Secret Agent - Softcover

Spizman, Robyn Freedman Freedman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1416918620 ISBN 13: 9781416918622

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2006

Synopsis

LISTEN UP PEOPLE, because we've got a problem here. It's time to get really worried, and by that I mean majorly concerned, about Kyle Parker. he used to be a cool guy. Okay, not the smartest kid at school or the best looking, but he could always hold his own. Until recently. Until he failed to notice that Lucinda (who, btw, is really hot) has been following him around for weeks. Or that a volleyball was coming straight for his face during gym. But can you blame him at a time like this?

In case you haven't heard, Kyle's mom kicked his dad out of the house. Why? Because of a book. Kyle's dad's book. The one he's been writing and can't get published. Which means he can't make any money. Which means he can't support his family. So it's the big D. Divorce. Unless Kyle can pull a fast one and fake out the most famous editor in New York City.

How?

By going undercover. Secret. Top secret. That's right. Kyle Parker is about to become his dad's secret agent. So pay attention because he's going to need all the help he can get.

About this title

About the Author:

Robyn Freedman Spizman is an award-winning author and a nationally known media personality and consumer advocate. She has appeared for the past two decades on television and radio, and is considered a leading product-and-gift expert. To learn more about her go to www.robynsipizman.com. Robyn lives with her husband in Atlanta, Georgia, and they have two children, Justin and Ali. Secret Agent is her middle-grade fiction debut.

Mark Johnston teaches English in Greenville, South Carolina, where he lives with his wife. Secret Agent is his first novel.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 7-10–Kyle, a New York City high school freshman, is willing to do almost anything to keep his parents together. Convinced that their separation is due simply to his father's obsession with a book he has written, the boy enlists an oddball collection of friends as "secret agents" to help get Dad's senior romance published. The vast array of semi-developed characters includes a flamboyant yet seclusive writer whom no one knows is really a famous "female" author, a dead but influential editor, an unexpectedly wonderful old bookseller who "adopts" Kyle's dad, a classy senior editor whom the kids need to impress, and a bevy of buddies. Through Kyle's persistence and increasing ability to perceive connections and utilize them, the teens manage to lift the manuscript from Dad's hiding place, start a "buzz" throughout New York's publishing industry about the fabulous writer "everybody's" talking about, but no one can find–and secret the manuscript to the senior editor in a ruse involving a "recommendation" from her deceased mentor. Though the journey is circuitous, the characters excessive, and the narrative unsettling (the story is told by an omniscient observer who is afflicted with a severe case of teen speak), it becomes a strangely compelling adventure in which readers root for Kyle's success.–Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1416918620
• ISBN 13: 9781416918622
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240