Nina Shiner Wants to be a Web Designer
Middle Grade; Mystery/Thriller; (Market)
Middle schooler, Nina Shiner, is on a quest to create the ultimate yoga website for kids featuring her hand-drawn pal, Rosie. But she has a problem. How does she lift her drawings out of her sketchbook and into a computer? When her parentssend her off to a STEM boarding school to learn, Nina is horrified. After all, what could computer programming and science gadgets have to do with her beloved yoga? Nina reluctantly attends P. Design, a Silicon Valley Technology Charter School, after she’s promised the school can help bring Rosie from a piece of paper to the screen—and embarks on the adventure of a lifetime. Alongside a host of new friends—including unicorn-loving Jericka Reynolds, brilliant robot builder Brad McNealy, and Josh Chello, a surfer dude with mood swings—she learns what technology can really do. When a key project mysteriously disappears, it’s up to Nina and her friends to track down the thief. On a twisting technological journey to sort out the truth, Nina ultimately experiences the precious gift of knowing thyself.
Best of all, Nina does indeed learn to animate Rosie in SCRATCH—a free programming language, developed and supported by the MIT Media Lab. SCRATCH is a safe, online community where children can create their own interactive stories, games, and animations. https://scratch.mit.edu/
Load: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/790904565/ into your browser to see Nina's website creation
Plot/Idea: 8 out of 10
Originality: 9 out of 10
Prose: 8 out of 10
Character/Execution: 8 out of 10
Overall: 8.25 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Childs offers an intriguing dive into the lives of Silicon Valley techie youths who are trying to uncover a mystery while at an impressive technology-focused boarding school. Not only does this book focus on girls and women in STEM, but it also presents them as fully rounded characters, who can successfully be both daring and playful.
Prose: Childs writes wonderful figurative language that will keep readers, both young and old, enticed and laughing out loud.
Originality: Childs places the book in an unusual setting, a technology boarding school. While the setup is inherently fun, Childs also has hints of magic (as Nina states, the line between magic and technology is small) throughout, which makes the book all the more entertaining for young readers.
Character/Execution: The characters in Childs's book fall somewhat into tropes on the surface, but they are also fully fleshed out, developed characters that readers will become easily invested in. Childs enhances the story through inventive chapter names and relevant graphic design elements.
Date Submitted: April 15, 2023
Reviews
Kirkus
An often sparkling, tech-heavy tale of friendship, imagination, and following one’s dreams.
