#james ponti

[mollyhats]

If you liked The Mysterious Benedict Society, try...

Book rec post!

If you liked The Mysterious Benedict Society for...

...found family of kid spies, try

City Spies by James Ponti

Brooklyn, a hacker, is recruited into a family of orphans who handle missions for MI6 under the protective eye of the eccentric "Mother," an agent who started accidentally collecting orphans while searching for his own lost children. If you love TMBS for a bunch of kids (and peculiar adults) forming a tight-knit family against a background of espionage, this book is perfect for you!

...the world of Stonetown and it's slightly off-kilter worldbuilding, try

The Greenglass House by Kate Milford

Milo lives in a smuggler's hotel with his parents, but he expects a quiet family Christmas--until guests start piling in, each with their own secrets and hidden agendas. Milo and his new friend Meddy decide to investigate, using a TTRPG as their guide. The connection to TMBS is harder to pin down here, but there's a definite vibe. They feel like they could take place in the same world.

...the puzzles, riddles, and games, try

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein

Before the grand opening of a new library, Kyle and several of his classmates are invited to a lock-in---but little do they know, they're in for a wild night of escape room puzzles that will require all of their gifts to solve. If you love the riddles and tricks of TMBS, as well as the ways the Society uses their different strengths to get through all kinds of puzzles, this is a great choice.

...a lonely kid passing strange trials to enter a new world and family, try

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Morrigan was cursed to die on her 12th birthday, but instead she's swept away to a magical world and offered a chance to participate in a series of trials to join the prestigious Wundrous Society and be safe from the curse. But there's so much she doesn't know, and the things she learns about this strange new world might pale in comparison to what she learns about herself. The trials she faces feel very similar to Mr. Benedict's, and there's plenty else to continue the comparison once we get past them (in either book): quirky mentors, lonely orphans, world-shaking plots, a strange school.

[razreads]

 Justice doesn’t require a membership card. Just a sense of right and wrong.

James Ponti, City Spies

[fishyupmywishy]

@needlesandnilbogs has gotten the Tumblr community for City Spies approved!

If anyone wants to join, whether you read the books and want a fandom to participate in or if you haven’t and simply want to see what City Spies is like, please DM them or me, or reblog this and put it in the notes.

It would be nice to have some more people to interact with about the fandom than just us lol

[littengamer909]

Mother, soon after being poisoned, kidnapped, held in an abandoned building, and repeatedly and violently interrogated: how can i theater kid my way out of this one

[needlesandnilbogs]

Known Facts About City Spies Book 6 and Beyond

collated at the Avid Reader bookstore event/signing in Davis, CA, on 6/23/24

On future books:

City Spies book 6 is finished and in the proofreading stage. It will probably be released in February 2025, he's allowed to share the title and cover as of this week.

City Spies 6 is called "London Calling" and the cover (which I briefly saw on his phone screen) is predominantly yellow and green

Robert is the protagonist and the Mother/Clementine/Robert/Annie larger plot will be completely resolved in book 6

There will be at least 8 total city spies books, likely 10

Sherlock society 1 is coming out in September

He's going to be on a two book a year release schedule -- February city spies and September Sherlock society

On research/past books/writing

he writes the first draft then goes to the places to research them

he talks to a lot of experts -- for city spies this includes a bookseller's husband who's ex-cia and planned the mission in forbidden city for him, for Sherlock society he got to go on a Miami marine patrol police boat

the city spies books work best with three cities they go to, boat being hostage in the first paragraph of golden gate is based on kid saying plot took ages to get to Big Thing in book 1 so now every book starts with a big thing happening. The middle city is the city of adventure and city alluded to in the title.

He did not get to physically go to Russia or China or Egypt but he did go to Venice after first draft of mission manhattan, went to every location in the book, then used pictures he took there

Washington he got a friend to show him the abandoned spots very unsafely, including embassy row and the empty Iranian embassy which fascinated him

He walked around Iranian embassy and the United Kingdom and Brazil embassies are actually across from it, the security didn't like him taking those pictures as much but it inspired him

If he could choose one song that best represents mission manhattan/city spies: We are family

when he writes a series he's trying to answer a single question and the books are all different variants on the answer. For city spies it's "what is a family"

he puts his life into the books, especially with a parent being missing and trying to find that connection

