinking now about returning them is addressed in a thoughtful way. Of course, I was enthralled to find out more about Clementine and see a surprisingly character emerge and be added to the City Spies! This really made me think about Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax novels, which I adored!
Weaknesses: Like many traveling spy books, there are some coincidences and helpful people that seem a bit unlikely. But then, we are dealing with tween spies who are traveling around the world, so an undercover taxi driver shouldn't really bother me! 
What I really think: While I'm a big fan of hugely long mystery series, five books is really about perfect for a middle grade series. In my last deep weeding dive, I pulled some series where book ten had been checked out once in ten years. Just before winter break, a student checked out a third book in a series that hadn't been circulated in the three years I've had it. Certainly, this must be replicated in sales, which is what motivates publishers. I love Ponti's work, but it's easier to circulate (and sell, I suspect) books that are stand alones or in shorter series. If I'm wearing my Reader Hat, I say publish 20 more of these, but if I have on my Librarian Hat, I'd like to see the series wrapped up. 

That being said, there are always exceptions that prove the rule. Gibbs' FunJungle series definitely falls into that category. More impressive is the fact that students mention to me that they have BOUGHT their own copies of this or the Spy School installments. 

Gibbs, Stuart. Whale Done (FunJungle #8)

February 21st 2023 by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

When an inconsiderate worker sets off fire crackers near FunJungle when the weather has been very dry and a kangaroo is spooked, a horrible fire burns down the substandard employee trailer park. Because JJ McCracken, the owner, has always been concerned about the threat of fire, he is prepared with crews that save the zoo, if not the housing or surrounding area. Teddy doesn't have a place to stay; his father is off to Argentina, and his mother can sleep in her office at the zoo. When his girlfriend Summer suggests that he goes with her and her mother to visit California, his parents can't really object. They are staying in an exclusive beachfront community with Binka, a model friend of Summer's mother. Also along is Doc, who is visiting the marine animal center in Long Beach. When an enormous whale is found dead on the beach, Teddy and Summer want to investigate. Cass, a scientist tasked with performing an autopsy on the animal, is willing to talk to the kids when she realizes they have a scientific interest, and Doc takes a shine to her and wants to help. When the whale explodes in a spectacularly messy way, Teddy gets involved in the investigation. At first, it seems like it might just be a college prank, and two local Harvard students are implicated, but Cass and Doc soon realize that the amount of explosives involved are not something they could have put in place. There's also a local beach resident who claims that the beach is disappearing, and it does look like sand is disappearing. This isn't FunJungle, though, and Summer seems to be interested in hanging out with people other than Teddy. Will he be able to able to solve the mystery without her?

Strengths: Like the Texas adventure in Tyrannosaurus Wrecks and the  Yellowstone excursion in Bear Bottom , it's good to see Teddy and Summer being able to venture away from the zoo. Summer's background gives them the wealth and privilige to be able to do this, while Teddy's family's problems ground him. There's enough goofiness (like the exploding whale) to make this appealing to younger readers, and enough ecological mystery to appeal to older ones. Teddy's relationship with Summer sees some ups and downs; all 8 books of the series take place over a very short period of time even though the first was published in 2010, so this is realistic. Summer's celebrity, being used to hawk eco-conscious clothing, is appealing.  There are some excellent villains, some animal highjinks, and, of course, Teddy's uncanny ability to solve the case. I very much appreciate that Gibbs' addresses environmental issues in his books, and also that he is responsive to reader suggestions and crafted a marine adventure after getting a lot of requests. Perhaps Teddy and Summer need to follow Doc and Cass to Baja so that Gibbs can write stories to go with titles that were suggested, like Twist and Spout and License to Krill.

Weaknesses: The villains have improved since the first FunJungle book, but I would like to see them with a little more nuance. I'm a fan of characters who read a bit gray, although my students never complain about ones that are more black and white. 
What I really think: These books are a little easier to read out of order than the Spy School series, which is really helpful when I have a lot of students reading through them. These are always such fun, and do get better with each installment. I'm looking forward to seeing what happend next, but it may be time to return to FunJungle for a bit!