Thirteen books about a twelve-year-old who is recruited into the CIA’s academy for spies, discovers he was recruited as bait, and stays anyway. Stuart Gibbs does not number the covers, and the titles are all variations on the same three words, so working out what comes after Spy Ski School from a store page is close to impossible.
Here is the run in order, plus where the graphic novels fit.
The short answer
Start with Spy School and read the thirteen below in order. Ignore publication dates in a store listing — several of the graphic novel adaptations are newer than the novels they adapt and sort above them.
Do you have to read them in order?
Yes, though the books are generous about it. Each one is a self-contained mission with its own villain and its own set piece, so a reader who starts at book four will follow the plot. What they will not follow is everything else: Ben’s relationship with Erica, the long-running business with the Croatoan organization, and a cast that accumulates steadily and does not reset. Gibbs also writes running jokes that land only if you were there for the setup.
Every Spy School book in order
- Spy School
- Spy Camp
- Evil Spy School
- Spy Ski School
- Spy School Secret Service
- Spy School Goes South
- Spy School British Invasion
- Spy School Revolution
- Spy School at Sea
- Spy School Project X
- Spy School Goes North
- Spy School Goes Wild
- Spy School Blackout
The graphic novels
The early books are being adapted one at a time, in order:
- Spy School the Graphic Novel
- Spy Camp the Graphic Novel
- Evil Spy School the Graphic Novel
- Spy Ski School the Graphic Novel
- Spy School Secret Service the Graphic Novel
- Spy School Goes South the Graphic Novel
They are adaptations, not new stories, and they are several books behind the novels. For a reader who finds the prose heavy they are a good way in — but they run out well before the series does, so the switch to novels is coming either way.
Who it suits
Readers around ten to thirteen who want plot above everything: the books are fast, funny, and built out of gadgets, chases and double-crosses. There is real peril and a body count of sorts, but nothing graphic. It is one of the most reliable recommendations for a child who says they find books boring, because almost nothing in them is slow.
If they finish it
Gibbs writes several other series at the same level, and the same readers tend to go next to spy and heist stories rather than to fantasy. The series is also still running, so the usual warning applies: the most recent book is not the last one.
Keep browsing
Every book above has a page in our catalog. For more in this line, see mysteries for tweens and books like Nancy Drew. For the age bracket generally, try books for 11-year-olds or books for 12-year-olds.