Middle grade advice: Write from the pain of when you're thirteen

"As a consumer of art we still believe in magic, but there is no magic […] we're faking the magic, it's just sweat. You forget what they're doing is sweat too."

he and his writing friends all feel like imposters. He talks to ppl who've won newberries and still feel like imposters and then they finally have little clicks that say maybe they can do this, like when his publisher said maybe he didn't need blurbs on his books anymore

Research is for accuracy and he hates being wrong and sometimes he hand waves but it gives him inspiration

real life is better than fiction

On Clementine, Mother, their kids:

book 6 resolves all the issues with clemmie and mother and the kids but not all the series's problems

"In the end as I wrote Clementine I wasn't sure how she was going to end up," he "wrestled writing her every time"

"Clementine is a puzzle" kat says, based on a thing a fan said

Good or bad, accidental or not, Clementine is the most interesting character bc you don't know what side she's on

On public libraries and independent bookstores:

About the nypl: "it's the most fascinating thing to me, this library. It's the Vatican of American books."

There aren't easy answers to the problem of cutting funding for libraries, there's a reason independent bookstores and libraries are valuable and it's bc this type of event matters and they have so many services

"Public libraries are one of the greatest things, as far as altruism, our society has ever created"

When it becomes an issue of books being banned it's not good, it's not okay

These are important issues and it's not simple but access to books written by "not just middle aged white guys like me" is really important

what gets lost is book recs and new authors

"the power we have in the exchange of ideas is valuable"

it's stuff that's been sitting there for a while and failed miserably and then gets popular, libraries and independent bookstores are part of that

TikTok is the single largest driving force in youth literature and it may not exist in a year

On the potential City Spies movie:

MGM studios bought the right to city spies film series before they were bought by Amazon

This happened because there's a Guatemalan woman who's the head of development at mgm, and she has twelve year old twin brothers who are reading city spies, she hears the story and says that sounds like a movie, reads the first page and is hooked, reached out and acquired the rights and then he heard nothing for ages

Amazon bought mgm and he thought it was done but they liked city spies, they hired a producer and then writers strike blocked any development but they now have a writer

He's staying out of the writing process, his background in film is making a lot of connections but also means he knows to stay out of it (though if he's asked he'd be enthusiastic to help)

he gets on set one day and gets two tickets to premiere

Movie in theaters not tv show

doesn't really believe it will happen yet because spy school was gonna be a movie then it wasn't

"I would wait to start worrying about following it till later", he doesn't talk about it really even to friends

MGM made an announcement to variety and so everyone found out

He and his wife hope it will happen (cause it's cutting down time till she can retire), she's his health insurance and it's why it seems a lot of writers end up married to teachers and have insurance through them

tagging @fishyupmywishy also

[winwin17]

If you are looking for more wholesome characters & interactions like Morrigan and Jupiter's in Nevermoor, I highly recommend the City Spies series by James Ponti. While it's not a fantasy series and it's set in the real world, there are plenty of exciting kid spy adventures and adopted-father-figure moments.

Basically, it's perfect for people like me who are

A) asexual and feel like romance clutters up stories

B) have daddy issues and need to devour all the wholesome father figure interactions

C) still want to read exciting stories where there are realistic and relatable characters

[zan233]

Thoughts on the Sherlock Society (Spoilers)

Why is London Calling already listed in the list of his books at the beginning when it hasn’t come out yet?

I think the font is mostly the same as City Spies, and I kind of like that. Not the title font, but the other fonts. (One of the characters being named Zoe and then me thinking about the fonts kind of makes me wish this Zoe was also a font-natic like Spy School Zoe)

Also, the way the kids are standing on the cover just reminds me of the cover of the German translation of City Spies, including the way Brooklyn and Yadi are holding their computers

I’m not a huge fan of things starting in media res, but ok. (By the third Framed! book I was just skipping the first chapter and reading it when I got to that point in the plot)

Yadi being bad at baseball (p. 21) was a little ironic because the first thing I thought of when he said this was Yadier Molina (former St. Louis Cardinals baseball player)

The dad cutting his hair into a mohawk and then falling in love with the ocean (pp. 147-148) is such a Sydney thing to do

Them talking about the Lost City is giving Charlie Thorne vibes, especially since they’re now talking about giant snakes

“Cruise ships are dumping an incredibly large amount of poop into the ocean, and someone has to stop them” (p. 187) . . . With all of the crimes in Spy School at Sea, why don’t I remember this ever coming up? It feels like it would have fit so well in SSAS

I figured out the solution to things a whole one page before the characters did, so I’m calling that a success.

