Click'd

by Tamara Ireland Stone

[Sam@WLABB]

This was a cute tale, which combined fun, friendship, and those mistakes that one is bound to make when growing up.

Allie was so proud of the app she created during her summer with the CodeGirls, and was excited to share it with her three best friends in the week leading up to the Games for Good competition. She sort of got caught up in the zeal surrounding her app, that when some issues arose with the code, she decides to NOT seek the advice of her mentor and to take care of it herself, and soon she was in a little over her head.

I really liked all the characters Stone created. They seemed very genuine and age appropriate. The way Allie approached her issues did not surprise me, because, well, she was 12. I sort of loved that Stone gave Allie those moral dilemmas to struggle with. It's all a normal part of growing up. She also took responsibility for her poor choices, and I like that Stone gave her that maturity.

I have to say, the concept for the app was fun, and I loved being in the midst of the Click'd frenzy. There were a lot of really sweet moments of friendship, and we also had an appropriate amount of parental involvement considering the age of the protagonists.

The technical side of the story brought me back to my days as a programmer. It was fun to see the kids excitement for it, and I thought that Stone used just enough jargon that it sounded sort of credible without alienated those who are not programmers.

Overall: A delightful and heartwarming tale, which I hope will inspire many to use technology to do good.