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Summary
Summary
As students at a special high school that trains them to be secret agents, six teenagers struggle to complete the training exercises as a team before being sent out into the field to sink or swim.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-The six members of Bond team are on a mission that may mean life or death for them or for thousands of innocent people. They are students at Spy High, an elite school that not only teaches them academics, but also instructs them on hand-to-hand combat, infiltrating evil-doer computer systems, and proper use of their shock suits. The book is set in the future, when genetic mutation gas is the weapon of choice for the bad guys. The teenagers find it difficult to function as a unit; there is a struggle about who should lead and they are all filled with self-doubt. Only a tragedy of monumental proportions can force them to work together and realize their own strengths. While striving to create a James Bond story for teenagers, this book ends up being more of a clich? about the spy business than an intriguing adventure. The main characters are never fully developed and stereotypes abound. Readers may appreciate the nonstop action, but descriptions such as "The stench of the creature was in her nostrils, making her gag. Saliva drooled from its jagged mouth as razored teeth snapped at her throat" get old after awhile. Fans of adventure series may initially be attracted to this new offering, but they will tire quickly of the repetition.-Lynn Evarts, Sauk Prairie High School, Prairie du Sac, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Take a lightweight YA tale featuring a hint of romance and angst. Add a good dose of TV's Alias, fold in some Buffy the Vampire Slayer and season lightly with elements of Artemis Fowl-the result is this overstuffed novel, first in a new action-adventure series. Some decades in the future, six teenagers from various walks of life are recruited to attend the prestigious Deveraux Academy. They soon find out why the institution is known by its students as "Spy High," as they are assigned to be teammates on Bond Team (yes, an homage to that Bond). A typical day of the teens' rigorous academic schedule involves learning about laser weapons, disarming bombs and maneuvering a mode of transportation known as a SkyBike. When Bond Team is sent on a special expedition into the Wildscape, they encounter the Moreau-like Dr. Averill Frankenstein, who claims to be a descendant of Mary Shelley's creation (he calls her work "an authentic account of the greatest scientific experiment ever attempted"). Clearly influenced by the big and small screen, Butcher keeps the action at warp speed with lots of quick scene changes, and bits of fast-flying, but not very believable dialogue. Unfortunately, confusing chapter openings and a barrage of characters and creatures hamper the book's rhythm. Characters remain unformed, coming across mostly as devices to deliver smart-alecky repartee. Die-hard action fans will likely welcome something new, but casual readers may prefer a video of Spy Kids. Ages 12-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
This new series about teenage spies gets off to a slow start with half the book devoted to introducing the six protagonists and describing their training methods. In their first mission, Bond Team confronts Dr. Averill Frankenstein and CHAOS+the Crusade for Havoc, Anarchy, and the Overthrow of Society. The characters are stereotyped and the dialogue hackneyed. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In this over-the-top secret-agent caper with a comic-book feel, six kids, each with a special talent and a psychological issue, are recruited to join a select training academy for secret agents. Drawn from the street and the elite, these exceptional, though one-note, teenagers perform beautifully on tests of skill, but their crew is racked with rivalry and interpersonal problems and refuses to gel. The plot heats up when the group is sent on what they think is a bucolic bonding weekend. But unbeknown to them, the school has deliberately sent them on an appointment with peril, a grotesquely ludicrous (though following a convention of the genre, not really meant to be believable) situation involving genetic mutants made by a modern-day Frankenstein. Can the group throw aside their animosity and work together as a true team? High on action, adventure, and derring-do but more cursory on character development, this will please fans of the genre, but garner no new converts. First in a series. (Fiction. 12+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 7-10. In the first pages of this breezy thriller set in the year 2060, readers meet the Bond Team, a group of first-year students at Deveraux Academy (aka Spy High ) whom recruiters expect to make the most indomitable secret agents ever assembled. Representing a PC range of ethnicities, synergistic strengths, and stock teen-fiction personalities (brooding bad boy, preppy jock, wisecracking clown, street-smart African American, and so on), the aspiring spies are trained in martial arts and futuristic gadgetry while dealing with typical high-school social issues. The latter are so disruptive to the team's cohesion that it takes a suspenseful trial by fire--a mission involving a real megalomaniac, not the virtual-reality facsimile that is part of their high-tech curriculum--to demonstrate their true potential. It's a formulaic but fun start to a series that will keep YAs well entertained, especially reluctant readers weaned on the fast pace and rampant one-liners of movies like Austin Powers and Charlie's Angels. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2004 Booklist