Living in Tucson in 1953 at the height of the Red Scare, 12-year-old Jake is just as caught up in the anti-Communist fervor as everyone around him. Jake, who is white, doesn’t remember his dad, who never came home from World War II and is believed to be in a Russian prison camp. When Jake’s mom takes in a Russian boarder, Shubin, Jake’s sure Shubin must be a Russian spy. It doesn’t help that Jake and his best friend are obsessed with a comic called Spy Runner ; they believe it’s an instruction manual for how to expose Russian spies. It also doesn’t help that after Shubin’s arrival, Jake keeps seeing a mysterious man with gold teeth, is followed by a black car, and is even visited by two FBI agents who give him their cards. Determined to expose Shubin, Jake engages in a series of increasingly risky acts in this over-the-top novel with a comic book sensibility and flair. Occasional grainy back-and-white illustrations reminiscent of spy photographs, and essential to the plot, appear throughout an action-packed story full of unbelievable tasks of daring—a comic book without comics—that also offers insight into paranoia and false patriotism. (Ages 9–13)

In Spy Runner, a noir mystery middle grade novel from Newbery Honor author Eugene Yelchin, a boy stumbles upon a secret that jeopardizes American national security.