[holmesoldfellow]

"The Sherlock Society" by James Ponti (Alladin 2024)

[yourtwistedlies]

NEW CITY SPIES BOOK COMING OUT FEBRUARY 6TH 2024 AHHH ITS CALLED MISSION MANHATTAN I LITERALLY CANNOT WAIT.

adjsjdnwjqkakdnejwnakfurbtoamdkwkajdndiwlanebefakejwbfuegwlaoaoodkdbeebdgshososnsbegavadqdwxspbhfiscbaefyqaedtwvchcujgntoypwjslforngw

[diamond-doezend]

This is for all the book nerds out there. Go read the Dead City trilogy by James Ponti.

Dead City

Blue Moon

Dark Days

I promise you that these books are so good. The first one is at least. I still haven’t been able to find the other two. STILL!!! These books are so underrated and I need more people to know about them. They have a very Rick Riordan vibe to them, but with a paranormal twist instead of mythology.

[hollymbryan]

Blog Tour + #Review: CITY SPIES: CITY OF THE DEAD by James Ponti (w/ #giveaway)!

Welcome to Book-Keeping and my stop on the Rockstar Book Tours blog tour for the fourth installment in the City Spies series by James Ponti, City Spies: City of the Dead, which releases next Tuesday, 7 February! If you’ve followed my reviews before, you’ll know what a huge fan I am of this series, so I’m thrilled to tell you all about this latest installment. You can also find my review and a giveaway below!

About the Book

title: City Spies: City of the Dead author: James Ponti publisher: Aladdin release date: 7 February 2023

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…

Add to Goodreads  Purchase the Book Check out the Book Trailer

Grab the rest of the City Spies books now!

About the Author

JAMES PONTI (he/him/his) 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. 

Connect with James: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

My 5-Star Review

If you’ve followed my reviews for any length of time, you may know just how much I love this middle grade series. My son and I have both read them all (though he hasn’t yet gotten his hands on this latest one!), and we’ve also read, both separately and out loud together, Mr. Ponti’s Dead City series, which we also love. (He has also read the Framed! series, though I have not.) Naturally I was going to jump at the chance to read and review book four! (You can find my reviews of book one here and book two here.)

While I suppose you technically could read this as a standalone, I would highly recommend reading the first three books first -- you’ll get a much better feel for the characters, and they’re totally all worth reading! In each book, a different one of our “city spies” (their codenames are each the cities in which they were found) is the alpha, or leader, of the mission. In book four, it’s Kat’s turn, and she leads in several missions throughout the book, which take the spies from London to Berlin to, ultimately, Cairo and Luxor, Egypt. Kat has always been a favorite character of mine -- she has Asperger’s and is able to see patterns amid all the chaos of life. She’s truly brilliant and refreshingly honest and plain-spoken! The spies continue hot on the heels of Umbra in this installment, and there’s a surprise addition to the City Spies team that no one was expecting. I literally read the entire book in one sitting; I just couldn’t stop flipping the pages!

I highly, highly recommend this series for all middle grade readers (will be especially good for reluctant readers!), as well as anyone who just enjoys a good spy thriller (one appropriate for kids, of course). This installment continues the unbroken string of five-star reviews for each book in the series. And with *that ending*, I can’t wait to read book five!

Rating: 5 stars!

**Disclosure: I received a copy of the book from the publisher for purposes of this blog tour. This review is voluntary on my part and reflects my honest rating and review of the book.

About the Giveaway

One (1) lucky winner will receive a finished copy of City Spies: City of the Dead by James Ponti! This one is US only and ends on 6 February 2023. Enter via the Rafflecopter below, and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Blog Tour + James’ Tours

Here’s the schedule for this second and final week of the blog tour, as well as James’ schedule of tours for the book launch!

