City Spies

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2020

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-20

Chapters 21-37

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Computers and Hacking

Computers and hacking are a recurring motif in City Spies and serve to illuminate the intelligence and resourcefulness of protagonist Brooklyn, propel the plot by aiding in the fight against Umbra, and demonstrate the level of connectedness in the modern world. Brooklyn is fully aware of the amount of power she holds as a hacker and uses her abilities to fight Justice. She meets Mother after being arrested for hacking into the juvenile justice system in an attempt to expose her criminal foster parents. Ironically, Brooklyn is the one who is treated like a criminal, illustrating how the definition of Crime and what it means to be a criminal are not as objective as commonly assumed. It is also because of Brooklyn’s ability to hack computers that she is invited by Mother to join his team of spies. This brings Brooklyn to a new sort of Family, which is something she may never have otherwise gotten to experience. Furthermore, both Brooklyn and Charlotte, the two best hackers in the novel, are female. By pursuing their passions, they both rebuff gender norms. Monty is a cryptographer and uses computers to develop technology for advancing the secrecy of communication in MI6. Brooklyn is surprised when she meets Monty, as she has never met a female computer scientist before.

In the climax of the novel, Brooklyn must face her fear of heights and scale the outside of a building to stop the virus from being unleashed. She also traverses the catacombs multiple times, slowly becoming less and less afraid, and in many ways, it is her desire to be the best hacker and serve justice that pushes her to work through her fears. More than anything, Brooklyn’s intelligence is demonstrated through her hacking abilities; Mother calls her a “natural.” As she is taught other skills like deception, deciphering patterns, and navigation, she incorporates these into her repertoire and even finds ways to combine her new knowledge with her hacking skills. All of these developments relate to Brooklyn’s journey of Finding Her Inner Spy. Computers and hacking also serve the purpose of driving the aspect of plot involved with environmental protection and meteorology. The children live on an air force base which was turned into a weather station by a man named Benito Viñes. He was responsible for figuring out how hurricane patterns work, saving millions of lives from then until the present. The power of computers is thus also shown to be influential in improving humanity’s quality of life.

Diversity

Diversity is an important motif in City Spies as the ensemble that forms amongst Mother, Monty, and the children is made up of people from all backgrounds, geographical areas, and creeds. The group was unintentionally started when Paris, a Rwandan refugee, was found living alone in a factory as a child. He saves Mother’s life, and Mother saves his. Over time, the group grows as more children with nothing left to return to, but a wealth of talent and hope to offer, come together to form the City Spies. Each child is named after their hometown, and it is a way to both cover their true identities but also to celebrate the vast array of knowledge and experiences they have when they come together. Rio’s magic skills were something he taught himself as a child living on the streets in Rio de Janeiro. Brooklyn grew up in New York and carries the true grit attitude of its people. Kat brings an unmatchable ability to decipher patterns, and when Brooklyn first arrives, Sydney spends time helping Brooklyn understand Kat in order to promote diversity, inclusion, and acceptance. Mother refers to himself as such because he is the caretaker of these children, but it also represents his refusal to confine himself to gender norms and expectations. Where he could have called himself “Father,” he chooses “Mother” instead, as that is how he feels. By building their unique family, the City Spies challenge traditional Definitions of Family and help one another Prevail Through Adversity.

European History

European history is weaved throughout City Spies and is a motif which amplifies the realism of the novel’s setting and characters. The group lives in a place called Aisling, a stone house with a turret next to an airfield. The location’s architecture is over a century old and resembles that of antiquity. Over time, it has served as a spy operation center, airfield, home for Benito Viñes, and weather station. People have used its tunnels to hide from Nazis during World War II, from police during times of religious conflict, and more. Benito Viñes is a personal hero of Brooklyn’s, who is also of Latin heritage. She admires his resilience, resolve, and intelligence, as well as his passion to improve life for all humans. Viñes’s study of hurricane weather patterns has saved countless lives, and Brooklyn hopes to save lives with her own computer skills. The group’s supercomputer, Ben, is named after Benito Viñes.

James Ponti’s novel also details some of the history of MI6, a real British intelligence organization, the history of the catacombs underneath Paris, and includes examples of real art and pop culture to add to the story’s realism and relatability. Mother is a passionate fan of Roald Dahl, a British children’s author. He names one of his missions “Operation Willy Wonka” (145) and fools a woman into thinking “Crunchem Hall” is a real place. He is also an art connoisseur, and the paintings of both Monet and Renoir become the focal point of crime in the novel’s rising action. It is through his observations of Sinclair’s art collection that Mother realizes he is associated with Umbra. It is a commonly relied upon technique for writers of mystery, suspense, or spy novels to incorporate real life people, places, and facts to instill a sense of believability and help the reader piece together clues based on their own personal knowledge of these things. Ponti successfully includes details that the average reader would recognize to bring them closer to the answer to the mystery.