Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I picked up Aimee Lucido’s Emmy in the Key of Code at a library sale some indeterminate length of time ago; when I realized it was a verse novel AND available in audio, I figured it would be a short listen and then I could donate it to the elementary school. The two problems with that turned out to be 1) it needed a visual reading, not just a listen and 2) it was good enough that I’m not sure I want to give it up. Emmy has just moved to San Francisco with her parents so her dad can pursue his musical dreams, and she doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere–until she ends up in an “Introduction to Computer Science” elective. To her surprise, coding is a revelation to her; it’s like a kind of music she’s actually good at. It also turns out to be her path to finding out where she belongs. It’s a circuitous path, yes, but Emmy finds her way down it nevertheless, and her story is both poignant and satisfying. I’d recommend reading a physical copy of this one–the coding bits and references don’t come through as fully over audio–and I’d recommend it to a wide variety of readers, because I’m not at all a computer coding sort of person, and I loved it. Let me know what you think!