Blog Tour, Week Two:

1/30/2023 - Nerdophiles - Review 1/30/2023 - Eye-Rolling Demigod's Book Blog - Review/IG Post

1/31/2023 - Wanderingwitchreads - TikTok Review/IG Post 1/31/2023 - Review Thick And Thin - Review/IG Post

2/1/2023 - @ChristenKrumm - IG Review 2/1/2023 - Two Points of Interest - Review

2/2/2023 - Book-Keeping - Review/IG Post 2/2/2023 - @bookmama85 - IG Review

2/3/2023 - OneMoreExclamation - Review/IG Post 2/3/2023 - @froggyreadteach - IG Review

James’ launch tours:

Monday, February 7, 2023 at 6:00pm CT Virtual launch event hosted by Blue Willow Bookshop (Houston, TX) In conversation with Kelly Yang (author of NEW FROM HERE and FINALLY SEEN)

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 at 7:00pm ET In-person event hosted by Little Shop of Stories (Decatur, GA) In conversation with Laurel Snyder (author of ORPHAN ISLAND and CHARLIE & MOUSE)

Thursday, February 9, 2023 at 6:00pm ET In-person event hosted by Malaprop’s (Asheville, NC) In conversation with Alan Gratz (author of REFUGEE, GROUND ZERO, and TWO DEGREES)

Friday, February 10, 2023 at 5:00pm ET In-person event hosted by RJ Julia Booksellers (Madison, CT) In conversation with Lauren Tarshis (author of the I SURVIVED series)

Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 3:00pm ET In-person event hosted by Books of Wonder (New York, NY) In conversation with Sayantani DasGupta (author of THE FIRE QUEEN series), Chris Grabenstein (author of DOG SQUAD and THE SMARTEST KID IN THE UNIVERSE), and Karina Yan Glaser (author of THE VANDERBEEKERS series)

Sunday, February 12, 2023 at 2:00pm CT In-person event at St. Louis Public Library hosted by The Novel Neighbor (St. Louis, MO) In conversation with George Jreije (author of SHAD HADID AND THE ALCHEMISTS OF ALEXANDRIA)

Monday, February 13, 2023 at 7:00pm CT In-person event hosted by Wild Rumpus Books for Young Readers (Minneapolis, MN) In conversation with Jacqueline West (author of THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE and LONG LOST)

Tuesday, February 14, 2023 at 5:30pm ET In-person event hosted by Quail Ridge Books (Raleigh, NC) In conversation with Kwame Mbalia (author of the TRISTAN STRONG series)

Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 10:30am ET In-person event hosted by Politics & Prose (Washington, D.C.)

Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 2:00pm ET In-person event hosted by The International Spy Museum (Washington, D.C.)

Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 2:00pm ET In-person event hosted at Lake Highland Prep School hosted by Writer’s Block Bookstore (Orlando, FL) In conversation with Jerry Craft (author of NEW KID and CLASS ACT)

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Forbidden City | Author: James Ponti | Publisher: Aladdin (2022)

[razreads]

You don’t have to be part of a group to understand that they’re being mistreated.  

James Ponti, City Spies

[fishyupmywishy]

I’m about to get The Sherlock Society and the fact that it takes place in Miami fills me with an unreasonable rage.

I hate Miami. With a burning passion. I can’t stand that place. The entire city needs to be burned to the ground and I can’t even give a valid reason why I hate it so much other than the fact that’s it’s terrible and most Floridians would agree with me.

Anyway, the book looks super interesting and it’ll be here next week so I can’t wait to talk about it!!!

[nobooksnotravel]

Place: Washington DC

Age range: 9+

Genre: juvenile fiction, mystery

Plot: Get to know the only kid on the FBI Director’s speed dial and several international criminals’ most wanted lists all because of his Theory of All Small Things in this hilarious start to a brand-new middle grade mystery series.

So you’re only halfway through your homework and the Director of the FBI keeps texting you for help…What do you do? Save your grade? Or save the country?

If you’re Florian Bates, you figure out a way to do both.

Florian is twelve years old and has just moved to Washington. He’s learning his way around using TOAST, which stands for the Theory of All Small Things. It’s a technique he invented to solve life’s little mysteries such as: where to sit on the on the first day of school, or which Chinese restaurant has the best eggrolls.

But when he teaches it to his new friend Margaret, they uncover a mystery that isn’t little. In fact, it’s HUGE, and it involves the National Gallery, the FBI, and a notorious crime syndicate known as EEL.

Can Florian decipher the clues and finish his homework in time to help the FBI solve the case?

Kirkus Reviews praised the “solid, realistic friendship bolstered by snappy dialogue,” and School Library Journal said “mystery buffs and fans of Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series are in for a treat.” (Taken from publisher)

[needlesandnilbogs]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I get to see James Ponti speak today

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I am Normal about this