Agent Boo Vol. 1: The Littlest Agent

This is the first in a series of books about secret agent Boo and her cat, Pumpkin. My 2nd grader (Age 7) LOVED this book. There are a few comic-book-style pages interspersed throughout the book, and he really enjoyed this non-traditional format. In this book, Boo works to defeat the "bad guy," who in this case is a woman. At the end, she becomes an official agent - the littlest agent. I think that girls will enjoy this book because the main character is female and has a cat. But, if you have a boy, don't be put off. My 2nd grader is a boy, and, as I said, he LOVED this book!

This was a surprisingly cute and entertaining story. I bought it for my 8-year-old son. There are not many spy series out there for children that young (the Jack Stalwart spy books are also outstanding for this age group), and this series promises to be very sweet. Boo is almost a spy in spite of herself - pluckiness and guts get her through most things successfully. Pumpkin, the grouchy cat sidekick, is hysterical. Part of the book is text and the other half is graphic novel so it makes for a very appealing combination. My son immediately wanted to read book 2 and I'm expecting Book 3 in a couple of days. I hope they put out more in this series because it really is worth reading particularly for young school-aged children interested in spy or adventure stories.

As chapter books go, this is a quite entertaining one, with a positive role model for my daughter: Agent Boo is Dora The Explorer in space, running into puzzles and traps with her animal friends, only without the annoying counting and naming colors. I love the way parts of the story are depicted in the comics, bringing variation and speed to the tale. So I have ordered the next two parts in the series.