Posts Tagged James Ponti

Interview with James Ponti, bestselling author of City Spies: London Calling!

Cover of CITY SPIES: LONDON CALLING by James Ponti

Fresh off the release of his stellar THE SHERLOCK SOCIETY, James Ponti is back with the highly anticipated next thriller in the CITY SPIES series: LONDON CALLING. As always, the book is filled with action, adventure, humor, and heart. James was kind enough to speak with From the Mixed Up Files of Middle Grade Authors about his new novel, his approach to writing distinct characters, and a favorite book (with an ironic twist!).

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

London Calling takes a storyline that’s been building in the background of the first five books – with Mother and Clementine and Cairo and Annie – and brings it to the forefront. What was it like to tackle that storyline head-on?

There’s a couple things going into play with that. I know there are going to be at least eight books in the series, and there might be more. I thought – I have these ongoing stories, and I thought about readers – maybe some who’ve been with me the whole time, and they’re aging into different books. Perhaps I need to give them some resolution. But I don’t want to make the series feel like it’s over either. So what was interesting was trying to figure out how to wrap up some things and answer some big questions and at the same time create some new questions. So we have kind of a fresh start in the next book.

Everywhere I went where people were into the books, they would always ask me – is Clementine good or bad? And I told them, you know…I haven’t really fully decided – because what I didn’t want was for it to be an obvious one way or the other kind of thing. But I thought they deserved to have an answer to that question.

So in the last year, when I went out for either MISSSION MANHATTAN or if I was out for THE SHERLOCK SOCIETY, when kids would ask that I’d say, you’re going to find out in February!

I was drawn into the book from the get-go. The first chapter has such a great action sequence with Annie her best friend, but you also did such an incredible job revealing her character. How do you make sure you’re doing both of those things?

That was for me a really big challenge. I knew I wanted the book to start with [Annie] because we haven’t met her, and we don’t know what we think about her – although we have no reason to think she’s bad. Unlike Clementine, she’s never done anything to make you question her goodness or badness or which side she’s on – she’s just a character we don’t know about. And I wanted to get to know her, but also – I like to start the books with a big…I want them to suck you in. Hopefully!

One time I went on Goodreads, which is a mistake [laughs]. And this kid wrote – and I thank this kid a lot – because this kid wrote about the first book: I really like this book, but boy did it take forever to get started. And that gnawed at me for years. So the next book starts with like, hijackers landing on the ship about to take it hostage. I wrote that and I’m like, is that soon enough for you? Like talking to this kid out loud at my computer [laughs]. So you know, I like the book to really start with like something that’s going to grab you, hopefully.

The challenge is: how do we have that and not have it be empty action? How do we get to know this character during the action? …[T]he only way I’m going to get to know her character is if she has a friend to talk to. That became key.

…[T]hose [story] necessities led to me try to think: what’s her personality like? What kind of relationship does she have with her mother? And then – where I can break up the action with dialogue or with her thinking of an internal monologue to try to show her personality?

This is Book Six, and all the main characters have established traits about each of them, but you’re still revealing new things. How do you find that balance?

The first thing about the characters is – I started with five of them, and now there’s six – and what I did is: I took my five biggest problems as a middle schooler, and I gave each kid one of those problems. So that in a way, they would be five variations of me in middle school. And why I wanted to do that was because I wanted to never favor one over the other. I never wanted to be more vested or identify more with one of the other, and so I started with that. Then there’s other thing that is really backward… So I’m going to give you longer answer you want but hopefully it all makes sense. [laughs]

I went to see the DEAD POET’S SOCIETY with my mom back when that movie came out. I don’t know you’re familiar with it, but halfway through the movie, those kids – even though a lot of them now become actors we recognize – were all unknowns. All the kids have basically the same haircut, and they all wore matching uniforms. And halfway through the movie, my mom turned to me and she says: I can’t tell them apart. I don’t know who’s who. And that’s stuck with me forever as a writer thinking – how frustrating for a reader. To get confused with characters.

And I knew – here, I’m going throw five kids at you. And how am I going to make it work so you’re going to be able to keep track of them well? And that’s why I came with the idea, if I named them after the cities from – that gives you a little more tangible hold. It’s not Tom and Bob and Larry. It’s Paris. Oh, he’s the one for France – so I know his backstory instantly every time I see Paris, if I remember [he’s] the one that came from France.

So I made a list of 150 cities that I thought would be good character names. And I just scanned that list, and I said, I want one from each continent. So I had the names of the characters first.

You also have the profiles in the back of the book, so if you’re reading you can always flip back-and-forth. I think that is fantastic. How did those come about?

