Hunt, Elizabeth Singer Battle for the Emerald Buddha: Thailand (Secret Agents Jack and Max Stalwart #1), 144 pages. Weinstein, 2017. $6. Content: G (some fighting).

Jack and Max have retired from the Global Protection Force and are on vacation in Thailand with their unsuspecting parents. Just because they say they are no longer secret agents, doesn’t mean that intrigue and danger won’t find them. As they go to view the Emerald Buddha, a statue sacred to the Thais, instead, they find it missing, stolen by a group of teens. Jack and Max are back on the trail of thieves and spies.

I have not read any of the original series – Secret Agent Jack Stalwart. I’d love to hear from someone who has. At $6 a book, it might be worth buying the first few books in the original series (there are 16) to see how they do. They are definitely written for a very young audience. I had a hard time swallowing that a group of teenagers were crafty enough to steal the Mona Lisa. This particular one would be a okay chapter book for a 3rd or 4th grader just reading on their own. I am very hesitant to suggest buying the complete series, however. Most kids at that age don’t have the staying capacity to read 17 books.

EL (K-3) – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library Teacher

In Thailand, three gangsters (Grill, Tech and Shark) are preparing to steal the emerald Buddha for an evil art collector who has promised them that if they get it for him, he will give them three tickets to America and $300,000. Luckily, just after they steal it from the temple, Jack and Max arrive on a sightseeing trip with their parents. Realizing it's gone, they spring in to action, using all of the gadgets and code breaking skills they have learned from the Global Protection Force. Of course, they are supposed to be taking a break from that, but when there are transgressors who need to be brought to justice, who has time for vacation! The boys manage to rout the gang and recover the treasure all without their parents realizing what they are doing.


These books remind me very strongly of the Magic Treehouse Books-- lots of adventures, fun facts about different nonfiction topics, very cool gadgets that we should all have as a matter of course. They are a bit formulaic (there's always going to be a bad guy that causes Jack and Max to head off on an adventure to save the day), but that's something that appeals very strongly to the target demographic, which is 1st-4th graders. Piles of these books make great summer reading, and when paired with The Secret Agent Training Manual, you know that readers will be occupied making disappearing ink out of all of your lemon juice and leaving lots of coded notes about what they want for supper. Great fun!