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Chris Bradford's Bodyguard: Hostage is a punchy action thriller for 10 year olds about a teenage kickboxing champion who's recruited to protect other people's children.
Connor Reeves is fourteen, from East London, and he's just won the UK under-sixteens kickboxing title. On the way home he spots a boy being mugged in an alley by a gang of four. Everyone else walks past. Connor doesn't.
He holds his own and gets arrested for his trouble. Then things get very strange. The police officers know far too much about him, a silver-haired colonel appears, and it turns out the whole mugging was a test. Even the police station isn't a real police station any more!
The colonel runs a secret organisation called Buddyguard, which trains young people to guard children who might be kidnapped. He knew Connor's dad, who died six years ago. And he says Connor has the one thing you can't teach, the instinct to step in.
Saying yes isn't simple. Connor helps look after his mum, who has multiple sclerosis, with his gran. Buddyguard will pay for a live-in carer if he goes. That bit is really touching, and it makes Connor very easy to root for.
At the training camp in Wales he meets the rest of the team, including the "gang" from the alley. They're a funny, likeable bunch from all over the world. Amir warns him that Ling always wins her fights (Connor's split lip would agree).
Meanwhile, far away in Yemen, a terrorist group is planning to kidnap the American President's daughter. You can probably see where this is heading.
The fights are described blow by blow and there's lots of real martial arts detail. If your reader likes knowing exactly how a spinning hook-kick works, they'll be in heaven.
A quick heads-up for parents. The bad guys are a terrorist cell who talk about the attack on the Twin Towers, and their leader boasts about slitting throats. Connor's dad was a soldier who died, and one of the team uses a wheelchair after being hurt on a job. It's an action story for readers who are ready for that.
If your reader enjoys the idea of kids quietly doing grown-up secret work, City Spies is a great next step. Sara is a twelve-year-old hacker facing juvenile detention in New York when a charming British stranger walks into the courtroom with a very unusual offer.
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