Mac Barnett: Hi, my name is Mac Barnett. I am the author of the Mac B Kid Spy series. Those books are illustrated by Mike Lowery. The first book in the series is called Mac Undercover. They're my memoirs, or as some people say, people like me, my memoirs. They're the story of when I was a kid, the stuff I remember about my childhood, the people I knew, the places I went, the things I did, especially all of the spy missions that I went on for the Queen of England.

So I'll read you my author's note.

A note from the author.

My name is Mac Barnett. I'm an author, but before I was an author, I was a kid, and when I was a kid I was a spy. An author's job is to make up stories, but the story you're about to read is true. This actually happened to me.

This is the house I grew up in. It is on the top of a hill in a little town called Castro Valley. That's a real place. You can look it up. This is really what my house looked like. My mom and I lived there. This is me. This is my mom.

Since it was just the two of us, I had a lot of responsibilities. I did the dishes, packed my lunches, cooked our dinners, washed the laundry, dusted, vacuumed, and cleaned out our rabbits' litter boxes. I wanted a dog. We had rabbits instead. It was also my responsibility to answer the phone. I liked answering the phone even though it was never for me. One afternoon the phone rang, and it was for me. It was the Queen of England.