Me and Banksy

October 28, 2019
Many stories of teens and technology focus on social media, but Kyi’s sharply executed novel takes on the larger question of living in a panoptic society. Dominica Rivers, in eighth grade at a private school for gifted students, receives a flood of unwanted attention when a video from the school’s vast network of security cameras shows her “stripping” in the empty library—in actuality, she flipped her shirt when she realized it was inside out. Her best friends, dysthymic former child star Holden and budding hacker Saanvi, plot ways to stop what fast becomes an epidemic of found footage. But Dominica, who has recently become interested in street artist Banksy thanks to her gallery owner grandmother, prefers a trickster-esque approach and begins tagging the security cameras’ blind spots with activist messages. The usual crushes and love triangles abound, and cameras and social media form a fourth protagonist as complex and unpredictable as the human players. Kyi (Mya’s Strategy to Save the World) examines the large and small impacts of living in a surveillance society, but her faith in youth and art makes this story anything but dystopian. Ages 10–up.

November 15, 2019
When her school's state-of-the-art security system becomes a vehicle for cyberbullying, a fan of the activist artist launches a rebellion. Dominica, 13, is an aspiring artist from a white, affluent Vancouver, British Columbia, family. Her widowed mother runs a catering business; her grandmother, an art gallery owner, pays the hefty tuition for Dom's private school, where cameras were recently installed throughout, an initiative to keep students safe (the school's Latin motto translates as "security breeds success"). After the security system's hacked, embarrassing, edited videos of individuals, including Dom, are posted to the school's student forum. She's forbidden a social media account, but that doesn't prevent Dom's exposure on others' social media feeds. PixSnappy alerts her when she's tagged: "see what your friends are up to." The school eliminates its student forum; the cameras remain. Dom mounts secret, Banksy-inspired critiques of the surveillance, illustrating how privacy erosion facilitates cyberbullying. Meanwhile, her friends help her seek the culprit. If some adult characters' motives seem far-fetched, the students' powerful, emotional reactions to the amplified victimization are entirely credible. The mystery of who's behind the hacking (and their motives) holds readers' interest. When solved, questions linger: What should happen to impulsive words and acts recorded, altered, and immortalized on social media? How much privacy are we willing to surrender for the promise of safety and security? Kyi's nonfiction exploration of high-tech spying, Eyes and Spies (2017), makes a natural companion. Appropriately provocative. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-14)

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December 1, 2019

Gr 4-7-Dominica's private school's Latin motto is "securitas genera victoria," or security breeds success. Students at Mitchell Academy are carefully monitored through cameras in the classrooms and electronic ID tags that let their caregivers know their whereabouts. The students also use a forum for class assignments and run a blog, and outside of school use a social media platform comparable to Snapchat. Soon, anonymously shared videos of students start appearing all over the forum: one girl picking her nose, a boy with his fly down and shirttails sticking out, and one of Dominica turning her shirt right-side out in the library. The protagonist also develops a strong interest in the British artist Banksy, thanks to a book her grandmother gave her and an ethics class assignment. When Dominica's school principal Ms. Plante brushes off her concerns about the video, Dominica secretly draws squirrels near her school's security cameras and, with four friends who call themselves the Banksy Five, creates an art installation for the school's open house that expresses concerns about the cameras. The villain, once revealed, feels caricature-like, despite a backstory. Full of twists and turns, Kyi's novel reads quickly, and the characters' motivations feel realistic. Although the ending wraps up loose ends a little too neatly, readers will appreciate its exploration of privacy, healthy skepticism, and thoughtful social media use. Privacy becomes a major theme, as does not believing everything one sees online, and using social media thoughtfully. VERDICT This accessible introduction to Banksy is a general purchase for large library collections or where middle grade books about art are popular.-Liz Anderson, DC Public Library

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