{"product_id":"undercover-latina-isbn-9781536233018","title":"Undercover Latina","description":"\u003cb\u003e“Social criticism is woven into a fun read centered on kids of color. . . . An engaging, insightful adventure with a heartfelt conclusion.” —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFourteen-year-old Andréa Hernández-Baldoquín hails from a family of spies working for the Factory, an international organization dedicated to protecting people of color. For her first solo mission, Andréa straightens her hair and goes undercover as Andrea Burke, a white girl, to befriend the estranged son of a dangerous white supremacist. In addition to her Factory training, the assignment calls for a deep dive into the son’s interests—comic books and gaming—all while taking care not to speak Spanish and blow her family’s cover. But it’s hard to hide who you really are, especially when you develop a crush on your target’s Latino best friend. Can Andréa keep her head, her geek cred, and her code-switching on track to trap a terrorist? This smart, entertaining, and politically astute novel is fast-paced Young adult fare from an established author of heist and espionage novels for adults, in a paperback edition offering discussion questions and an excerpt from the sequel in the back matter.Social criticism is woven into a fun read centered on kids of color; the narrative is accessible and engaging, never shying away from difficult conversations about race and privilege or the many forms White supremacy can take. . . . An \u003cb\u003eengaging\u003c\/b\u003e, insightful adventure with a \u003cb\u003eheartfelt \u003c\/b\u003econclusion.\u003cbr\u003e—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReaders will be intrigued and compelled to the very last page\u003c\/b\u003e. . . Activist and author Aya De Leon, who typically writes for adults, has not shied away from taking on current and weighted issues while still delivering a novel for middle grade readers that is easy to read and which is sure to be a hit. . . . With strong male and female characters, suspense, and gaming, this novel is sure to appeal.\u003cbr\u003e—School Library Connection (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePortraying Andréa as a spy skilled in espionage, quick problem-solving, and making visual connections, De León (A Spy in the Struggle, for adults) adeptly interrogates themes of ageism, colorism, institutional racism, and sexism, layering them with a \u003cb\u003ethrilling \u003c\/b\u003etale of a teenage girl.\u003cbr\u003e—Publishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003efast-paced, resonant\u003c\/b\u003e story that touches on inter- and ­intra-community discrimination. . . . A strong selection for gamers and middle graders who enjoy action-packed narratives. With broad appeal to fans of spy novels, this title will engage tweens while offering a thoughtful conversation-starter. Highly ­recommended.\u003cbr\u003e—School Library Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA fast-paced spy novel that weaves difficult issues like race, identity, and belonging into a fun, engaging, and geeky adventure. . . Undercover Latina takes the fantastical idea of a teenage spy and grounds it in the emotions and issues faced by contemporary teens. Its social commentary feels neither heavy handed nor patronizing to younger readers, and its\u003cb\u003e honest, earnest\u003c\/b\u003e conversations about tough topics make \u003cb\u003eexcellent jumping-off points\u003c\/b\u003e for class discussions.\u003cbr\u003e—Booklist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is officially \u003cb\u003eone of my favorite\u003c\/b\u003e books. She had me at ‘it’s an international intelligence organization that serves people of color,’ and I only got more and more hooked after that. I love this character. I love this concept. I love this book. Please tell me it is going to be a series. Please. Please? I want to follow Andréa all over the world and do spying. \u003cbr\u003e—Kekla Magoon, National Book Award Finalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeamless code-switching becomes a spy technique in this tale of a Latinx teen who must pose as a white girl to expose a white supremacist terrorist. Aya de León cleverly touches on questions of authenticity and 'passing' while at the same time filling her book with spy gear, hidden bombs, undercover work and even the occasional cute boy.\u003cbr\u003e—NPR\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrepare to have your socks knocked off by this \u003cb\u003eawesome \u003c\/b\u003enew middle grade novel that manages to pack so much into a \u003cb\u003ethoroughly entertaining\u003c\/b\u003e story. . . . With action-packed scenes, cosplay, romance, and thought-provoking discussions of race, this powerful middle grade is one of my favorites from the year.