Mac B. Kid Spy (Book 5): The Sound of Danger by Mac Barnett

Rating: Needs Parent Supervision

Reading level: Mid-Late Elementary

A humorous and silly spy story involving a lot of video games.

Possible Concerns (including spoilers):

• Negative attitudes about math and school. The story opens with Mac taking a timed math test, which he is not excited about. He is also not enthused about his teacher’s somewhat diabolical humor.
• Mac calls a kid a kiss up.
• Keeping secrets from parents. Mac is a kid spy, so technically he can’t share everything but he adds it would only make her worry.
• Stereotypes/ Racisim. Soviets are the villains again. The enemy is from the KGB, the security agency of the Soviet Union. It might be good to have conversations with your kid about how not all people with a Russian accent are evil, as this book leans into stereotypes a bit that way.

Things I liked.

• The humor was great, and generally clean.

The good outweighs the bad for me, especially if you skip the first chapter. See also my reviews of other books in the series.