Reviewed by G. Ritzke, March 2023
Benjamin Ripley was a normal middle-school kid with some excellent math skills. He had his best friend Mike Brenski, and life was good. Until Ben gets moved out of his school and put into St. Smithen’s Science Academy for Boys and Girls. The school seemed boring until he got there, and he finds out it’s a spy school in disguise. He wants to make new friends at the school but just gets into trouble and becomes a target for the new enemy organization. This is just the first book but there are 9 other ones with the adventures of Ben and others from the school around the world, doing things he would have never even dreamed of and somehow using the skill he didn’t know he had.
The Spy School series is about learning the ropes of new things and having to use those ropes right away, and when you didn’t think you’d need them. When following Ben and his friends you don’t know what's going to happen next or even in the next book. There are always new adventures and learning lessons along with the characters. I loved this series and have read it twice. I recommend this book to middle schoolers who like action and adventure.