technology – Page 3 – Mom Read It

Fantasy, Fiction, Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Tween Reads

Dragons vs. Drones: D&D fantasy meets today’s tech

Posted on February 22, 2016February 22, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Dragons vs. Drones, by Wesley King (Mar. 2016, Razorbill), $16.99, ISBN: 9781595147974

Recommended for ages 9-12

In a land called Dracone, Dree labors away as a welder. Her family was once nobility; her father, a dragon rider, until their fortunes reversed. Now, dragon riders are considered traitors, dragons hunted for their fangs and scales, and Dree’s father spends his day as a shadow of the man he once was while Dree and her mother work to scrape together a living for their family.

In our world, Marcus, the son of a CIA analyst who disappeared when he was only 4 is desperate to find out what happened to his father. He’s told by the government that his father was a traitor; his mother died when he was a baby. Raised by his father’s best friend – who seems to know more than he’s letting on – Marcus has been studying weather patterns that may lead to some answers. The only problem is, he’s being watched by government drones.

When Marcus breaks a code that sends him into an alternate world, he meets Dree and discovers a world like nothing he’s ever known. But the drones have followed him and are wreaking havoc on the Draconian citizens. Can Dree and Marcus forge a peace between humans and dragons to save themselves from an evil plan to destroy the land?

Dragons vs. Drones is a fantasy novel that’s part fantasy and part tech/sci-fi thriller. It’s been called “Eragon meets Transformers”, which is a pretty accurate description. We’ve got dragons, and we’ve got codebreaking. STEM fans, there is some pretty intense discussions of welding/metalworking and coding/hacking here, so it’s a good book to give the kids in your life who love to play around at the computer, fool around with their own Raspberry Pi, and dream about dragons, swords and magic. Magic and science co-exist here, broadening the audience, and there are both male and female main characters, for anyone who still flinches at “boy books” vs. “girl books” (I’ve got a few in my library). There’s quite a bit of world-building on both worlds, and the ending provides a promise for a sequel.

Some timely topics to discuss in a group setting include government surveillance, deforestation for industrial progress, and ethics of hunting/endangered species.

A good addition to science fiction and fantasy collections.

Non-Fiction, Teen, Tween Reads, Young Adult/New Adult

Really Professional Internet Person – A YouTube Superstar’s Story

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Really Professional Internet Person, by Jenn McAllister (Jennxpenn) (Aug. 2015, Scholastic), $14.99, ISBN: 9780545861120

Recommended for ages 12+

Jenn McAllister is a star on YouTube. Starting in middle school, she began making and uploading videos with pranks, sketches, and vlogs about her life. She’s got over 2 million YouTube subscribers, has worked with Old Navy and Mattel, and gets mobbed at DigiCon like a rock star. She’s a Really Professional Internet Person.

Really Professional Internet Person is one of those books where I really feel out of my league reading and reviewing. I’m not the audience for this book, and that’s apparent just from reading the language of the book, which is made up mostly of “like”, “literally”, and “basically”.

I also couldn’t wrap my head around how McAllister’s mom and school were okay with her missing huge chunks of school at 15 years old so she could work digital conferences. I know this is actual work, but at 15, where was the school board? The state? And her mom letting her make the move on her own, with her YouTube friends to California, completely blew me away. McAllister does finish high school via online school when she relocates from Pennsylvania to California, but her not seeing the value in education over YouTube is really stressful to me. We’re a pretty disposable society these days – I hate it, but I recognize it, so where is YouTube celebrity going to leave 19 year-old Jenn in a few years? McAllister even talks about knowing she is a role model to her under-18 fans, so this worries me even more.

There are some solid highlights to this book. Jenn speaks frankly about her struggles with anxiety, which is great for anyone that may be dealing with the same issues. It happens to everyone, even famous people. She writes in a manner relatable to her audience, and loads the pages with Top 10 lists, which breaks information down into small, interest-heavy bits. She includes tons of screen shots, photos, social media posts, and anecdotes about her life with fellow YouTubers, which provides an inclusive feeling. Jenn, who writes about never feeling like she fit in at school, knows how to make her audience, even on paper, feel like they’re part of her crowd. And she is earnest and sincere in her love for her subscribers and viewers.

Overall, this is just not my book. I’d like to talk to the tweens and teens in my library and see what they think, though – this book is written for them.

Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Teen, Uncategorized, Young Adult/New Adult

What do you NEED and what are you willing to do to have it?

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Need, by Joelle Charbonneau (Nov. 2015, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s), $17.99, ISBN: 9780544416697

Recommended for ages 13+

A social network promises you whatever you need – but nothing comes for free, and the teens at Wisconsin’s Nottawa High School discover just how far they are willing to go for concert tickets, gym equipment, or just the thrill of a mission. Kaylee Dunham, social outcast at Nottawa, needs a kidney for her sick brother, but she discovers pretty quickly that the site is causing havoc around her. When things turn deadly, Kaylee starts digging to find out who’s behind NEED, but what happens when you’re up against a social network that can send someone to kill you in exchange for someone’s greatest wish?

NEED is a fast-paced thriller that teens – boys and girls – will enjoy. Everyone’s life seems to revolve around a multitude of social networks, so joining one more – that promises to give you free stuff for just one little task – will click. The tasks start off almost innocuously – more like pranks, really – but as the situations escalate and everything starts falling into place, the book becomes tense and unputdownable. The pervasiveness of social media and a seemingly invisible antagonist who can contact you anywhere, anytime – and can assemble your own classmates against you – is truly unsettling.

NEED is a good addition to collections for fans of tech fiction and a good thriller. It also lends itself to a good discussion on wants versus needs.

Joelle Charbonneau is a New York Times bestselling author of the Testing trilogy. Her author website offers links to social media, information about her books and appearances, and a section dedicated to authors united in support of Ferguson, Missouri’s youth by supporting their library, which stayed open and provided a safe space for the community during the riots. NEED will be available in November 2015, but you can pre-order a signed copy from Ms. Charbonneau’s site.

Possible booktalk: Kaylee signs up for NEED because she wants a kidney for her sick brother. Other classmates sign up for NEED because they want material possessions like concert tickets and gym equipment. What is a want versus a need? If someone offered you the chance to have something you really wanted, but you had to complete an anonymous task, would you blindly do it? Would you question it at all? Is there always a price to pay for something that appears to be free?

Fiction, Middle Grade

Talk to Me – What did Maddie See?

Posted on March 31, 2015March 30, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Talk to Me, by Sonia Ellis/illus. by Evanleigh Davis (2014, FastPencil) $16.99, ISBN: 9781619338821

Recommended for ages 9-14

Seven year-old Maddie Reyes is a selective mute. She can talk up a storm around her mom, dad, and older sister, Sadina. She tells all of her secrets to Bella, her robotic cat. But get her outside of her family circle, and she cannot speak. Sadina, her older sister, protects her and takes care of her as much as she can, but she can’t be with Maddie all the time.

One night, Maddie discovers an intruder in the house – an intruder who knows about Maddie. When Maddie and Sadina’s mother is accused of a corporate crime, Sadina thinks her friend Rio is behind it, but Maddie knows the truth. And now, she’s not talking at all. To find out what Maddie knows, Sadina will have to team up with her friends and find a way to make Bella, the one friend that Maddie will still speak to, talk back to Maddie.

This book drew me in right away. I love there character diversity- let’s hear it for a Latina heroine!; I found it fascinating that Ms. Ellis made Maddie a selective mute, and how she worked that into the meat of the plot. The story’s pace will keep a middle grader’s attention, and there’s enough tension in the book to keep readers guessing and thinking overtime. This is a great book for discussion groups; there’s so much to cover here. From disabilities that aren’t readily visible to corporate espionage, to the reality of animating a robotic pet, this book would be a great collaborative reading assignment for English and Science classes.

There are frequent references to technology in the book – Maddie and Sadina’s mother is an engineer, working on a new cellphone battery; Sadina and her friends are very handy in the tech lab; Rio wants new design software – but I’m not sure that qualifies this as a STEM Mystery. It’s a good story with STEM references.

Evanleigh Davis’ illustrations bring a real innocence to Maddie’s character. Her large eyes, seemingly forever gazing upward, make her look small and bewildered. Every illustration is filled with character and adds another dimension to the storytelling.

I think this will be a good book to get on the shelves at my library this summer. It’s the first book in a new series, and anything to do with kids using technology to solve problems is a book I want to have at the kids’ fingertips.