JANE BLONDE

Full Name:	Jane Blonde
Nationality:	British
Organization:	British Intelligence
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	Jill Marshall
Time Span:	2006 - 2022

ABOUT THE SERIES

Jane Blonde is an agent with SPI.

Janey Brown is not. Janey Brown is a new student at the Winton School and not having a very good time with it since she knows no one there yet really and therefore has no friends and there is someone leaving her nasty notes for no reason and this morning (that's the day we first meet her) her sneakers (trainers) have melted so PE is out of the question. As she puts it, a spectacularly bad day. It is about to get worse and a whole of weirder.

Why are we talking about Janey Brown when the subject of this entry is Jane Blonde? Good question. The answer starts with Brown sitting on the bleachers when some lady she has never met shows up claiming to be her god-mother and talking about how Brown's actual mother is on a building roof going up against some very nasty people and it is time for Brown to do something about it since she is a Spylet.

That last bit was not the least bit helpful because Blonde, aka Brown, had no idea what it meant and when she is told she should know since it is her job, she sort of balks at having a job, not yet being in secondary school and all. I am in agreement with that since it seems she is around 11 years old at the time and really shouldn't be considering long term employment.

Then again, she shouldn't be thinking too hard about being a Spylet, which, if I understand correctly, is a young spy as in still a kid. And the whole Jane Blonde business is just her codename and Janey Brown's mother is probably the best spy there ever was at least until Janey Brown finishes her required training and then Brown/Blonde will become one impressive operative herself. And she will do it while working for Uncle Solomon (whom she had never met) and his spy organization SPI which stands for Solomon's Polificational Investigations. By the way, I have no idea what Polificational means and search engines have not helped.

What we do know about SPI is that it has its archnemesis in the Sinerlesse Group and those guys are always out to get one over on SPI and they do not play nice so Brown/Blonde is going to have play just a little bit harder, once she finishes training and knows how to 'play' those sorts of games.

Note: we also know that after we are able to follow Jane Blonde on just over a half dozen wild adventures, we can follow her continued activities when she joins with three other young people who also had wild adventures of their own, though not spy-related; all of them now having a few wild adventures together.

YOUNG ADULT BOOKS

Number of Books:	7
First Appearance:	2006
Last Appearance:	2022


1			Sensational Spylet Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2006 Janey Brown, aka Jane Blonde, learns that her elusive Uncle Solomon "has made a scientific discovery that could change the world. But now he's gone missing. Can Jane Blonde get to him first? Or will The Sinerlesse, a rogue spying group with evil purposes (and a very nasty dog), hunt him down and take his secret?"

2			Spies Trouble Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2006 "Jane’s purr-ecious spy-cat, Trouble, has been kidnapped! A group of mad scientists think they have discovered the secret to a cat’s nine lives - but they need Trouble for their experiments. All the clues lead down the drain - spying can be a wet and stinky business! But with chewing gum that lets her breathe underwater, a SPIpod tracking device and a high-speed mini-hoverboard, Jane Blonde is ready for ACTION."

3			Twice the Spylet Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2007 "Jane Blonde, Sensational Spylet, has just met her secret twin! When the sisters are posted to an Australian sheep farm, Janey’s instincts are on red alert. There’s something weird about those sheep. Come to think of it, there’s something suspicious about Jane Blonde’s twin . . . Janey can raise an invisible shield with her spy- ring and she can burrow through the earth with her spy-drill boots - but will incredible gadgets save her this time?"

4			Spylet on Ice Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2007 "Jane Blonde, Sensational Spylet, is hurled on her coolest mission yet when she enrolls at SPIcamp! There are gadgets galore at the top-secret facility and there’s even a snowdome where the spylets can chill out. When the team is sent on a mysterious polar expedition, Janey’s spylet- training - and her new snowboard skills! - are put to the test."

5			Golden Spy Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2008 "Janey is delighted when she is granted a dazzling golden spysuit. But things get deadly serious when her investigations lead her to a shocking discovery . . . Her arch enemy has developed a terrible, giant 'Lazy Beam' which he is directing at Earth from a secret space station! No one has the strength to resist its zapping power - but the Golden Spy will have to do just that to stop her arch enemy taking over the world."

