C.Y.A.: Covert Youth Agency — The Case of Tangled Love by Jason Ancona is the story of the nerd. Most YA heroes and heroines are awesome people, who aren't from the evil 'Mean Girls' popular crowd, but are definitely well known, well liked, and just above normal. But the adorable main characters in C.Y.A are the oft overlooked crowd, and they are most definitely nerds.
That's okay though. For the most part each of them has accepted their role as nerdy, and in Peter's case, has wholly embraced it. His friends and family even call him Pi. But, he's totally in love with his childhood best friend, who happens to be a member of the popular crowd because she's dating a hot shot football player.
Feeling like students, especially the nerds, were being treated unfairly, and given no way of fighting back, Pi came up with the idea of the C.Y.A, or Covert Youth Agency and their purpose is to provide an agency for kids to contact when they need help an adult can offer. Pi is the ringleader, the motivation and basic brains behind the organization.
Then, we have the 13 years old female genius computer hacker, Delilah, who is responsible for gathering confidential information, hacking databases, and operating the hidden link within the school's website. Can I take a moment to let the feminist in me out long enough to say that I am totally in love with letting the hacker be a girl, and the youngest member of the team?! That made me so happy! Although, I do pity her the name Delilah. That just has such bad connotations.
Ben is the third and final member of the team, and he is sort of an 'everyman'. His nickname is Tollhouse, and he's overweight. He fits in well with nearly every group in school and everyone seems to like him.
This book is the story of their first case, and it involves the girl Pi has been in love with for years, wanting to know if her boyfriend cheated on her at a party. Pi is eager to accept the case, because it gives him an easy way to break them up, and become the perfect person to offer a shoulder to cry on.
I was so impressed with this book! It was incredibly funny and so worth the read. Who among us didn't want to have some awesome secret organization when we were kids, bringing down mean gym teachers, and restoring balance and justice to the halls of the school?! Okay, well maybe not that part, but seriously. Who didn't have some sort of secret club growing up?!
This book is the first in a series, and it spends a lot of time developing the characters. We learn a lot about each of our C.Y.A. members in this novel, and Ancona does a wonderful job of providing his characters with depth, and emotions. I did feel like some of the family situations were underdeveloped. Ancona brought up a lot of tense family scenes involving the parents of our three secret agents, but then took them nowhere. I'm going to assume that this is because there are plans for sequels to the story, which makes sense, because you can't put all your eggs in one basket. You have to have some where for the story to grow.
My biggest complaint with this novel is the ages of the characters. While I know that there are a lot of precocious kids out there who act older than their age, I had a really hard time believing these kids were only 13 and 14. I consistently thought of them as older, more like 16 and 17, and every time their age was mentioned, it jarred me a little, because they don't really act that young.
However, that one small grievance aside, I did really enjoy this book and I strongly encourage you to pick up a copy. I will definitely be looking forward to reading the sequel, which has a tentative release date of March of this year. You can see and read more on the author's website. Jason Ancona
I also feel like it's important that I admit I am a bit of a nerd as well. I worked out the answer to the ladybug code when I had finished the book.
*Disclaimer: I received this book from the author in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.