BOB City Spies by James Ponti

General Information

Who is the author of City Spies?

James Ponti

How old is Sara (Brooklyn)?

12 years old

What network did she (Brooklyn) hack into at the beginning of the book?

The entire Juvenile Justice System of NYC.

What were the 3 names that Sara's (Brooklyn) second attorney gave her?

Croydon St. Vincent Marlborough the Third, Nigel Honeybuns, and Gerald Anderson.

Where has Sara (Brooklyn) lived most of her life?

Brooklyn

What is the name of Sara's (Brooklyn) public defender?

Randall Stubbs

How and why did the foster parents punish Gabriel?

He wet the bed and the foster parents locked him in the closet.

What facility did Sara (Brooklyn) also hack their computer and she was not being charged a crime for?

a bank

What is the name that friends and colleagues call Sara's(Brooklyn) attorney?

Mother

How long did Sara's (Brooklyn) new attorney, Gerald Anderson (Mother), ask her to trust him in the courtroom in front of the judge?

90 seconds

What college did the prosecuting attorney joke in an email about Judge Pancake attending?

Hash Brown University

What facility was Sara (Brooklyn) being sent to and what movie did the name appear in?

Crunchem Hall, Matilda

What does Mother call a police car?

A panda car because it is black and white like a panda.

Who wrote Matilda?

Roald Dahl

What is the name of Sara's(Brooklyn) new real school?

Kinolch Abbey in Scotland

Where is Kat from?

Kathmandu, Nepal

What is "breaking in" called in the spy trade?

"black bag job"

Where was Sara's(Brooklyn) shoebox located in her foster home?

The top shelf of her bedroom closet on the 3rd floor of the house.

What is a nugget?

Some sort of bait to distract (lure out) someone.

What airport did Sara (Brooklyn) and the group fly out of on their way to Scotland?

JFK (John F. Kennedy)

Where did Operation Gumdrop take place?

Paris, France.... 5 years earlier.

What was the name of Mother's wife and how many children did they have?

Clementine and 2 children

What game did Paris play a lot?

Chess

What did Kat give up to Rio so that she could be the "lookout" in the airport when Sara (Brooklyn) was arriving?

The other half of her sandwich.

What was one of "mothers" favorite sayings about an essential element of surveillance and disappearing into the background?

You can't look out if you stand out.

Why did Kat find "not standing out" in Scotland a challenge?

Everyone in Scotland seemed to be fair-skinned... she was not. She was Nepali.

What does RV stand for in the story?

Rendezvous point

What is the name of the department store in Scotland that filled the entire city block?

Jenners, It has been there since 1838.

What did Sara (Brooklyn) supposedly steal (nick) at Jenners?

A watch.

Where does mother work and have an ID badge for the elevator?

Scottish National Gallery

What kind of car does Mother drive?

An oldish Volvo station wagon.

What other job does Mother have besides the art gallery?

He is a caretaker of a small airfield.

Why does he have these jobs?

They let him earn a salary without anything leading back to M16.

Where did Mother go to college?

University of St. Andrews. He earned a degree in art history.

Why does no one recognize Mother?

After the fire he needed surgery and they altered his appearance.

What are Mother's children's names?

Annie (14yo) and Robert (11 yo)

What does FARM stand for?

The Foundation for Atmospheric Research and Monitoring.

Who is the portrait of when you first walk into the FARM?

24th baron of Aisling, William Maxwell, They call him Big Bill, Lives in LA

What body of water does the FARM overlook?

The North Sea.

When was the grand opening of the FARM?

June, 1953 same day as Queen Elizabeth's coronation

What does Mother prefer to call Big Bill instead of "crackpot millionaire?"

"eccentric philanthropist"

Is Big Bill really the heir to the FARM?

No, Big Bill is really a small time actor in Hollywood that was hired by M16.

What war was the FARM a covert listening station for and who did they listen to?

The Cold war, and the Russians

What do they call "boots" in Scotland?

wellies

What term do they use for "exhausted" in Scotland?

knackered

What is the term for bathroom?

loo

What is Monty's specialty dinner food?

roast beef

What was in Sara's (Brooklyn) shoebox?

photographs, a few small objects, a snow globe form the Coney Island lighthouse

Who gave Sara (Brooklyn) the snow globe?

Her abuela, who passed away when Sara was 7. It is her most prized possession.

What was the flavor(scent)of the lip gloss that Sara (Brooklyn) found in the desk in her room?

Strawberry

What do they call spies who specialize in making false documents (ex: birth certificates)?

cobblers

How did Mother say he was starving?

