Middle Grade Fun Pick: City Spies

City Spies
Book 1
by James Ponti
Aladdin
2020
384 pages
ISBN: 9781534414914

Slick, clever and fun, City Spies is a dynamic new series opener by James Ponti.

Sara Martinez is a computer genius who can hack into any site. Usually, Sara doesn't cause any trouble. She only hacked the New York foster care database to report on the latest of her foster homes. She gets caught, and now awaits court. Enter a stranger who claims to be her lawyer.

He is an enigma and clearly (at least to Sara) NOT a lawyer. Sara agrees to work with this man in order to gain her freedom. The judge agrees for him to take Sara into custody, and he spirits her off to Scotland to meet his team of teen spies. Sara's savior is an MI6 agent who goes by the name "Mother." He has recruited kids from all over the world to train at FARM: The Foundation for Atmospheric Research and Monitoring, which is cover for  covert operations and tons of satellite feeds. Mother has a few enemies of his own (what did you expect from a career MI6 agent?)

Sara meets the team, each nicknamed for the city Mother found them in: Rio, Sydney, Paris and Kat. Each teen has skills that will be useful on any spy team. Sara, now named Brooklyn, is the team's computer genius. The team does several training drills before Mother tells them what their mission is: keep billionaire philanthropist Stavros Sinclair safe during a global youth summit. Everyone has a reason to be there, even the bad guys.

Sara is an engaging character who will resonate with readers. Fans of this book will probably follow the next books in the series. Ponti tells a smart story with enough high stakes details to engage middle grade kids.

Recommended grade 5 and up.

YA Pick: NEED

NEED
by Joelle Charbonneau
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2015
335 pages
ISBN: 9780544416697


From the author of the Testing trilogy comes this fast paced and freaky novel. NEED will fulfill teen appetites for solid YA thrills. The town of Nottawa, Wisconsin, has been infiltrated by a new website which promises teen followers to fulfill their needs. The only catch: if you post a need, you then must invite friends to join. As needs are met, more and more teens post on the site. Then the rules change.

Kaylee doesn't see the harm in asking for a favor. She wouldn't ask for something for herself, of course. She asks for a kidney for her younger brother who will die unless he gets a transplant. When she hears that other needs are being fulfilled, she's hopeful. Soon, new members are being asked to do easy tasks: dig a hole, take a photo, deliver a box, take a photo. What is the harm in that? When one teen dies and others are threatened, NEED turns into the enemy. And no one can "unfriend" NEED.

Who or what is pulling the strings at NEED? Can Kaylee and  Nate solve the mystery before it kills them? Whoever is behind NEED knows all the teens and all their families. What does NEED want?

As the duo close in on answers, more violence is unleashed. Readers will race through pages at a breakneck speed. This is one quick, unputdownable read!

Cover art and quotes of the needs will draw readers in. The quote, "No one gets something for nothing. We should all know better..."  promises twists and turns. A second book is possible since one character leaves town at the ending.

Highly recommended. Violence. No profanity. No sex. Grade 7-up.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Code Workshop: Learning Code: So Easy Even a Zombie Can Learn

I offered a Code Workshop to grades 6-8 at each lunch shift on Tuesdays. We began here.

1. Start with the Hour of Code. You can print a certificate at the end.
2. Then I took kids through several learning games: Anna and Elsa, the tutorial featuring Zombies vs. plants, and Flappy Birds.

3. Many students flew through the tutorials. Really, everything you need is right here. Let kids explore. I stayed a few steps ahead of them--most of the time.
4. After exploring code.org, we graduated to Code Academy learning html and JavaScript.
5. We also spent many hours  in Khan Academy.
6. You may also want to check out Scratch.

Using all the free websites, programs, and games is bound to keep your coders happy for the entire year and then some!

Outcome: I saw all types of kids in the library. Many of the older students I hadn't seen in some time began coming in for coding. On Wednesday-Friday, students who wanted to code could come in at lunch and use computers on their own. Once you turn them loose, you will be surprised what they build. The one rule: Keep only on sites that we had already visited as a group. If they found something on another site from home, they could share that with me and I would decide whether or not to share with the entire group.

