‘Click’d’: The Programming Was the Easy Part

Click’d has been described as an “empowering novel for young girls” and I can’t agree with that description more.

I’m not much of an adult book reader, so I love it when I have a good young adult book that has a decent story along with a few heartfelt lessons along the way.

Click’d was written for the middle school girl in mind as a way to help inspire them to look at the world of STEM with a cast of relatable and diverse characters.

The story focuses on 7th grader Allie who is excited that her app that she designed to help foster friendships has gone viral. She thinks it might even be good enough to beat her arch enemy (because what 7th grader doesn’t have one of those, right?) Nathan at an upcoming coding competition.

When problems come up in the app that threaten to expose all the sensitive information people have provided while using the app, Allie goes into a panic to salvage her creation. The pressure is on when Allie has to mend her relationships with her friends, find a way to work with Nathan to fix her app, all while prepping to present her app to the judges at the competition.

The story and characters were fun enough to follow and kept me wanting to learn more about their lives. From a programmer’s standpoint, what I found interesting was the information that Allie was collecting and how she was using it. In school, I was taught to not only be careful how much data you ask of users, but to be careful with how you’re going to secure it from people who would use it in wrong ways and to think about how you plan to use what you collect. Allie is only in the 7th grade and she had to learn these lessons the hard way.

With her passion for technology and background in programming, it makes sense author Tamara Ireland Stone could write such an engaging story that mixes the life of a young girl and her love for programming.

Bonus! The back of the book includes a couple of fun activities from Code.org.

Click’d is available now at your local bookseller and is suitable for ages 8 and up.

Disclaimer: GeekMom received a review copy.