Author: Stuart Gibbs
Illustrator: Lucy Ruth Cummins
© Date: 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster books for young readers
Pages: 291
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: No
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book:
Agent: Ben Ripley, age 12
Mission: Survive the “science school” that is really a front for training junior CIA operatives. And try to get the girl.
Objectives:
- Find the devious double agent who has infiltrated the school.
- Try not to die.
- Prove to everyone that you are capable of being a spy, save the day, and try not to look like such a nerd while doing it.
Destroy this note once you have it memorized.
Page Pig Thoughts: This one was a pretty good read, even though I didn’t really feel like the target audience. A lot of Ben’s thought process is spent trying to figure out how to impress girls/Erica. That seems appropriate for an early teenage boy and decent character motivation, but after awhile, I started to feel slightly out of place reading it. But not so out of place that I couldn’t enjoy the action and mystery of tracking down the mole in the school. Mole being someone feeding information to the enemy, not the animal. While I enjoyed the mystery, action, and humorous bits, I personally prefer FunJungle [review]. I could see this book being a happy place for many readers, but I would not expect Page Pup to take an interest anytime soon.
Use caution for younger or sensitive readers, this is a spy school and bad guys are trying to take out Ben, so guns, explosives, and life threatening situations are common.
Family Unit: Ben lived at home with his parents, but leaves for spy school in the first chapter
Conflict/Social Issues:
- Ben is the bait for enemy agents attempting to infiltrate spy school.
- Ben has not had spy training, but continues trying to stay alive.
Positive Items:
- Ben is able to leverage the skills that he has to find ways to stay alive and save the day.
- Ben manages to make some friends at school.
- Ben manages to impress Erica enough that she puts her arm around his shoulders in a friendly way and smiles at him. Past staying alive, he seemed most proud of that accomplishment.
Items of Interest:
- Ben is flattered into joining spy school. After he makes his choice, his parents are sweet talked into letting him go to a “science school” on a full scholarship. No one knows what kind of school Ben is really attending.
- Language: ass, third world hellholes, hotness (referring to girls at school), patsy. For the length of the book, the language did not seem excessive, but it is there all the same.
- Ben is given the standard test for survival skills upon entering school, which makes him feel like his life is at stake. Later that night, his life is really put into jeopardy.
- Ben’s childhood best friend was smart enough to be in the advanced classes but stayed in the remedial classes because school was easier that day. When Ben starts spy school, he befriends the slacker guy that does enough to skate by because he would rather have a desk job than put his life in danger constantly.
- Chip the school bully does not have the most intelligence, but Ben realizes that Chip was still smart enough to actually be accepted into spy school. Ben also figures out that bullies at spy school have actual training on how to kill people.
- Erica is Alexander Hale’s daughter. Alexander is the well-loved and respected spy of the agency. Although Erica knows that Alexander’s biggest talent is taking credit for other people’s work and making himself look good. Erica is super competent and completes seemingly impossible tasks all at the same time.
- A few characters put on an act of being incompetent to make other people not notice them and let their guard down. This act helps keep the reader guessing about who can actually be trusted and who cannot.
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- 12 books are currently in the Spy School series