Spy Toys Secret Messages for Kids

Do your kids love secret codes? Do they enjoy pretending to be a spy? They’ll love these secret messages inspired by the Spy Toys book series by Mark Powers. A copy of the books were sent to us for review. Learn how to make a simple substitution cypher using toys as the code! I get commissions for purchases made through the affiliate links in this post. 

Spy Toys by Mark Powers

Spy Toys is a chapter book series that’s perfect for young readers. It also makes a great read aloud. My oldest is an avid reader, but this is one that we wanted to read together. Dan is a big robotic teddy bear. He’s supposed to specialize in giving hugs, but something went wrong at the toy factory and he’s too strong to be a gentle snuggly bear. He was sent to the reject pile where he meets Arabella. She’s a “Loadsasmiles Sunshine” doll who isn’t full of sunshine. Instead, she has a bit of a temper. Dan and Arabella eventually escape the toy factory and meet up with Flax – he’s a police robot rabbit that has gone AWOL. The misfit toys are recruited for a secret mission to protect a senator’s eight-year-old son from being kidnapped. They need to go undercover and pretend to be “normal” toys while watching out for the bad guy. Will the team be successful?

Aiden and I enjoyed reading this book. The storyline was playful and unique. I’d never heard of toys being spies before. Had you? It was also interesting that all of the toys made by this one toy manufacturer had some sort of artificial intelligence component. Even the jump rope had a personality and talked.

Spy Toys: Out of Control!

Spy Toys: Out of Control is the second book in the series. Aiden and I read this book together as well. I actually like the second book better than the first. The Spy Toys work well as a team to take on a new problem. The team learns that all of the Snaztacular Ultrafun toys can be controlled by two phrases. The super secret phrases are hidden on the toy designer’s computer. Someone has stolen the secret phrases and now toys are being reprogrammed. They are revolting against the families who own them.

It’s up to Dan, Arabella, and Flax to figure out who’s behind all of the out of control toys. You’ll never guess who the big baddie is. It was definitely a surprise to us. This story has tons of humor woven throughout. We’re looking forward to following allow on the next Spy Toys mission.

Secret Messages for Kids: Toy Substitution Cypher

When Aiden and I think of spies, we immediately think about secret messages and creating codes and cyphers. (In case you’re wondering, a code replaces whole words with symbols and a cypher replaces individual letters with letters, numbers, or symbols.) A substitution cypher is probably the most common type of secret message technique. There are so many ways to represent a letter. We were inspired by Spy Toys and created a substitution cypher using toys as the symbols.

Download the free printable toy substitution cypher PDF for your personal or classroom use. (Don’t distribute or sell it. Just send people here to get it.)

The 3 page PDF includes our toy cypher, a secret message to decode, and a blank substitution cypher ready for you to add your own symbols and create your own secret code.

After Aiden decoded the secret message, he wrote a secret message to me.

I decoded it and wrote him one of my own.

We enjoy writing secret messages back and forth like this. I love that secret codes encourage writing practice, too!

More Secret Messages for Kids

• Try these 3 Number Cyphers. Write secret messages with a cypher wheel, number grid, and a simple number substitution.
• Write secret messages with baking soda. Use chemistry to reveal the invisible ink.
• Glyphs are another way to make secret messages. Draw a valentine heart glyph or a monster glyph to hide a message about you.

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