October 7, 2025 by Charlesbridge
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Sona, a Nepali girl, lives in the mountains near Darjeeling, India. Her father has passed away, and her mother picks tea for the greedy owner of a plantation, Banerji, to support Sona and her troublesome older brother, Samiran. Samiran has taken out loans to set up a food stand, since he is a good cook, but got into trouble. No one will buy from him, and he's finding it hard to get work to repay the loan. Sona is studying for exams so that she can further her education at the Darjeeling International School on a scholarship. Sona occasionally lurks outside the windows of Banerji's house to hear his son being tutored by Sir, and has made friends with Banerji's orphaned Bengali niece, Tara. Tara is older, but enjoys Sona's company. She confides in Sona that her Uncle is arranging a marriage for her, and using the gold jewelry her parents left her as her dowery. While Sona feels that arranged marriages can be good, she wants her friend to be able to make her own choices. When the gold goes missing, Sona works behind the scenes to try to find it for her friend. Her life is hard enough, since she must go every day to a broken pipe to get water, and Banerji is giving the workers a hard time. Getting involved with the local police, and having to sneak around town looking for clues is a tremendous challenge. When the head tea picker, Kaki, is accused of stealing, Sona knows that she must find a way to clear her name.
Strengths: I'm an enormous fan of Perkins' work, since it often sheds light on the conditions of everyday life in other countries. (Tiger Boy , Bamboo People, and Rickshaw Girl.) My students often complain about "having" to go to school, and don't seem to understand how fortunate they are. Seeing Sona work so hard on her studies in order to have the opportunity to get more education is something that is helpful for my students to see, as is her hard work at getting water and caring for her family. The class differences between Sona and Tara are shown, but it's good to see that they are still friends. The mystery is rather light, so the book is a quick read. There's a very satisfying ending, with Banerji getting his comeupance and a lot of improvements being made to the community that will benefit Sona and her family.
Weaknesses: It would be helpful to have some more information about the different ethnic groups and why they are in India. We have a small population of Nepali students at my school, but many of my students won't understand why Sona and her family are in India, since they don't keep up with the US news, much less what is going on in other countries.
What I really think: This is a good choice for Readers who enjoyed Saeed's Amal Unbound or Butterworth's Running on the Roof of the World, and had some similarities to Menon's A Mystery at Lili Villa. Upper elementary students, as well as middle school students who want an interesting, shorter book, will enjoy this slice-of-life mystery.
Weaknesses: It would be helpful to have some more information about the different ethnic groups and why they are in India. We have a small population of Nepali students at my school, but many of my students won't understand why Sona and her family are in India, since they don't keep up with the US news, much less what is going on in other countries.
What I really think: This is a good choice for Readers who enjoyed Saeed's Amal Unbound or Butterworth's Running on the Roof of the World, and had some similarities to Menon's A Mystery at Lili Villa. Upper elementary students, as well as middle school students who want an interesting, shorter book, will enjoy this slice-of-life mystery.
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October 7, 2025 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Ben still just wants a little bit of a time out after having had over 150 near death experiences, so he's glad to be heading to the home of Orion, a hacker who has invited them to stay at one of his many homes, this one in Indonesia. Alexander Hale is flying there on one of Rufus Shang's jets, that he won't need because the group has put him in jail. Everyone is along for the ride- Cyrus and Mary, Alexander (although Catherine is elsewhere), Erica, Trixie, Mike, and Svetlana. When a hacker deploys a "Birthday Cake" maneuver, all of the lights are out, and the jet has to land in a less than optimal way. The group narrowly manages to get to Orion's, where there are back up generators, but Cathering wants them to help solve the problem of who is messing with the world power. What do they want? Unfortunately for Ben, he has to press pause on his idyllic vacation since the group is near the hacker. Cue up near death experiences 160-175 as Ben and his classmates have to save the world YET AGAIN.
I snorted audibly several times while reading this, and is was a very fun romp. I always enjoys these, and I do buy them for my school library, but we are getting to the point in the series where students aren't necessarily going to be able to finish the entire series in their three years in middle school. Gibbs is a fantastic writer, but I'd love to see him move away from Spy School and Fun Jungle to do some stand alone mysteries so that my students who don't want to commit to 14 books can experience Gibbs' talents.
Still want a button from SimonKids proclaiming that I have read all of these books!
1. Spy School
2. Spy Camp
10- Spy School X
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