Kathie: Hi, James. Welcome to MG Book Village! We are big fans of your City Spies series around here, so I asked Laurie, one of our team members, to come up with some questions for our interview today. Let’s start by having you tell us a little bit about Mission Manhattan, the 5th book in the series.
James: The book starts off in Venice, Italy where the team has been sent to help protect a teenaged climate activist from Brazil named Beatriz. Since Rio is also from Brazil, he becomes the point of connection between her and the team. This book is his chance to finally take the lead. The ensuing adventure also takes them to Washington D.C. and New York City, where Beatriz is set to address the United Nations.
Laurie: Without giving anything away from Mission Manhattan, what are you most excited to see how readers react to?
James: I am always equal parts excited and anxious to see how readers will receive the story. If they’ve come this far through four other books, I do not want to disappoint them. I have my fingers crossed that they will see this as a proper continuation of a story they care about. I also want them to feel that it provides a significant advancement and development of the storylines and characters. There was a big cliffhanger at the end of book 4 and this book needs to address that in a way that is satisfying and rewarding.
Laurie: You’ve written three series: do you know it will be a series at the beginning, and do you plan the plot and character growth for the entire series, or does it happen from book to book?
James: I think because I began in television, I always think in series format. When Sherlock Society comes out in September it will mark the beginning of my fourth series and each was intended to be that. That said, I don’t plot them too far in advance. I have general thoughts and ideas, but they’re more questions than answers at the beginning. For example, with City Spies, I was curious about how the found family dynamic would play out, but I didn’t have any of it predetermined. I’m sure the smarter thing is probably to figure it all out, but I don’t seem to be wired that way. However, I usually try to think of big things a book or two ahead to make sure that I move in the right general direction building toward it.
Laurie: In City Spies, there are a lot of different cities, and detailed research was completed to put us in each location. How do you go about your research? What tips do you have for young writers?
James: Research is critically important for a number of reasons. The most obvious is that you want to get your facts right. But more importantly, you want to know the location well enough so that the story becomes organic and feels like it belongs there. I try to go to the locations in the stories. For this book I went to all of them. That included walking through Venice in the same places the team went, sneaking around the Iranian embassy in Washington DC, and going behind the scenes at the New York Public Library.
Often, though, travel to a loation is not possible because of expenses or logistics. An example is Istanbul, which is a setting in City Spies 6. (That comes out in February 2025.) I wasn’t able to go there, so I started researching on the internet. I read travel books. I watched videos on YouTube. These started to give me a feel for what was special and what I wanted to tap into. Luckily, the City Spies books are translated into Turkish, so I also reached out to my editor there and mailed her questions and zoomed with her a couple times for nuts-and-bolts types of things.
As for advice for young readers, I have three words – Google Street View! It’s amazing that I can sit in my home in Florida and “walk” along a specific street in London.
Laurie: Could Florian and Margaret from your Framed series fit in as City Spies? Is there a potential for a crossover?
James: They could definitely fit, but I don’t think that will ever happen. If it was going to, it would’ve been this book, because the team goes to Washington. I thought about it, but it didn’t feel organic and I already have so many characters in these books that I couldn’t find a good way to do it. The one crossover that does exist – and I’ve never shared this before – is that David Denton Douglas is the name of the Director of the FBI in the Framed books and it’s the name of the head of MI6 in the City Spies books. Different guys, but the same name. My nickname for him is 3-D.
Laurie: You are so generous with your time, building and supporting other authors. Who are your supporters that you are grateful for?
James: There are so many. The middle grade writing community is beyond supportive. Mission Manhattan is dedicated to Dr. Rose Brock, who was a librarian and is now a professor of library sciences. She writes the curriculum guides for my books (and many others) and has been a great advisor and friend over the years. She’s really helped me figure out the world of Middle Grade. I also would like to mention Suzanne Collins, Chris Grabenstein, Stuart Gibbs, and Laurie Halse Anderson as four incredibly successful writers who are also amazing human beings who have helped me repeatedly.
Laurie: What type of genre would you like to try writing and why?
James: I think a strength of my writing from a career standpoint, has always been a pretty good understanding of what type of writer I am and where I fit best. I am exactly where I belong at the intersections of spy, mystery, adventure, and humor.
Laurie: Given all the books you’ve written, which character is most like you and why?
James: All the characters have significant parts of me in them, but the one who probably overlaps with me the most is Florian Bates, the man character in the Framed books.
Laurie: What book(s) written today do you wish you could have read as a middle school reader?
James: So many. I struggled as a young reader (and am still kind of slow at it as an adult) and would’ve loved the selection of graphic novels. I think they really would’ve had a positive effect on my reading life. If I had to pick one book, I’ll go with my friend Stu and say Spy School. I would’ve flipped for it.
Laurie: City Spies has been your focus, and with more books in the series coming our way, is it possible to write other books from ideas?
James: Starting this year, I have two books a year. City Spies books will keep coming out for a while and starting in September the Sherlock Society will debut. It’s a mystery series set in my home state of Florida. It’s been exhausting but I am so excited about it.
Kathie: Thank you so much for taking some time to chat with us today, and we can’t wait to read Mission Manhattan!
James Ponti (he/him/his) 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.
