Undercover Latina

Andréa Hernández-Baldoquín is fourteen and has just received her first assignment from the Factory, an undercover organization working to protect the BIPOC community. Andréa’s parents have been with the Factory for years, but the kids have been recently taken on as agents. Andréa’s assignment is to go undercover in school to befriend the son of a white supremacist, Kyle. Even though it seems Kyle hasn’t had contact with his father for years, the Factory hopes he can lead them to his father. There is plenty of middle school drama, but Andréa finds ways to befriend Kyle. What she doesn’t plan on is falling for Kyle’s roommate. Things get complicated, but Andréa manages her first mission very well with some help from her mother and another teen agent.

Aya de León has written a real page-turner for upper middle grade. The characters are well-rounded, the small-town setting realistic, the dialogue snappy, and the story complex and believable, even though there are kids working as spies. While the story is fun and exciting, de León includes a lot of important issues the BIPOC community faces every day. This is well-written, exciting, and deserves a wide readership.