\u003cbr\u003e—Book Riot\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMs. de León takes a learning opportunity for kids and couches it in enough chase sequences and fistfights to almost make you forget how much information is crammed into this little package. Prepare for exciting nuance!!. . . Aya de León has fashioned just \u003cb\u003ethe right combination of excitement and ethics\u003c\/b\u003e, of complicated concepts and the occasional detonator. A blueprint for getting these elements sorted out perfectly, a whole range of kids will be enjoying this one. Long before they figure out that it’s taught them something as well.\u003cbr\u003e—A Fuse #8 Production\u003cb\u003eAya de León\u003c\/b\u003e is the Afro-Latina author of several suspense novels for adults, as well as \u003ci\u003eThe Mystery Woman in Room Three,\u003c\/i\u003e an open-source online novel about two undocumented Dominican teens who uncover a kidnapping plot to stop the Green New Deal. She teaches creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley, and is active in movements for racial, gender, and climate justice. She lives in Northern California.\u003cb\u003eOne\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e A grown man is no match for a teenage girl on a skateboard. Even if he’s wearing sneakers and athletic gear. We called this guy El Rubio, because of his pale blond hair, and I was supposed to grab the briefcase from him. Then I’d skate the two blocks from the hotel lobby to where my parents were waiting with the car running, and we’d get away clean.\u003cbr\u003e   El Rubio was suspicious of adults, so Mami, Papi, and the other grown-ups were out of the question for this mission. My brother was only ten, so he would attract too much attention; El Rubio would expect parents somewhere nearby. Besides, his legs were too short to outrun a grown man. But I’m fourteen: long-legged and old enough to be in the lobby by myself. Besides, teenage girls are rarely seen as threats.\u003cbr\u003e   I flipped through the brochures in the bright hotel lobby. I was wearing long shorts and a touristy Puerto Rico T-shirt, as though my own mother wasn’t Puerto Rican. My curly hair was pulled back in a ponytail and I chewed gum. I had my earbuds in like I was listening to music, but really it was Mami’s voice. “The housekeeper says he’s on his way down.”\u003cbr\u003e   I reread the brochure for waterskiing. My back was to El Rubio when he exited the elevator. His gaze moved past me and landed on the young man sweeping the marble floor: Hector, a member of our team.\u003cbr\u003e   Mami and Papi were letting me take an active role on a mission, but not without a chaperone.\u003cbr\u003e   El Rubio walked to the reception desk and asked the clerk to get his briefcase from the safe. I strolled to the other end of the desk, brochure in my hand. El Rubio checked on Hector from time to time. Hector kept sweeping.\u003cbr\u003e   The clerk came back with the briefcase, and that’s when I struck. I leaped forward and grabbed the case just as the clerk was handing it over, and then I raced out through the lobby door.\u003cbr\u003e   “She’s got the case,” Hector’s voice rang out in my headphones. “Made it out clean.”\u003cbr\u003e   I jumped on my skateboard and tore down the hotel driveway. I had nearly gotten to the street when El Rubio came running out after me.\u003cbr\u003e   He was way behind me, but an unexpected obstacle appeared. Two men in business suits, overdressed for the muggy San Juan morning, happened to be getting out of a dark vehicle on the sidewalk in my path. They were clearly expecting to go from air-conditioned cars to air-conditioned rooms.\u003cbr\u003e   “Stop her!” El Rubio yelled to them.\u003cbr\u003e   They stood up outside the car and cut me off.\u003cbr\u003e   These guys were with El Rubio? I skidded to a stop on the skateboard.\u003cbr\u003e    Suits and all, the two guys came running toward me.\u003cbr\u003e   I did an about-face and kicked hard to get the board speeding fast in the other direction. I’d have to circle back to meet my parents.\u003cbr\u003e   But there was a problem. This new terrain turned from smooth paved roads to the oversize blue cobblestones of Old San Juan. On the uneven ground, I wobbled and almost fell.\u003cbr\u003e   ¡Carajo! I jumped off the skateboard and snatched it up. Now I had the board in one hand and the briefcase in the other. Instead of being a swift teen girl, I was an encumbered teen girl. With both hands full, I couldn’t tap the microphone to call in my location to my parents—at least not while I was running. Hector said I had gotten out clean, but had I? Should I drop the skateboard? No, maybe I’d need it to get away. The men were half a block behind me. My parents were three blocks in the other direction.