Forbidden City

James Ponti's Forbidden City is a funny, fast-moving spy story for 9 year olds that starts with a break-in at a billionaire's birthday party in London.

What happens

Paris is in charge this time, in the third City Spies adventure. He's one of the young agents MI6 sends in when a grown-up would stick out. His big skill is blending in so well that nobody remembers his face.

The mission sounds simple enough. A priceless Fabergé egg sits on the mantelpiece in his private office. Except it's a fake with a tiny microphone hidden inside, and the real one is sewn into the lining of Paris's jacket. He has to swap them back before anybody works it out.

The only way into the office is over the roof. And he has just one Happy Birthday, sung in the dark by a boy band, to climb the side of the house without being seen. No pressure then!

Meanwhile Kat has to chat up a sound engineer to plant a gadget (and she'd much rather be doing maths than talking to strangers). Brooklyn hacks the cameras from a safe house. Sydney paces about, wishing it was her out there.

Then the billionaire walks into his office while Paris is still inside. Guess who ends up hiding in the fireplace? And the birthday presents he can't wait to open turn out to be secret files about a nuclear scientist. So a quick swap becomes something much bigger.

It's super funny. The kids tease each other non-stop. Paris grumbles that their getaway car is a red double-decker bus that crawls along. Mother, their MI6 boss, has a rhyme for everything and gets eye-rolls every time.

It feels like being part of the team as you read, listening in on their earpieces while they bicker and cheer each other on. When Paris gets cornered, Brooklyn takes over the concert with fog, strobe lights and fireworks to give him a way out.

There are some tense moments, with armed guards on the doors and two very athletic security twins chasing Paris down a dark street. It's played for thrills rather than anything nasty.

It does follow on from the books before it, so it's best enjoyed by a reader who started with City Spies.

What to read next

If they're after another kid who'd rather do maths than make small talk, try Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation. Charlie is twelve, already studying at college, and the CIA wants her brain to track down a secret Albert Einstein left behind.