3.5
Jada Sly, Artist & Spy
ByPublisher Description
Jada Sly, a hilarious and spunky artist and spy, explores New York City on a mission to find her mom in this "fast paced, fun" illustrated novel from an acclaimed author (School Library Connection).
Ten-year-old Jada Sly is an artist and a spy-in-training. When she isn't studying the art from her idols like Jackie Ormes, the first-known African American cartoonist, she's chronicling her spy training and other observations in her art journal.
Back home in New York City, after living in France for five years, Jada is ready to embark on her first and greatest spy adventure yet. She plans to scour New York City in search of her missing mother, even though everyone thinks her mom died in a plane crash. Except Jada, who is certain her mom was a spy, too.
With the stakes high and danger lurking around every corner, Jada will use one spy technique after another to unlock the mystery of her mother's disappearance -- some with hilarious results. After all, she's still learning.
Download the free Fable app
Stay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
Rate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
Curate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesStay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building toolRate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tagsCurate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesJada Sly, Artist & Spy Reviews
3.5
“⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 An interesting and fast-paced middle grade mystery. Jada, a diverse private school student joins with fellow students to find her mother, who has been pronounced dead. Many art and baking references are included.”
“Super funny and when Jada found her mom that was great”
“I think the biggest factor in whether or not you enjoy this book is how you interpret the storyline of Jada believing her mother is still alive.
If you, like me, thought this book was about how grief can affect you in ways you'd never thought possible then you'll surely be disappointed by the revelation that Jada's mother actually is a spy. If you are suspicious the entire time and buy into the mystery then you'll be golden.
Being an adult worked against me in an unexpected way this time. I am able to reason out the trajectory of most middle grade because most middle grade is only average and therefore, predictable. But, this one threw me for a loop because as an adult I, of course, presumed that Jada's grief was causing a mental health crisis or that this book was going to reveal that Jada had a mental health disorder not yet diagnosed. I never for one second thought that her mother would truly be a spy.
Thus, the revelation only served to annoy me. From my perspective, this was a bizarre, out of left field choice that undermined the themes established from the beginning. On the other hand Winston did weave in a lot of foreshadowing, I simply ignored it because I presumed it was all red herrings that would be explained once Jada recognized she was wrong. I can't blame Winston for my misunderstanding, though I was disappointed nevertheless.
I will say independent of my preferences, there are other issues with the story overall.
The story is well written from a competency point of view, but it doesn't have the emotional gravitas and character development that I would expect for the intended audience.
Jada's friends are very underdeveloped and while spying did bond the group together I found that very surface level. I feel like one or two of them needed a personal issue or struggle to parallel Jada's to introduce some dynamism to the character relationships. A little after Jada meets her best friend Brooklyn, Brooklyn talks about how it's been hard being one of the only Black kids at the school. It's part of why she connects with Jada immediately upon meeting her.
This could have been used to make Brooklyn feel like a more well rounded character if she was struggling under the pressure of doing well at school because of the fear of how it would look and then Jada becomes more obsessed with spying seemingly uncaring of what Brooklyn is going through. The conflict between these two could have been used to create a stronger friendship from the ashes. Instead, Brooklyn mentions it once then never talks about it again.
It doesn't even have to be that. It could have been anything. None of the characters felt real because they were only there to say Jada had a group of friends. I didn't feel any kind of platonic chemistry.
Jada mentions at the beginning of the book how her mother was missing from her and her fathers' lives a lot right before she died. Jada had actually been mad at her for it and felt guilty now that she was gone. That kind of interesting moral complexity is thrown out the window when Jada's mother reveals she's actually alive.
Jada doesn't care at all that her mother has been lying to her father (does he even know she was a spy? he didn't know she faked her death) and that she abandoned the family for her job even before she 'died'. I don't expect Jada to hate her mother or anything. It makes sense that she would still cling hard to her mother regardless of how those actions hurt her.
I just think that the story could have been a lot stronger if Winston had, at the very least, floated the idea that Jada's mother wasn't being the best mother at this point in time. I'm not sure that a child reading this would understand intuitively that her mother's behavior was selfish when the emphasis shifted gears so sharply to highlight how important her work was to the free world. That's a very common internalization from many kids whose parents are in high level, time consuming positions - that they need to suck it up because their parents are doing something 'important' whereas they're just a bad kid who isn't being understanding enough.
This book kind of supports that notion by removing Jada's father from the equation. Jada is so against her father for a lot of this book yet it's her mother who created this situation in the first place. It was sad that they couldn't have a conversation in which he addresses how her mother can be right and wrong at the same time because Jada is not allowed to tell him about the spying and Jada's mother would rather burden her daughter instead of inform him about the situation.
Anyway, a decent book that I only somewhat regret reading. It's left on a somewhat open note that could spell sequels in the future. If so, regardless of my misgivings I would still tune in.”
About Sherri Winston
Sherri Winston is the author of President of the Whole Fifth Grade (a Sunshine State Young Readers Award selection), President of the Whole Sixth Grade (a Kids' Indie Next pick), President of the Whole Sixth Grade: Girl Code, The Sweetest Sound, and The Kayla Chronicles. She lives with her family in Florida.
Other books by Sherri Winston
Start a Book Club
Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!FAQ
Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?
Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?
How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?
Do you sell physical books too?
Are book clubs free to join on Fable?
How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?
