Secret Agent Mole: Goldfishfinger by James Foley

Title: Secret Agent Mole: Goldfishfinger

Author: James Foley

Genre: Humour

Publisher: Scholastic Australia

Published: 1^st March 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 208

Price: $15.99

Synopsis: Max is a mole on a mission.

With Helen Hippo and June Bug by his side, Max must stop the evil Goldfish-Finger from stealing a priceless, solid gold fish-finger. This dangerous, top-secret mission will involve explosions, a naked mole rat, and being flushed down a giant toilet. Will Max and the team defeat the fiendish fish?

Time to rock and mole!

~*~

Meet Max Mole – trainee secret agent, adored by his granny, feared by earthworms and … slightly annoying to villains. Max is determined to become a secret agent alongside his friends Helena Hippo – a determined, dependable, and deadly trainee agent, and former professional wrestler – Helena Handbasket. She’s the muscles and just as determined as Max to make it through their training. And the third part of their team is June Bug – the brains providing tiny tech support to Helena and Max – and she loves to hack into systems, pick locks and defuse bombs so her small size is rather deceptive. And so that brings us to the first adventure these friends are on, The first mission, to capture Dr Nude has gone awry and they need to pass at least one mission out of three to get through their training. So they’re sent after Goldfishfinger and his crew, who are robbing banks and freezing everyone in them. But now Goldfishfinger and his fellow villain, Toxin, are after a golden fishfinger statue – and they will use their freezing toxin on anyone who gets in their way. So how will Max, Helena and Bug save the day and become secret agents?

The first book in a new series, James Foley has brough the spy genre to life for kids in a graphic novel format. This fun story takes the well-known tropes of spy movies and stories – in this case, with direct references to James Bond on a fun level – Dr Nude – Dr No, Goldfishfinger – Goldfinger, that sort of thing. Yet it also has its own little twists, and this makes it really fun, as the spies in this book are not perfect – Max makes mistakes, Helena and Bug get caught up in it – and as individuals, they are not as strong. When they work together however, I think this is when their true power comes through.

Max, Helena, and Bug must constantly be assessed by judges who watch their missions and make notes as they go – I’m sure James Bond never had to go through that, and that in reality, the spy testing is vastly different. The way James has pulled various things together and ensured that adults and older readers can understand the references that younger readers might not or might not know just yet is perfect – I love graphic novels or any book that does this – where it offers something for a broad audience whilst still being perfect for its target audience. It is a great talent to be able to do this. I really did feel for Max, who kept trying to become an agent, but the baddies continue to thwart him.

And so, after they fail to apprehend Dr Nude, Max, Helena, and Bug set off after Goldfishfinger. This fun book follows a well-known spy story and mystery formula but uses the tropes to its advantage, and lets the characters make mistakes – and lets readers know that it is okay if they aren’t perfect or can’t do something. I liked that Max and his friends got chances to achieve their goals – it was reassuring to see them fail and keep trying – showing resilience and determination. It lets readers know that trying is okay, and I think can help readers understand that failure is a part of life. I think this is a really fun book that will appeal to a wide range of readers, and I think it is going to be a very interesting series.