6			Spy In The Sky Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2008 "When Jane Blonde becomes a sky-diving sensation, she's on cloud nine. But her flying skills are put to the test when a flock of freaky creatures take to the air, and there are terrible things happening to the Spylabs - and even the spies. Can Blonde uncover the dangerous force behind her new enemy before she's blasted out of the skies?"

7			Spylets are Forever Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2009 "The past is calling, and Jane Blonde must travel back in time for her final showdown with Copernicus. Does she have what it takes to defeat him – and avoid getting stuck in the past forever?"

8			Spook Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2020 Book 1 in the **SWAGG** series of adventures. "Online conferencing organisation, HOST, have figured out how to livestream the World Community Games across the planet. The whole world sits up and takes notice. And so do some people who are out-of-this-world ... Like Janey Brown, aka Jane Blonde. She'd thought her spy life all over when she carried out her last mission iwith the irrepressible SPI:KE, G-Mamma, until one day, from the shadows, Gideon Flynn appears. He's building a team to uncover what HOST are really up to - and to carry out some secret missions of his own. Together, they track down some unusual superheroes. Jack Bootle-Cadogan - Jack BC, or Anubis, to his friends. Matilda Peppercorn, legendary kickboxer with fabulous feline skills. And Prince Stein of the Huckenbeck dynasty, who's very old and very young, all at the same time. And the adventure begins. But are the team willing or even able to do what Flynn wants? It’s time to find out. Meet SWAGG."

9			School Of I.C.E. Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2021 Book 1 in the **SWAGG** series of adventures. "Not every dog-headed Egyptian god gets the chance to set up their own School of Inter-Connecting Energies - the School of ICE! But when Jack B-C set out to create it in his own stately home, for unique individuals like SWAGG - Jane Blonde. Stein, Matilda Peppercorn, Gideon Flynn and Jackanubis himself - he discovers that some people, and even some non-people, will stop at nothing to bring them down."

10			Sorcery Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2021 Book 3 in the **SWAGG** series of adventures. "Legendary catgirl and head of the Runes, Matilda Peppercorn, is called to some SWAGGey action when a swarm of strange visitors arrive at the School of I.C.E. with a message. Someone, somewhere, is waking up. But who? Scotland’s mysterious fairy folk and famous monsters? The race known only as ‘the Others’ who terrify all of witchkind? Or something much, much worse? Yes, yes and … yes! Dark forces are sweeping across the world. It’s going to take a team effort to fight off what’s awoken, if Tilly’s old friends and her new team of SWAGG can stop fighting with each other! But Tilly’s been woken up too. She’s always been a legend. But now, with SWAGG, she’s about to discover her ultimate destiny ..."

11			Soulforce Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2022 Book 4 in the **SWAGG** series of adventures. "Darkness is spreading. Gideon Flynn, SWAGG’s beloved leader, is rapidly becoming more shadow than light. And it’s not just Flynn. Destructive forces are stealing across the planet, causing rifts in families, in continents, in the Earth itself … As super-scientist Stein races to create a way to bring Gideon back from the Shadows, with the help of his old friend Frank and his new SWAGG team, they realize that Flynn is always secretive for a reason. He knows something. He knows what’s coming. And he knows how to stop it. So if SWAGG can’t bring him back before he disappears forever into the blackness, it’s going to be too late … For everyone."

NOVELLAS AND SHORT STORIES

Number of Stories:	1
First Appearance:	2020
Last Appearance:	2020


1			The Perfect Spylet Written by Jill Marshall Copyright: 2020 "When Janey is given access to a secret shop for spies, she's in spylet-heaven! And with some particularly nasty little spylets on the loose, it's lucky Janey's kitted out with the latest spy-gear!"

MY COMMENTS

This cute series designed, according to the blurbs, for people 8-18 years old was a lot of fun to read for someone nearly nine times the low end of that range or four times the high end.

I think the optimum age for readership most likely to enjoy these stories is in the 10-year-old notch but then who am I to say.

I got a kick (figuratively) out of Jane Blonde and I can see why this series was so popular back when it first came out and why it won so much acclaim. The author, Jill Marshall, really knows how to tell a fun story.

GRADE

My Grade: B

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