I'm Hank Marvin.

Where was Sara (Brooklyn) born?

Puerto Rico

What are Sara's (Brooklyn) hobbies?

soccer, reading and computers

What did Sara (Brooklyn) really steal at Jenners?

Nothing, the clerk gave her an empty box to have.

How did Sara (Brooklyn) know about Charlotte?

She figured it out by the lip gloss and the shampoo marked "Char."

Why did Mother go to Wallangarra School for Girls in Australia 3 years earlier?

He was looking for his children.

How many girls attend the school (Wallangarra School for Girls in Austrilia)?

647

What was Sydney's real name and what did she do that got Mother's attention at the school?

Olivia, she blew off a statue's head at the school.

What is a group of frogs called?

an army, not a swarm

How did Sydney know Mother was not a true ATF agent?

The badge he flashed was out of date, the crown was changed 3 years ago.

How did Sydney afford to go to the fancy school knowing she had no parents?

Her grandmother had attended and left it in her will for Sydney to go.

Why did Sydney take apart Dr. Cooper's and put it back together in the library?

Because the Robotics &Engineering Club was cancelled for a beauty pageant.

Why did Sydney say she was a trouble maker?

It was always done for justice.

Where did Rio live prior and what has he been doing his whole life?

He lived on the streets of Brazil doing magic.

What is the brush pass?

One spy passing something to another spy without anyone noticing.

What is the name of the secret room in castles or manor houses in Scotland and England where people can hide?

A priest hole, a lot of times it was a priest or minister hiding.

Who is Ben?

The supercomputer in the priest hole.

What school did Brooklyn attend in NYC?

PS 394

How many floating-point operations can Ben perform per second?

More than 500 trillion, unofficially, its the 16th fastest computer in Britain.

Who was known as Father Hurricane?

Father Benito Vines, a Spanish born priest who moved to Cuba in 1870

What is the name of their operation?

Willy Wonka

How many young people are they expecting to descend of the city(Paris) for a 4 day rally and a scientific symposium?

nearly 50,000

What is the Stavros Challenge and how much money is the prize for winning?

One million euros for the team of students that solves an environmental problem.

What place does the team want to win?

Between 6-10, as the top places will be photographed and they don't want to be photographed.

Why do they want to win?

So they can protect Stavros Sinclair.

Where were the 3 other summits held?

Stockholm Sweden, Tokyo, Japan San Francisco, California

Who was known as the purple thumb?

Leyland Carmichael, who has been dead for nearly 3 years.

What was he missing when his grave was dug up?

His right thumb.

What was stolen at the summit in San Fran?

The Fulgora Storm Three, a lithium battery prototype for an electric car.

What is the challenge for this summit in Paris?

A creative approach to artificial rainfall.

Who do they know on the team from Kinloch Abbey and why did they join that team?

Charlotte, so she could win the money.

Why are they going to help Charlotte and her team?

To make sure they DON'T win and get media attention.

Who did Brooklyn say she hacked to show she was a better hacker than Charlotte?

Serena Ochoa, a professor at Cal Tech

Why did Char pick Coach A, seat 22B (the throne) on the train?

free wifi, electrical outlet and table, unobstructed view of 6 out of 9 seats in 1st class

What was the conductor on the trains favorite sports team?

The Celtics

What did Brooklyn tell Char her specialty was?

Breaking and entering and stealing things.... not computers.

What did Charlottes' parents do?

They were college professors. She grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

How did Charlotte's parents die?

In an auto-accident when she was 10.

What did Brooklyn put into Charlottes backpack without Charlotte knowing?

The keylogger Charlotte had left behind,

According to Brooklyn, how do you hack a hacker?

You don't, you let them hack themselves.

What was the name of the virus from Paris?

Xuhet

What was the code to open the metal case that housed the virus?

A randomly changing 15 digit computer generated code.

What body of water where the bodies of the French special agents carrying the virus found in?

The Seine

What was found on each body of the French special agents carrying the virus?

A purple thumbprint on their foreheads.

What candy bar was Kat obsessed with and why?

Cadbury Crunchie, so she could try and crack the sweepstakes code to donate the money.

What did Kat say about the world champions of Scrabble that was amazing? Are they English teachers?

No, they are mathematicians... always about the points.

Kat was kicked off the team...she did not quit. Why was she kicked off?

For planning to steal money from banks.

What type of plane did the team fly off the FARM in for their mission?

A turbo-prop Beechcraft King Air B200.

What is the name of the movie that is being filmed that they witness?

Queen and Country.