cover image Also Known As

Also Known As

Robin Benway. Walker, $16.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-8027-3390-0

Maggie is a safecracking prodigy and the only child of parents who work as spies for an organization called the Collective. When the family relocates to New York City, 16-year-old Maggie lands her first assignment: befriending Jesse, a cute private school boy, to gain access to the e-mail belonging to his magazine editor father, who is suspected to be planning a revealing story about the Collective. As Maggie assimilates into life as a regular teenager, making her first friend and having her first kiss (with Jesse), she wonders if she is cut out to be a spy. Benway (The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June) offers a rollicking take on the “spy kids” premise, buoyed by fun characters like Maggie’s irrepressible friend Roux and a well-dressed mentor who is always ready to give Maggie sage advice—or helicopter in to save her. As is common in this genre, realism isn’t exactly at the forefront (Maggie eventually draws her friends into the assignment), but readers will be sufficiently invested to see the mission through to completion. Ages 12–up. Agent: Lisa Grubka, Foundry Literary + Media. (Feb.)