The double cross and other skills I learned as a SUPERSPY by Jackson Pearce

Bloomsbury, 2016. ISBN 9781619634145
(Age: 8-12) Recommended. Smart, intelligent twelve-year-old Hale Jordan lives with his secret agent parents and younger sister Kennedy at the SRS Sub Rosa Society, an underground academy for superspies. Hale struggles to pass the physical test to become a junior agent, unfortunately his classmates call him Hale the Whale. When his parents disappear during Operation Groundcover and the leaders at SRS are unwilling to save them an unlikely hero emerges. Hale uses all the spy techniques he has learnt to break into the offices of the League, their rival agency.
Of course, the daring deeds of a young agent like Hale take him into dangerous situations that require skill and ingenuity. There are spies and double agents, counterplots and risky missions. When he secretly opens the SRS files, he discovers that his parents have been listed as eliminated on sight. The young agent befriends Ben, an inventor, and his sister Beatrix, a computer whiz from the League and they work together to foil the SRS plot to kidnap talented kids and turn them into secret agents.
Pearce's protagonist Hale rises above the bullying from his classmates and he uses his knowledge and abilities to overcome difficult situations. The supporting characters are likeable as well, there's Ben's with his timely and clever inventions, Kennedy's cheerleading team help with a risky escape and Beatrix's valuable computer skills. Jackson Pearce's The double cross is an appealing novel, a funny, action-packed novel that is suitable for confident readers who enjoy spy stories.
Rhyllis Bignell