I’m not smart enough to come up with that. [laughs]. Actually, I got a call from my editor for the first book who said – someone in the sales meeting asked, wouldn’t it be neat if we had [character profiles]? I said, that would be great. You could go back and you could check.

And it was great – we got the artist to do solo shots of them all so they felt a little more real. Because it wasn’t just the ones on the cover. It’s like they each have their own yearbook picture. So I had to spend a lot of time trying come up with those. That’s actually the hardest part of the book to me is writing the dust in the back. Then they wanted to run the same one [for the second book]. I said no, we have to change it.

It forces us to really flesh them out – and also, I want to change how we do it. So one is them by themselves. In one of them they write about each other.

One of my favorite sections of the book is where the villain, Le Fantôme, quotes from The Little Prince that, “all grown-ups were once children, but only a few of them remember it.” He then says that he reads that book every year. To close, do you have a book that you find yourself re-reading like Le Fantôme?

…I was the worst reader growing up. I was terrible at it and was a really slow reader. Very frustrated by it, which is why I first started in television writing. I never thought I could write a book because it was such a struggle for me to get through. Ironically, the one book that got through to me is FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER.

It is my North Star, and I love it. There’s a funny story about it – so it’s the book that for whatever reason I got hooked on.

I grew up in a beach town in Florida outside of Jacksonville. We’re talking 30,000 people in four communities side by side. And when my first book came out, I said – I want to send a copy to Elaine Konigsburg and say to her: thank you for writing your book because without your book I know I would not have written this book. And so I tried to track down where she lived, and it turned out my whole life, she lived in my hometown. I had no idea.

I wish I knew that as a kid because I think [writing] would’ve seemed more attainable if I thought someone who lived here did it as opposed to – oh, you have to be in New York in Chicago or Los Angeles you have to have it you know XY&Z kind of things to check off the boxes…so the closest thing would be From the Mixed-Up Files!

James Ponti is the New York Times bestselling author of four middle grade book series: The Sherlock Society following a group of young detectives; City Spies, about an unlikely squad of five kids from around the world who form an elite MI6 Spy Team; the Edgar Award–winning Framed! series, about a pair of tweens who solve mysteries in Washington, DC; and the Dead City trilogy, about a secret society that polices the undead living beneath Manhattan. His books have appeared on more than fifteen different state award lists, and he is the founder of a writers group known as the Renegades of Middle Grade. James is also an Emmy–nominated television writer and producer who has worked for many networks including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, History, and Spike TV, as well as NBC Sports. He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida. Find out more at JamesPonti.com.

 

CITY SPIES: LONDON CALLING releases February 4 and is available at bookstores everywhere.

You can see more purchase options at: Simon & Schuster.

Interview with James Ponti – Author of CITY SPIES: CITY OF THE DEAD

I had the good fortune to interview James Ponti, author of the CITY SPIES series, this week. James’s fourth book in the series, CITY SPIES:  CITY OF THE DEAD comes out February 7.

I’m ashamed to admit that I am a little late to the CITY SPIES game, but I can’t wait to jump in and read them all.

 

Please tell us a little bit about your latest book, CITY SPIES: CITY OF THE DEAD.

It starts with a heist, which is so much fun to write. The City Spies have to break into the British Museum and steal something for the government. (Which means I had to figure out how to break into the British Museum.) In the process, they get swept up in a massive cyber-assault on venerated London institutions like Parliament and the Underground. To thwart the attack, they have to journey to Egypt and look for answers in the tombs among the Valley of the Kings. I wanted a story with elements that were up-to-the-minute modern alongside those that were ancient and mysterious. And mummies. I wanted mummies.

And, not for nothing, the fact that it involves breaking into a museum late at night can be traced directly back to the one book that found its way into my heart when I was a young reader. A certain book that shares its name with this website!

 


This series is incredibly popular. Colby Sharp of Nerdy Book Club said, “Books like this are why kids love to read,” which is high praise. What inspired you to write these stories and/or these characters?

First of all, I nearly fainted when I heard Colby say that on his video. My goal was to write a series that young me would’ve wanted to read. I was an extremely reluctant reader, so I keep that in mind when I work on the books. I tried to include the elements that grab me most as a reader – mystery, humor, adventure, and family. The actual idea was spurred by a trip my wife and I took to visit our son when he was studying in England for a year abroad. We went to London and Paris and had an amazing time. That trip and those elements came together to make City Spies.

 


Everyone says writing is a process. Could you share a little about your writing and/or research process?

