SPY-IN-TRAINING

Accustomed to being ignored, a middle child finds herself in the center of an espionage operation.

Bridget’s family and friends may have forgotten her 13th birthday, but someone leaves her a bag of spy gadgets at her front door. The gifts lead her to the truth about her birth father, and she’s recruited as a spy-in-training for a supersecret National Security Agency section. Used to feeling invisible around her troublemaker older brother and her perfectly behaved younger sister, Bridget jumps at the opportunity to save the world in her new role. She manages to fumble through her missions with the help of her performance-enhancing tracksuit and her sarcasm. She hopes her successes will allow her to meet her birth father. Bridget’s single-minded focus causes her to alienate everyone who cares about her—just as she realizes that her handler has lied to her. She attempts to pull off her most dangerous mission yet and make amends before it’s too late. The slow start and dated or sometimes puzzlingly adult-skewing pop-culture references may resonate better with adults than young readers. The latter pages are action-packed but also bogged down by twists included mostly for their combat potential. The book’s casual approach to virtual bullying and an apparent lack of consequences are also disappointments.

An action-packed series opener with plenty of room for improvement.