\u003cbr\u003e   I rushed down the street looking frantically at the bright storefronts for one I could run into. It was early on a Saturday morning—nothing was open. I passed swim boutiques, souvenir shops, a tattoo parlor, and a bar. The men were gaining. I needed to ditch the board.\u003cbr\u003e   I glanced over my shoulder and saw that El Rubio, with his sneakers, had pulled ahead of the other two. By the time I hit the next corner, he was only a car’s length behind me.\u003cbr\u003e   I cut left. Wasn’t there a restaurant just down the block? Didn’t they serve breakfast? They’d have to be open by now. At least, the back door would be open for staff to enter. I prayed it would be as I raced down the alley behind the stores.\u003cbr\u003e   El Rubio was getting closer. I didn’t dare turn around to see how close. On cobblestones, it was too easy to trip. But I could hear his footfalls behind me.\u003cbr\u003e   Up ahead, I saw the metal gate to the restaurant’s back door was open. Yes! But El Rubio was too close. I could hear his breathing. When I slowed to enter the door, he would definitely catch me.\u003cbr\u003e   I felt his hand brush my ponytail. He’d tried to grab it but hadn’t quite gotten ahold. Another few steps and he’d catch me.\u003cbr\u003e   A few strides before the kitchen door, I flung the skateboard at him, wheels down. As I slowed a fraction to run inside the restaurant, I saw El Rubio step on the board and go flying. The closer of the two men in suits crashed into him.\u003cbr\u003e   I yanked open the door as the third man stumbled into the pileup.\u003cbr\u003e   A middle-aged woman stood at an island in the center of a narrow kitchen making pastries.\u003cbr\u003e   “¡Señora!” I rasped in Spanish through heaving lungs. “There’s a man chasing me. Can you help?”\u003cbr\u003e   She looked from my eyes to the briefcase in my hand. She nodded once, quickly, and motioned for me to duck down and hide on the far side of the kitchen island.\u003cbr\u003e   My heart was pounding. I had to struggle to breathe quietly after all that running. I heard the footfalls of a man’s dress shoes come through the door.\u003cbr\u003e   I couldn’t see him, but I saw the woman. She was looking into the restaurant, as though I had just run past her.\u003cbr\u003e   “Hey!” she yelled after absolutely no one. “You can’t go in there. We’re not open yet.”\u003cbr\u003e   The suit guy thundered into the empty restaurant, just as El Rubio and the other man came in. El Rubio was limping, but the two of them rushed after the first suit.\u003cbr\u003e   I whispered “gracias” as I ran out the back door. My skateboard had rolled too far out of reach, so I didn’t bother to grab it. I ran down the alley.\u003cbr\u003e   With my free hand, I hit my phone’s mic. “I’ve got it!” I said. “But I hit a snag and I’m lost in Old San Juan. Guide me in!”\u003cbr\u003e   I heard a few clicks as I ran to the end of the block.\u003cbr\u003e   “We’ve got your location,” Mami said.\u003cbr\u003e   “Turn left,” Papi said. I heard the sound of the car’s motor accelerating.\u003cbr\u003e   There was a shout behind me, and a backward glance confirmed that the men in suits were in pursuit.\u003cbr\u003e   I ran to the end of the block. The team’s non-descript rental car screeched to a halt.\u003cbr\u003e   I opened the door and heard a shot ring out. One of the men in suits had a handgun raised and was running toward us.\u003cbr\u003e   I jumped into the car. The other man was reaching into his shoulder holster. El Rubio came limping out from the alley behind them.\u003cbr\u003e   Before I had even closed the door, Mami was gunning the motor.\u003cbr\u003e   “Andréa,” Mami said. “What the hell happened?”\u003cbr\u003e   “Two guys,” I said. “They cut me off. I couldn’t skate—” I could barely get the words out I was so winded.\u003cbr\u003e   “She’s okay, querida,” Papi said. “Let her catch her breath.”\u003cbr\u003e   “Put on your seat belt!” Mami snapped.\u003cbr\u003e   I leaned back and buckled in, sinking against the soft upholstery.\u003cbr\u003e   “Where’s your skateboard?” my younger brother, Carlos, asked.\u003cbr\u003e   “I—I used it as a weapon,” I said.\u003cbr\u003e   “You hit him with it?” he asked, eyes wide.\u003cbr\u003e   “I tripped him,” I said.\u003cbr\u003e   He laughed with delight.\u003cbr\u003e   We stopped laughing as we heard another shot. A dark sedan was on our tail.\u003cbr\u003e   “Get down!” Papi yelled. My brother and I dove toward each other in the back seat. Papi ducked down in front. Mami hunched down as she drove, mashing down her wild, dark curls into the upholstery of the front seat.\u003cbr\u003e   I heard Papi’s muffled voice as he called our handler.