Twelve-year-old Ben Ripley loves playing spy games on the CIA's website, convinced that one day he'll be recruited, though his parents and even his best friend Mike think it's a waste of time. However, one day, Alexander Hale sweeps in and whisks Ben off to the Academy of Espionage (a.k.a. Spy School), where he's immediately thrown into danger. A bit bumbling and unsure who to trust, he's taken under the wing of brilliant third-year and legacy student Erica Hale, who's much smarter than her golden-boy dad. A number of characters employ the "hide in plain sight and pretend to be something else," including an apparently doddering old professor and the secret mole, who's a double agent posing as a careless slacker. I did not read the original text but the graphic novel adaptation is zippy, clever, quick, and high-stakes - very appealing and fun! ( )

Graphic Novel #2

I am a big fan of graphic novels. When I say Stuart Gibbs bestselling series was going graphic I had to read it. I still love the story of a school that teaches kids to be spies and then sends them on missions. The graphic novel was decently done. The illustrations are fine, but there was something about the way it was colored that turned me off a bit. Please be aware I was reading a digital galley and that may be the reason why. Overall these books are a lot of fun for kids of all ages, and now they are in a format that will appeal to reluctant readers, and maybe even lead them to picking up the rest of the series in chapter book form. ( )

Characters were flat, but the mystery aspect and spy tropes kept me hooked. The tension is well-paced and Ben doesn't know who to trust either. There's a fun twist that I didn't see coming! Kids will definitely get way more mileage from this. ( )