Spy High Mission One (Spy High)

Author - AJ Butcher ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Little, Brown Young Readers was reviewed on 7-Jun-2008.

Search ISBN:0316737607 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Spy High Mission One (Spy High) Reference Book. Classifications : Action & Adventure Literature Children's Books Subjects Books Mysteries, Espionage, & Detectives Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror Literature Children's Books Subjects Books School Issues Chi . Click the following link to view the cover of Spy High Mission One (Spy High).

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1) Paperback Book Spy High Mission One (Spy High) by Little, Brown Young Readers. Spy High by AJ Butcher is an action, adventure book that tells the story of six teenage spies, Jake, Ben, Eddie, Cally, Jennifer, and Lori. In order to graduate from the academy, the spies need to complete, and pass a computerized test. If Bond team fails one more time then they are kicked out of the academy, and minds are erased! The Team has failed two of these tests, due to lack of team cooperation so the Head Master sends them on a real mission. This time if they mess up they die. With Ben and Jake are fighting over position as leader in Bond team it becomes a very difficult task. This book has a great amount of action in it. I would recommend this book to all action readers.¤

2) Paperback Book Spy High Mission One (Spy High) by Little, Brown Young Readers. Spy High was a very enjoyable book but was not a great book. Some of the things in Spy High that were good was some of the dialog, and the conflict that the characters face. In Spy High there are two different conflicts that the main characters face. Some of the things that made this story bad were the characters and the conflict between the group and the description of the characters. In the story the two main characters Ben and Jake fight all the time in Spy High and it was that that made Spy High a good but not great story. I gave Spy High three stars out of five stars because of these concepts.¤

3) Paperback Book Spy High Mission One (Spy High) by Little, Brown Young Readers. Spy High is a great book! It´s one of my favorites. Harry Potter is nothing compared to Spy High. I would recommend this book to everyone who loves action, suspense, and comedy.

-Apurv Gandhi

¤

4) Paperback Book Spy High Mission One (Spy High) by Little, Brown Young Readers. Spy High, Mission One, is an incredible book. One of the main things I have to say I love about this book are the descriptions, they are really well done and detailed without it seeming like to much. The charactor development is slow, but you really get a good sence of what is happening n their minds. There are three boys and three girls, so they are paired up, and having everyone paired up ia a bit daunting, I admit, but it reall helps the story move along. I´d have to say my favorite charector is Jake, and I love the realtionship between him and Ben that goes on in the story.

You see, Ben is a rich, snobish boy who´s dream is to make it to the top. But Jake, a domer(low status) rookie, is fiery and passionet, were Ben is cool and calm. They are ment to be the perfect balence, but instead they clash in unsuprising ways.

Ben is with Lori, a sweet girl who is all about looks and attide. Cally, a girl from the streets, finds herself slowly falling for the darkand mysteriose Jake. Sadley, his eyes are on someone else, Jenifer. An Asian karate master(sort of) who´d rather fight than go on a stake out. She hesitates in returning his sincer affections, but then that leaves us Eddie, the comic relife and pervert of the group. Jake and Ben bet him that he couldn´t get a girl to kiss him before the semester was over, but will he? The romance in this book is subrisingly subtle and well done.

Now here is the villan, a desendant from Frankianstien who has capterued them all and is trying to turn them into deneted forms of their naterule selves. Will they escape? Will Ben and Jake finaly get along? Will Cally survive this sudden heartbreak? And, by the gods, id Eddie ever going to get that kiss? Read it to find out, it´s a book that will leave ty ou begging for more!¤

5) Paperback Book Spy High Mission One (Spy High) by Little, Brown Young Readers. I picked up Spy High from the library because it looked like fun. It wasn´t. It´s 196 pages of bad banter, ludicrous villains, cardboard cut out characters, and a plot with holes big enough to ride a SkyBike through.

From the outside, Deveraux Academy looks like a normal boarding school. However, it´s not. It´s actually a cover for a school to train future secret agents. Deveraux´s students call it Spy High.

Usually, Spy High students are flawless, but one of this year´s teams, Bond Team, is falling short. The constant bickering between the elected leader, Ben, and Jake, a fellow team member, threatens to tear the team apart. When they fail an important test, their teacher decides they need a to take a camping trip so they can bond as one big happy family. Unfortunately, when giant mutant creatures attack the campers, all of Bond Team have to fight for their survival. This time, if they fail, they´ll die.

Spy High is such a mess that it´s hard to know where to begin. First, there´s the characters. There are six teens on Bond Team, three girls and three boys, and they are all completely one-dimensional, unsympathetic, and unbelievably irritating. Their personalities are inconsistent from scene to scene, which makes them all names without any distinct personality traits.