\u003cbr\u003e  “Jerrold,” he said. “We’ve got the briefcase, but we’re being pursued.”\u003cbr\u003e   “I thought El Rubio was working alone,” Mami said accusingly.\u003cbr\u003e   “Later,” Papi hissed. Then to Jerrold: “Get us out of here.”\u003cbr\u003e   “You’re in the subcompact, right?” Jerrold asked.\u003cbr\u003e   “Yes,” Papi said. “Do you have our location?”\u003cbr\u003e   “I do,” Jerrold said. “Hang a left at this corner!”\u003cbr\u003e   Mami swung left, and we all leaned hard with the momentum.\u003cbr\u003e   “Bárbara,” Jerrold said. “Halfway down this block, there’s a narrow alley. It’s one-way, and you’ll be going against the traffic. If no one is coming, take a sharp right. In the middle of that block, turn left down another alley, and you’ll be going in the proper direction. Your pursuers will likely get cut off.”\u003cbr\u003e   Mami slowed a little, and we looked down the block. A blue car had just turned into the alley from the far end, but there was time for us to get through. Perfect.\u003cbr\u003e   Mami cut a hard right, and we lurched in the other direction. The blue car leaned on the horn. Mami gunned it toward the corner in the middle of the block.\u003cbr\u003e   Behind us the sedan turned into the alley with a screech of tires.\u003cbr\u003e   “Which way?” Mami asked Jerrold.\u003cbr\u003e   “Left!”\u003cbr\u003e   Mami swerved left. We lurched again, just missing the oncoming car.\u003cbr\u003e   Carlos and I weren’t ducking now. We watched out the back window for the sedan. The blue car came down past the alley, horn still blaring, brakes shrieking. We heard a crash, but we couldn’t see anything.\u003cbr\u003e   And then the tail of the blue car came into view. Then the middle. Then the smashed front. The sedan had crashed into the blue car and was pushing it backward across the mouth of the alley.\u003cbr\u003e   The sedan backed up, crumpled bumper and all, and turned down the alley after us.\u003cbr\u003e   “They’re still in pursuit,” Papi said.\u003cbr\u003e   “Shoot,” Jerrold said. “Okay. What are they driving?”\u003cbr\u003e   “Dark sedan,” Papi said. “K-car type.”\u003cbr\u003e   “Great,” Jerrold said. “Keep going straight. You’ll be able to lose them in a block.”\u003cbr\u003e   A shot rang out.\u003cbr\u003e   “They’re shooting?” Jerrold asked.\u003cbr\u003e   “Yes!” Mami said. “Jerrold, you promised the guy wouldn’t be armed—”\u003cbr\u003e   “Not the time, querida,” Papi said.\u003cbr\u003e   “Agreed,” Jerrold said. “At the next corner, you’ll be able to lose them.”\u003cbr\u003e   “It’s blocked off,” Papi said. At the corner, a stubby metal pole stuck up in the middle of the roadway.\u003cbr\u003e   “Your car will fit through,” Jerrold said.\u003cbr\u003e   “I don’t think so,” Mami said.\u003cbr\u003e   “Not without a scratch,” Jerrold said. “But you’ll fit if you go up on the sidewalk. Slow a bit to make sure. Go through on the left side.”\u003cbr\u003e   We were barreling toward the pole, the buildings on either side a blur.\u003cbr\u003e   “Get down, kids!” Mami yelled.\u003cbr\u003e   Carlos and I didn’t see the car squeeze through the space with the metal pole, but we heard it: the scrape of metal on metal and against the cement of the building.\u003cbr\u003e   The door crunched. My window cracked, the glass turning to crumbled squares that looked like sugar candy.\u003cbr\u003e   We heard the second crunch of metal on metal when the sedan tried to follow.\u003cbr\u003e   I brushed crumbs of glass out of my hair.\u003cbr\u003e   “We made it!” Carlos said. “The other guys crashed into the pole.”\u003cbr\u003e   “Jerrold,” Mami said. “You promised us this would be an easy mission!”\u003cbr\u003e   “I’m sorry, Bárbara,” he said. “Our intel said he was working alone.”\u003cbr\u003e   We were all sitting up now, watching out the back of the car as tourists and workers gaped at the crashed vehicle behind us.\u003cbr\u003e   “When I agreed to bring my family into this life, I had one rule,” Mami said. I knew this tone of voice. She was getting ready to go on a rant.\u003cbr\u003e   “Bárbara,” Papi said. “We all know you’re upset. But can we please debrief the details later?”\u003cbr\u003e   Mami took a breath. “I’d like to debrief as soon as you can extract us,” she said through clenched teeth.\u003cbr\u003e   “The team’s on their way,” Jerrold said.\u003cbr\u003e   Twenty minutes later, we were in a helicopter, flying over San Juan to the airport. I still had the briefcase in my hand.","brand":"Candlewick","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305384792293,"sku":"NP9781536233018","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781536233018.jpg?v=1767743226","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/undercover-latina-isbn-9781536233018","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}