Many are the challenges of Normal school, as olive-skinned Bea discovers after she leaves the familiar confines of the hotel in which she’s grown up—a sanctuary for Pangean League spies. She’s responding to an urgent message from her Normal friend, brown-skinned Chantal Davis. But doesn’t the chance that there might be an undercover assassin from the archvillainous Arctic League in the student body make it all worthwhile? Bea must surrender her multiple knives—which she fondly refers to as “my sweeties”—at the door to STEAM Academy for Gifted Girls and even insinuate herself into the sycophantic circle around Mabel, the mean queen bee. Munda is clearly having tremendous fun with her concept, and readers will too as Bea drags Chantal and other bemused and confused classmates into a supposedly pretend investigation that quickly takes on the character of a thrilling, high-tech spy caper, complete with a car chase, multiple plot twists, and a climactic lunchroom brawl—along with a slumber party, valuable lessons learned about friendship and bullying, and frustrating exchanges with clueless teachers. Names cue ethnic diversity in the cast.