Book Review: Girls Who Code: The Friendship Code

My cyber-security, tech-minded husband was thrilled when I opened my latest bookmail from KidLitExchange to find the first book in the Girls Who Code series. He immediately started flipping through it, asking me if I knew what the different lines of code meant. (insert eye roll here)

Girls Who Code: The Friendship Code by Stacia Deutsch

Review: Girls Who Code: The Friendship Code is a sweet story about a sixth grader named Lucy who is a member of her school's coding club. After Lucy begins receiving mysterious notes written in code, she turns to some of the other members of the club to help her figure out the mysteries. Reminiscent of The Babysitters Club series, this would be a good book to introduce the basics of programming and computer science to students, whether at a STEM school or just to have on hand in the library/classroom.

While geared towards middle grades, I felt it was better suited for upper elementary, as the writing was pretty simplistic and it lacked any conflict. The conflict that was mentioned (a year-long estrangement between Lucy and her former best friend) was seemingly resolved after a few words to one another. The characters, while diverse, were very one-dimensional. However, the themes of friendships and problem-solving are ones that are both universal and positive, and I could see how it might help to spark an interest in computer programming for students.

Rating: 3.5/5

Book Review: The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street

This blog was originally intended as an assignment for my first library media studies graduate class. However, since that course is ending this week and I am not sure if we will be required to continue the blog with any of my future courses, I have decided to re-purpose it a bit... 

In following Kate Olson (aka The Loud Library Lady) on Instagram, I learned about KidLitExchange, a program she created in which "kid lit" is submitted to readers to review, which means that the books receive more reviews. As an avid book reader, I wanted to be involved before I even finished reading the description. Over the weekend, I received my first KidLitExchange book via NetGalley and I am super excited to share the review here!!! :)

The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay CurrieReview: This book is SO good! It is a middle grades ghost story, something I did have to remind myself of a few times while reading, as the story is told from the perspective of a 12 year old girl (insert all the internal struggles of a tween who is forced to leave her friends and life in Florida in order to move to Chicago because of her dad's new job...), but I really found myself sucked into the story itself due to all the details which helped to move the plot along. Currie did a phenomenal job of laying out the creepy details of the ghost story / haunted house Tessa and her family have moved into, and I found myself getting goosebumps during some of the ghost-related scenes. While I felt the Tessa-Cassidy storyline was unnecessary and did nothing for the plot itself, hence the half star deduction, the actual ghost story and theme of friendship were both great, making this a must read for all middle grades students when it is released on October 10th!
Rating: 4.5/5