Hale, Bruce. 
PLAYING WITH FIRE
New York : Disney-Hyperion, 2013
IL 3-6, RL 5.0
ISBN  142316850X

Max Segredo isn’t a bad kid---but somehow, in each of the seven foster homes he’s lived in, bad things have happened.  Foster parents die in not-so-ordinary ways, fires seem to just happen, and, yes, things go missing…

“It’s not my fault!” says Max.

Now he’s down to his last chance to avoid juvenile detention---the Merry Sunshine Orphanage.

The fact that the director of the orphanage meets him at the door with a pistol in her hand is the first sign that life at Merry Sunshine is going to be a little bit…different.  “Fires? Stealing?” she says.  “You know what I say?” 

“Learn to control fire…and if you’re stealing, don’t get caught.”

Join Max as he learns that the Merry Sunshine Orphanage is actually a training center for would-be spies, and as he discovers that the father he believed was dead may actually be the best spy of all…
   (New Hampshire Great Stone Face Book Award nominee, 2015)