FINISHED:

Jinks, Catherine. (2008). Genius squad. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.

[Will post ACL review when it appears.

And away we go:

Cadel, a teenage computer whiz, is moved from his current foster home to a group home that acts as a front for an organization of young hackers determined to bring down GenoME, a project believed to be led by Dr. Darkkon, an evil man bent on dominating the world. Even though he is under 24 hour police protection surveillance, Cadel is constantly worried that a man linked to Darkkon, and who may very well be his father, will stop at nothing to come and take him away. While having to keep up appearances as a group foster home so as not to be detected by the police, Cadel and the other odd assortment of hackers known as the Genius Squad tap into computers, spy on others by listening to keyboard key strokes, and travel around in disguises. This is a surprisingly compelling and fast-paced read despite what could be dry and technical subject matter, and Jinks has created a number of interesting characters who are co-hackers. One of the more memorable characters is Cadel’s best friend Sonia who has Cerebral Palsey and is confined to a wheelchair with her only means of communication being a touchpad with a computer voice. Jinks’ handling of Sonia is a masterstroke, bringing only as much attention to the character as she does any of the others, and a subplot involving Cadel’s social worker and the main detective inspector on Cadel’s case, while not surprising, is sweet. There is a lot going on here, including many names to keep track of, most of whom it seems figured into the first book in this series, Evil Genius (Harcourt, 2007), which, to some degree, ought to be read first in order to get up to speed. In addition, there is SO much computer jargon and many technical descriptions of situations where the hackers are doing their thing that this tome would be best enjoyed by those young people who have a good knowledge of the ins and outs of computers.]

STARTED:
Harmon, Michael. (2008). The last exit to normal. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

[For ACL review.]

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