City Spies by James Ponti

 Sara Martinez is in Juvey because she hacked into the New York City foster care system to expose the corruption and abuse at her foster home. She is about to be sentenced to three years in a juvenile detention center when she is saved by a man who recruits her to join a elite group of teens who work for MI6. After a hasty training, Sara, now called Brooklyn, Cat, Rio, Paris and Sydney are off on a mission to protect an eccentric philanthropist from assassination by an powerful terrorist group. Posing as a high school students at an international climate control competition, they soon discover there is much more at risk at the conference than just one man's safety. 

This is a new book on the Battle of the Books list this year.  There have been a lot of "spy school" stories in the past.  It is interesting that Stuart Gibbs gives one of the "blibs" on the cover, since his Spy School series is one of the most well known and one that I liked the most. This one is OK.  The kids are likeable, and the plot has some good twists to it.  Everything is a bit over the top.  I don't think anyone, let alone a 13-year-old girl without any computer education, could do the kind of hacking she is supposed to be able to do.  There are some plot problems, too, but I don't know if kids would pick up on them. The story is fast paced and fun, so I am not that disappointed that it is on the Battle of the Books list this year. I may even read the next in the series some day. (2020, 384 p)