Word gets around quickly. I had teachers coming to me within days and wondering what the heck coding is? What are the students talking about? What is going on in the library?

Pretty soon,  I was answering questions on the phone from other schools and emails from far and wide. Visitors came to see the kids using code and tweeted out news.

Don't be afraid to try this! It's fun! And as our posters around school say: Even a zombie can learn code!

Cyber Teen Pick

Brain Jack
by Brian Falkner
Random House, 2009
349 pages

From the ominous opening pages, Brain Jack delivers as a rocket paced cyber thriller. The prologue creates a sense of urgency and despair about the Internet's grip on our lives. Anywhere there's a network, cyber thieves can steal information, and not just information but even human thoughts. Technology has evolved and cyber gamers are using headsets instead of keyboards to control their computers. People are becoming addicted to gaming and losing control of reality.

When teen cyber hacker and uber-geek Sam Wilson hijacks into a telecommunications company, he gets busted by national security who locks him up. It doesn't take him long to escape, but then he realizes he has been set up; the government hires him to bring down other hackers like himself.

As Sam works with his super secret team, they realize they are up against a threat not just to national security but to human life and human thought itself. An entity has begun that is too powerful to stop. This cyber-presence is everywhere and all-powerful; it reacts before the human team can. What is it that they are up against?

When a computer can be smarter than Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey and a society can be more frightening than A Clockwork Orange, humanity is in trouble. Brain Jack is well-written, deftly and superbly told unraveling at a break-neck pace and will have readers turning the pages late into the night. This chilling tale will resonate with readers who like technology, computers, and thrillers.

Highly, highly recommended grades 7-up.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I purchased this book for my library. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

YA Pick

The Compound
by S.A. Bodeen
Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan), 2008.
248 pages.

This first novel was surprising. Surprisingly great! The Compound strikes close to home in this era of the Internet and streaming video where news stories hit the net within seconds. Because we are so aware of government coups, upheavals, gorilla warfare, and nukes, we are afraid of something happening as it does in this novel.

Eli and his family are forced into a safe compound underground built by his eccentric billionaire father. Eli's twin and grandmother don't make it before the iron door shuts. They are lost to the family. The world as Eli knew it has been destroyed by nukes and radiation. They are only safe stuck in the compound for the next fifteen years. The vault cannot be opened until fifteen years pass and the world is "safe" from nuclear fall-out. His father has planned this safe haven for years and stockpiled supplies, even medicine and a medical wing. They are prepared for anything. Except the livestock start dying, flour is running short, and they are facing a real food crisis. His father has planned for that. Every year a new Supplement joins the family. These are the offspring of Eli's mother and father--yes, children--, but they are not considered part of the family. They are raised in case the food runs out.

Eli and his sister find shocking news. They discover that their father has been in touch with the outside world through the Internet. They wonder, if there is Internet, people are still alive! And if there is Internet, most of the world must be normal! Eli confronts his father about the lies, and the novel continues to shock. Readers who like thrillers will love this one. Recommended for all YA collections, grades 7 and up.

The Tomorrow Code

by Brain Falkner
Random House, 2008.
349 pages

The Tomorrow Code by Falkner is a thrill-ride for readers who enjoy sci-fi and adventure. Teen genius Rebecca and her friends Tane and Harley "Fat Boy" discover a code from the future. Once Rebecca writes a computer program that looks for patterns, they are able to see messages that someone or something is sending them from the future. Using numbers from the code, they win the lotto and are instant millionaires! With new-found wealth comes a ominous warning: sos, stop the Chimera Project. Rebecca, Tane, and Fat Boy have to break the code, find the professor, figure out what the Chimera Project is, stop a pandemic, and save the world. The code is their only key.The outcome, although not pleasant, allows Rebecca and Tane to change the present and affect the world's fu ture. The story becomes a time loop in which Rebecca and Tane have another chance to save the world. Teens who enjoy Anthony Horowitz and Scott Westerfeld will probably enjoy this book. Probably for grades 6-9 and older sci-fi fans.