I wish I had a process, but it seems to change all the time. Sometimes a story starts with characters and other times a plot. City Spies started with a setting. But for me, I really need those three ingredients before I can start cooking.

Right now, I’m finishing the first draft of City Spies 5, which comes out in 2024. Five books into this series, I still have to find all of those elements, but I also have to make sure they don’t seem too similar to what happened in the previous books. The main character changes from book to book, so with City Spies I start with who’s going to be the lead. Then I figure out what amazing location I want to write about. Then I try to work out a mystery/mission that feels organic to the combination of the two.

As for research, it’s extensive. For recent books, I’ve had long interviews with the former deputy director of the CIA, a leading Egyptologist, and a praying mantis expert who works for National Geographic in the Amazon. (My job is really fun that way.) I try to visit the locations when that is feasible. (I.e., when there isn’t a worldwide pandemic.) And the best part is when I get special tours. My wife, editor, and I got to look around the behind-the-scenes area of the New York Public Library to research a big action scene in book 5. It was FANTASTIC!

 


We know no writer is created in a vacuum. Could you tell our readers about teacher or a librarian who had an effect on your writing life?


I was blessed with great teachers from elementary school through college. My Mount Rushmore includes Herman Prothro (elementary), Dale Tyree (jr. high), Judith White (high school), and Abraham Polonsky (college). Judy White was my eleventh grade English teacher and she was amazing. She saw potential in me and pushed me as a writer. She encouraged me. She wrote notes to me in the margins of my work. She circled the opening paragraph of a paper I wrote about Robert Frost and next to it wrote “WOW!” That singular wow helped get me through self-doubt for years. She was also the hardest grader of any teach I’ve ever had and that was just what I needed.

I kept in touch with her after school and as I began my writing career. Unfortunately, she passed away before this success came along. She would’ve been over the moon about it. I love her so much, that I’ve used her name as the name of a teacher in virtually every book I’ve ever written. I just want her to be part of it.

 

What makes your books a good pick for use in a classroom? Is there any particular way you’d like to see teachers or parents use it with young readers/teens?

 

I come from a family of teachers and always write with them in mind. My wife teaches high school and told me that I had to do things for teachers that are free and require little set-up time. I try to live up to that challenge. My website is very educator-friendly and Simon & Schuster is setting up a Digital Classroom Dossier that has anything and everything teachers could use in a single location. I asked a bunch of educators what would be useful and we’ve got curriculum guides, videos, worksheets, downloads, links, interviews, graphics, you name it. They’re all just a single click away.

As for using City Spies in the classroom, in addition to the dossier, it’s important to know that virtually everything in the books is real. I research inside and out so that if you’re reading about an Egyptian tomb, the Great Wall of China, or Muir Woods in California, your students can go online and explore further. I put in tons of facts that I find interesting hoping it sparks interest for readers and educators. I also try to incorporate core subjects in each book. Math classes can look at codes and patterns. A science teacher can talk about the different technologies, old and new that the team uses. I always connect historic events and true to life people with the adventures they’re on. And, in addition to the reading in the books, I try to include literature. There’s an entire throughline about poetry and Robert Burns in two of the books.

All of us at Mixed-Up Files are huge fans of independent bookstores. I see that you are going on a 10-stop tour of independent bookstores across the country. Do you have a favorite Indie that you’d like to give a shout out to?

I could never pick a favorite Indie. I visit them all the time. My wife and I did a vacation to Boston last summer and managed to squeeze in fourteen indies while we were there. Overall, in the last few years, I think I’ve been to nearly one hundred of them. They are the lifeblood of our industry and I love how each one has its own distinct flavor with different quirks and qualities that make them what they are.

 

Can you give us a hint about what we can look forward to next from you?

I’m going to write City Spies at least to book 6 (and hopefully more), so that’s exciting. Book five has a jet-setting mission that takes the team to Venice, Washington, and New York. I’m also writing the first book in a new series.  It’s called the Sherlock Society and it’s a mystery series featuring multi-generational family in South Florida. The first one comes out next year and I am so excited about it! (I hope readers will be too.)

 

James Ponti is the New York Times bestselling author of three middle grade book series: City Spies, about an unlikely squad of five kids from around the world who form an elite MI6 Spy Team; the Edgar Award–winning Framed! series, about a pair of tweens who solve mysteries in Washington, DC; and the Dead City trilogy, about a secret society that polices the undead living beneath Manhattan. His books have appeared on more than fifteen different state award lists and he is the founder of a writers group known as the Renegades of Middle Grade. James is also an Emmy–nominated television writer and producer who has worked for many networks including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, History, and Spike TV, as well as NBC Sports. He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida. Find out more at JamesPonti.com.

