Emmy in the Key of Code

June 3, 2019
Written in verse and JavaScript, this timely debut from author and software engineer Lucido champions girls in STEM and delivers a positive message about being “always exactly yourself.” Sixth-grader Emmy has just moved with her musical parents from Wisconsin to San Francisco so her pianist father can play with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Despite a love of music and talented parents, Emmy lacks musical ability and fears being on stage. When she is placed in an Introduction to Computer Coding class at school, Emmy meets Abigail, a gifted singer who secretly prefers coding to performing. Together, and with the help of an encouraging teacher, the two girls become fluent in Java and share a growing love of computer science. But when their teacher reveals that she’s gravely ill, Emmy fears that she will lose the one place where she truly belongs. Through the author’s creative mesh of coding, music, poetry, and narrative, this story uniquely conveys the art and beauty that can be found in multiple disciplines. Emmy’s desperate search for both friendship and affirmation is relatable and relevant, as is the powerful message that computer programming is for anyone interested. Ages 10–12. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

June 1, 2019
A 12-year-old whose dreams of musicianship are shattered discovers a passion for code. Emmy's lonely at her new San Francisco school. When her pianist dad got a dream job at the symphony, the family moved from Wisconsin--her mom's opera career is portable--but Emmy's miserable. Devastated she doesn't have the talent to follow in her parents' footsteps, she ends up in computer club instead of choir. And it's there, learning Java, that Emmy makes friends with Abigail--and discovers that coding gives her a joy she'd believed came only from music. Free-verse chapters are conventional at first, drawing poetic structures from musical metaphors. But as Emmy learns Java, the language and structure of programming seep into her poems. Music and code interweave (one poem presents Emmy and Abigail's pair-programming as a musical duet). Typeface changes have myriad effects: showcasing software and musical terms, mirroring the way formatting helps programmers understand software, and reflecting Emmy's emotional state. As she becomes more comfortable in her own skin, she grows aware of the many traumas that affect her family, classmates, and teachers, and readers will cheer to see them work collectively--like an orchestra or like software developers--to create something beautiful. Characters' races are unspecified, but on the cover Emmy presents white and Abigail (whose braids are referred to repeatedly) as black. Never didactic, these poems interweave music, programming, family drama, and middle school as interconnected parts of Emmy's life. (glossary) (Verse fiction. 9-13)

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August 1, 2019

Gr 5-7-On her first day at her new school in San Francisco, 12-year-old Emmy is asked to choose an elective. Although one of the options is music (the one she should want, given her opera singer mother and concert pianist father), she has always felt like a disappointment as a musician. Instead, she leaves the form blank and ends up as one of two girls in a computer programming class. At first, the class only adds to Emmy's sense of not belonging, especially because one of the boys makes derisive noises and faces at her whenever she tries to speak. But Emmy finds that she loves her coding teacher, Mrs. Delaney. As she learns more about coding in JAVA, she discovers a way to create her own kind of music and makes a new best friend along the way. As Emmy's computer programming classes progress, the poems integrate the JAVA terminology and syntax she has learned, until the pages begin to look like computer code that still reads like poetry. JAVA terms are also defined on separate pages within each chapter, as well as in a glossary at the end of the book. In this ambitious novel in free verse, the characters and relationships are complex and believable as Emmy struggles to understand her new best friend Abigail, her bully Francis, her teacher's illness, and her parents' own difficulties adapting to their new jobs. The book also touches on some of the challenges girls face in pursuing STEM-related fields, while portraying the different ways computers can be used to create something new and fun. VERDICT This unusual tale seamlessly weaves basic computer coding concepts into a compelling story about middle schoolers struggling to forge their own identities in spite of the expectations of their families and society.-Ashley Larsen, Pacifica Libraries, CA

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2019
Grades 5-8 Twelve-year-old Emmy is the new kid, transplanted from Wisconsin to San Francisco. Despite a musical upbringing (Mom sings opera; Dad is a concert pianist), Emmy doesn't have any musical talent and even blacked out on stage during her last recital. When it's time to sign up for electives, all the cool girls take music, so intimidated Emmy winds up in computer science. After a rocky start, Emmy makes friends, becomes immersed in coding, and develops a special bond with her computer teacher, Ms. Delaney. Inevitable middle-school drama ensues, including the devastating news that Ms. Delaney is ill. By the book's end, Emmy has developed a passion for coding music and found new social confidence, despite Ms. Delaney's worsening prognosis. The book features a free-verse format that perfectly captures Emmy's seesawing emotions and allows for the seamless incorporation of lines of code that show how composing music and creating code follow similar patterns. Music, coding, strong female techie role models?this engaging first novel should attract a wide audience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)