UNDERCOVER LATINA
Grades 6 and Up
Aya De Leon
Candlewick, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-53622-374-3
325 pp.
Summary
Andréa Hernández-Baldoquín comes from a family of spies, but not just any spies. Her parents are part of an organization that specifically protects people of color. At fourteen, Andrea is finally given the opportunity to take the lead on a mission of her own. Her assignment: to go undercover as a white girl and befriend the son of a white supremacist. Soon, however, complications arise as Andrea tackles issues of romance, friendship, and racial history and identity. A great spy novel that asks the reader to think about the systemic racism that exists in our country.
Curriculum Connections
Social Studies
Andréa’s work is part of a larger mission to thwart an act of violence by a group of white supremacists. Sadly, organized hate crimes such as the one in the book have become more frequent in recent years. The first resource from Facing History (below) explains what white nationalism is, where it is showing up in our country, and ways in which it impacts schools. The second resource includes mini-lessons about the rise in hate crimes in schools, including ways to respond. Both of these resources are geared toward older middle-school students (12 and up).
Andréa is partially chosen for this mission because she can pass as white. Discuss the concept of race and how it impacts individuals in this society, both positively and negatively.
Concept of Race from Facing History, designed for 6th-8th grade students, includes six activities to help students explore this topic. It is intended to help kids “analyze the socially constructed meaning of race and examine how it has been used to justify exclusion, inequality, and violence throughout history.”
Cross-Curricular
Table-top role-playing games are key to the connection between characters and plot development in this novel. Try playing some! These games offer interesting opportunities to teach math, writing, debate, and more.
Tabletop Role-Playing Games: Do they have a place in the classroom?
What are Role-Playing Games and How Can They Be Used in Education?
Discussion Questions
From Candlewick Press, see the Undercover Latina Discussion Guide.
Author Online
Aya de Leon directs the Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley and is the acquiring editor for Fighting Chance Books, the climate justice fiction imprint at She Writes Press. From MG Book Village, see an interview with Aya about Undercover Latina. Find her on Instagram.
Companion Books
Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation
Stuart Gibbs (Simon & Schuster, 2019)
Genius Charlie (Charlotte) Thorne has been co-opted by the CIA to solve the secret of Einstein’s last equation, while keeping it out of the hands of the diabolical Furies – and, incidentally, saving the world. First of an exciting series.
Cloud and Wallfish
Anne Nesbet (Candlewick, 2016)
Fifth-grader Noah suddenly becomes Jonah when his parents take on jobs behind the Iron Curtain in East Berlin in 1989. There he becomes friends with Claudia, a German girl who lives in a neighboring apartment, and the two begin to uncover some frightening secrets.
How to Be an International Spy
Lonely Planet Kids (Lonely Planet, 2015)
Want to be an international spy? Check out this helpful training manual.
Spy School
Stuart Gibbs (Simon & Schuster, 2012)
Nerdy Ben Ripley is recruited for a magnet school focusing on science – only to discover that it’s actually a front for a junior CIA academy. First of a series.
City Spies
James Ponti (Aladdin, 2020)
Sara Martinez, in juvenile detention for hacking, is offered a place in a secret MI5 agency by Mother, a top British spy. Soon, along with five other kids from around the world, Sara is enrolled in a local boarding school – and deep in the world of espionage.
Framed!
James Ponti (Aladdin, 2017)
Florian Bates, a 12-year-old attached to the FBI, uses TOAST – the Theory of All Small Things – to solve mysteries – including tackling a notorious crime syndicate and theft at the National Gallery of Art.
Projekt 1065
Alan Gratz (Scholastic, 2016)
A World War II thriller. Michael O’Shaunessey, son of the Irish ambassador to Germany, is – like is parents – a spy, who infiltrates Hitler Youth with the aim of finding out about the ominous and secret Projekt 1065.
The Metropolitans
Carol Goodman (Viking, 2017)
Set during World War II, four thirteen-year-olds are tasked with tracking down the Kelmsbury Manuscript, an ancient book of Arthurian legends, which contains a mysterious key to preventing an attack on American soil. An exciting mystery with a bit of magic.