 

 

 

Thanks so much to James for taking the time to talk with us.

CITY SPIES: CITY OF THE DEAD releases February 7 and is available at bookstores everywhere.

You can see more purchase options at:  Simon & Schuster.

 

Are you a CITY SPIES fan? Are you about to be? Let us know in the comments below.

 

 

 

 

 

March New Releases

The month of March not only brings us spring, but also brings us a plethora of new books about spies, stars, wizards, and giants. For a taste of what the month has to offer, read on!

 


City Spies 

By James Ponti

Sara Martinez is a hacker. She recently broke into the New York City foster care system to expose her foster parents as cheats and lawbreakers. However, instead of being hailed as a hero, Sara finds herself facing years in a juvenile detention facility and banned from using computers for the same stretch of time. Enter Mother, a British spy who not only gets Sara released from jail but also offers her a chance to make a home for herself within a secret MI5 agency.

Operating out of a base in Scotland, the City Spies are five kids from various parts of the world. When they’re not attending the local boarding school, they’re honing their unique skills, such as sleight of hand, breaking and entering, observation, and explosives. All of these allow them to go places in the world of espionage where adults can’t.

Before she knows what she’s doing, Sarah is heading to Paris for an international youth summit, hacking into a rival school’s computer to prevent them from winning a million euros, dangling thirty feet off the side of a building, and trying to stop a villain…all while navigating the complex dynamics of her new team. No one said saving the world was easy…

 

 

What Stars are Made Of

By Sarah Allen

Twelve-year-old Libby Monroe is great at science, being optimistic, and talking to her famous, accomplished friends (okay, maybe that last one is only in her head). She’s not great at playing piano, sitting still, or figuring out how to say the right thing at the right time in real life. Libby was born with Turner Syndrome, and that makes some things hard. But she has lots of people who love her, and that makes her pretty lucky.

When her big sister Nonny tells her she’s pregnant, Libby is thrilled―but worried. Nonny and her husband are in a financial black hole, and Libby knows that babies aren’t always born healthy. So she strikes a deal with the universe: She’ll enter a contest with a project about Cecelia Payne, the first person to discover what stars are made of. If she wins the grand prize and gives all that money to Nonny’s family, then the baby will be perfect. Does she have what it takes to care for the sister that has always cared for her? And what will it take for the universe to notice?

 

  

The Wizenard Series: Season One

By Wesley King (author), Kobe Bryant (creator)

Reggie has never felt destined for greatness. He dreams about basketball brilliance all day and night, but the hard truth is that he’s a benchwarmer for the West Bottom Badgers the worst team in the league. Even their mysterious new coach, Rolabi Wizenard, can’t seem to help them end their losing streak.

Reggie is willing to train tirelessly to improve his game, but the gym itself seems to be working against him in magical ways. Before Reggie can become the player he dreams of being, he must survive the extraordinary trials of practice.

This is the illuminating follow-up to the #1 New York Times best seller The Wizenard Series: Training Camp―a story of strain and sacrifice, supernatural breakthroughs, and supreme dedication to the game.

 

 

If We Were Giants

By Dave Matthews and Clete Barrett Smith, illus. Antonio Javier Caparo

Kirra, a curious, agile, and outgoing girl, lives in an idyllic community hidden inside a dormant volcano. She and her father are the only two people allowed to venture beyond its walls. Kirra is in training to become a Storyteller like him, and together they travel from village to village spreading fearsome tales designed to keep outsiders away from their secret nest.

One day, after hearing rumors of strangers called the “Takers,” Kirra leaves the volcano by herself, hoping to discover her own story. But she unknowingly leads the Takers back to her doorstep, and they rob her of everything she has ever held dear.

A devastated Kirra is found by a boy named Luwan and adopted into his family, which lives among others high in the trees of a dense forest. Now quiet and withdrawn, Kirra hides her dark past from everyone and never wants to leave the safety of her tree dwelling. Luwan, on the other hand, loves to explore. One day it leads to trouble: He is captured while spying on a group of strangers. The Takers have returned. To save the Tree Folk, Kirra must face her inner demons and summon all her storytelling to weave the most important tale of her life.

 

 


Dragonslayer 
(Wings of Fire: Legends)

By Tui T. Sutherland

Ivy doesn’t trust the Dragonslayer. He may be her father and the beloved ruler of Valor, but she knows he’s hiding more than the treasure from the sand dragon he killed two decades ago.

Leaf doesn’t trust dragons. They’re the reason his favorite sister, Wren, is dead, and now he’ll do whatever it takes to slay even one.