Of course, since there are an equal number of boys and girls, everyone needs to be pairing up every minute. Ben and Lori. Cally and Jake. Never mind, Jake didn´t really like Cally, so make that Jake and Jennifer. Now Cally´s feelings are hurt. Pair-up Cally and Eddie. In my opinion, no one in their right mind would ever want to date Eddie, since he is useless, flirtatious to the point of gagging, and keeps up and endless stream of banter and bad jokes.

In fact, the entire book seems to be an endless stream of banter. For example, on page 118:

"I agree with Ben," said Jake... "And if you want my opinion, we carry on regardless. Those guys were jerks, and even if King Kong or the Frankenstein Monster or something else has taken up residence in the near vicinity, we´re all secret agents in training, aren´t we? We´re Bond Team. We can handle them."

Or on page 7:

" ´Fraid you´ll just have to put up with me," said Cally. "And as for motivation, if you don´t get moving now I´m gong to be motivating you by squeezing somewhere that hurts."

Or on page 19:

"You´re just a cliche, Stromfeld," groaned Ben... "You´re just an entry in a textbook. A porker in a uniform."

Or on page 159:

"Names are unimportant," the anonymous face said. "Names are part of the ordered, rational society that we reject and despise. It is enough that we are agents of CHAOS and chaos we will bring to all the world."

It may not seem that annoying, but imagine 196 pages of endless banter. After a while, you just start wishing everyone would shut up and get on with the story.

The villains are equally annoying.

Let´s imagine for a moment that you´re a villain who wants to take over the world. You discover a group of kids trying to sabotage your nefarious plans. Do you:

a. Shoot them immediately.

or

b. Explain your evil plan for world domination to them in extreme detail, then think of the most convoluted way to execute them possible so they have a chance to escape and stop you and/or leave them in an unguarded room for them to escape from.

If you picked b., congratulations! You should be the next villain in the Spy High series! Unfortunately, if you´re female, you probably won´t be picked, because all of the villains are male. The author seems to think that girls can´t be evil too.

There´s also the problem of the villain´s plan for world domination. The villain, who amazingly enough turns out to be descended from Dr. Frankenstein (isn´t it funny how all evil crazy people turn out to be related?), has developed "gene gas" which can mutate people´s DNA if they inhale it. I´m sorry, Mr. evil villain, that would not work in real life.

Another problem is the descriptions. They are overly long and overly dramatic. For example on page 118:

Cally felt that the night surrounding her was like a yawning black mouth that could close upon them and devour them at any time.

First of all, there´s a grammatical inconsistency (the night surrounding HER... could close upon THEM and devour THEM), but there´s also the fact that it´s a waste of words. You could shorten it to:

Cally was scared of the dark.

Wow! I just cut eighteen words, and the description makes more sense!

There are more of these descriptions. On page 120:

Jennifer´s voice crackled like the logs on the fire...flames writhed in her green eyes, caressed her skin as if they recognized one of their own.

Just wondering, how can someone´s voice crackle like logs on a fire? And how can the flames be in her eyes and caressing her skin? Wouldn´t she get burned? Is this supposed to be symbolic? Who knows?

Also on page 123:

Cally heard its leathery wings flapping, the sound like mummies applauding.

Well, first there´s the fact that this sentence is also grammatically incorrect, but then there´s also the applauding mummies. Let´s suspend disbelief for a moment and say that, yes, mummies can applaud. I would love to know where the author was able to find applauding mummies that he could listen to. Also, did he compare the sound of applauding mummies to the sound of mutant bat wings flapping, or did he just suppose that they sound the same?

There´s also the gigantic plot holes. For example, on page 109, Eddie says, "Camping?...As in tents and rucksacks? Didn´t that go out with the ozone layer?"

If the ozone layer has disappeared, then there should be massive amounts of UV radiation. As anyone who has ever learned anything about UV radiation knows, it is not a good thing to be exposed to. However, the kids spend a lot of the book outside, and have no protection against UV radiation, even though, as Eddie said, the ozone layer is gone. You´ve gotten stuck in a plot hole!

The ending is also so unbelievable and ludicrous that I could spend several more paragraphs debunking it, but I won´t just in case someone who reads this review wants to go out and read the book. I´d rather not spoil the ending for them. Suffice to say, it could never happen in real life, and it conflicts with "scientific evidence" from earlier chapters.

Needless to say, don´t read Spy High, don´t buy it, stay far away from it. Life is too short to waste reading wretched books.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 5-Jul-2008, 03167376079780316737609, 070-580-010-110-551-C8B-8

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