Wren doesn’t trust anyone. She swore off humans after her village tried to sacrifice her to the dragons. She only has one friend, a small, wonderful mountain dragon named Sky, and they don’t need anyone else.

In a world of dragons, the humans who scramble around underfoot are easy to overlook. But Ivy, Leaf, and Wren will each cross paths with dragons in ways that could shape the destiny of both species. Is a new future possible for all of them . . . one in which humans can look to the skies with hope instead of fear?

 

 

Tyrannosaurus Wrecks

By Stuart Gibbs

Teddy was all set for a campout at his friend Sage’s family ranch—but then Sage gets terrible news: The skull of a rare dinosaur that was being excavated on his property has mysteriously vanished overnight in the middle of a rainstorm, even though it weighed 500 pounds. Not a single footprint has been left behind. Since the dinosaur was top secret, the police don’t believe anyone outside the dig could have stolen it.

A T-rex skull can sell for millions of dollars, and everyone is a suspect—including J.J. McCracken, the owner of FunJungle.

Meanwhile, Teddy’s old foes, the Barksdale twins, have gotten into trouble with an illegally purchased anaconda, and Teddy’s girlfriend Summer wants to find out who’s behind the local trade in black market reptiles. The two cases will drag Teddy into more danger and chaos than ever before, in this mystery that’s stranger than fiction.

 

 

Emily Windsnap and the Tides of Time

By Liz Kessler

When Emily makes a wish on a magic stone, she gets a glimpse of what the future holds — and it’s a disaster! She tries to make things right, but each trip through time takes Emily to a future where things turn out badly for either the humans of Brightport or the merpeople of Shiprock.

Plastic pollutes the ocean, garbage overflows the landfills, and the two towns are no longer getting along. Emily realizes she can’t save her hometown and the ocean alone, but with help from her best friends, Shona and Mandy, she’ll have to find a way to get humans and merpeople to work together.

Will Emily be able to create a better future for everyone, including herself? This new adventure gives readers a glimpse at what Emily and her friends could be like as grown-ups, with a fresh story that explores how uniting communities can make a future that’s bright for everyone.

 

 

Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom

By Louis Sachar, illus. Tim Heitz

Welcome back to Wayside School!

Your favorite students and teachers are all here. That includes Sharie, who loves her striped-and-spotted umbrella more than anything; Kathy, who has a bad case of oppositosis; Jason, who has to read the longest book in the world; and the rest of Mrs. Jewls’s class on the thirtieth floor, who are busily collecting toenail clippings.

Everyone is scrambling to prepare for the all-important Ultimate Test, but meanwhile, there is a mysterious Cloud of Doom looming above them …

 

 

Black Brother, Black Brother

By Jewell Parker Rhodes

Sometimes, 12-year-old Donte wishes he were invisible. As one of the few black boys at Middlefield Prep, most of the students don’t look like him. They don’t like him either. Dubbing him “Black Brother,” Donte’s teachers and classmates make it clear they wish he were more like his lighter-skinned brother, Trey.

When he’s bullied and framed by the captain of the fencing team, “King” Alan, he’s suspended from school and arrested for something he didn’t do.

Terrified, searching for a place where he belongs, Donte joins a local youth center and meets former Olympic fencer Arden Jones. With Arden’s help, he begins training as a competitive fencer, setting his sights on taking down the fencing team captain, no matter what. As Donte hones his fencing skills and grows closer to achieving his goal, he learns the fight for justice is far from over. Now Donte must confront his bullies, racism, and the corrupt systems of power that led to his arrest.

Powerful and emotionally gripping, Black Brother, Black Brother is a careful examination of the school-to-prison pipeline and follows one boy’s fight against racism and his empowering path to finding his voice.

 

 

The Great Upending

by Beth Kephart

Twelve-year-old Sara and her brother Hawk are told that they are not to bother the man—The Mister—who just moved into the silo apartment on their farm. It doesn’t matter that they know nothing about him and they think they ought to know something. It doesn’t matter that he’s always riding that unicycle around. Mama told them no way, no how are they to bother The Mister unless they want to be in a mess of trouble.

Trouble is the last thing Sara and her brother need. Sara’s got a condition, you see. Marfan syndrome. And that Marfan syndrome is causing her heart to have problems, the kind of problems that require surgery. But the family already has problems: The drought has dried up their crops and their funds, which means they can’t afford any more problems, let alone a surgery to fix those problems. Sara can feel the weight of her family’s worry, and the weight of her time running out, but what can a pair of kids do? Well, it all starts with…bothering The Mister.