Hopper, Eni, and Josh work with Professor Bee in their final showdown with the evil One-Zero. He has come up with another plan to release his dreadful Green Pop, only now he has an airborne variety! To defeat him they will have to travel to the professor's home dimension, Flatland, and retrieve another Turtle of Light to use in their battle with One-Zero. For those who have not heard of it before, the dimension that Professor Bee comes from is inspired by the satirical novel Flatland written by Edwin Abbott in 1884. In the country of Flatland the more sides a shape has, the higher its position in society, and women are only lines and not polygons at all. Professor Bee warns the kids that they will be converted into shapes and lines if they are successful in making the journey to Flatland. The problem with that is their lack of experience in being 2-dimensional beings, or in Hopper's case being a line!
And once they succeed, if they do, they will still have to return to the regular world and take on their nemesis. As if an arch villain isn't enough of a challenge, the kids have other problems. Hopper's father is still unresponsive in the hospital. Her mother is moving the whole family to another town. Eni's parents are sending him to a school that focuses on athletics, hoping to make him focus on basketball. Neither have told Josh about their parents' plans. And Hopper and Eni still haven't recovered from their awkwardness over Eni confessing his crush on Hopper. Things are never simple, are they?
This final book in the series brings all the forces to a head: parental expectations, friendship and crushes, an evil principal using the school to further his nefarious schemes, tyrants from another dimension... Along the way our heroes learn what real courage is all about, as well as coding skills like nesting commands and creating subprograms that can be used with more than one main program.
For those readers who have not tried coding before, Secret Coders is a fun introduction to the basic concepts used in creating computer programs. And for those who have, there are plenty of puzzles to solve as the Coders move from one challenge to the next. Everyone can visit the Secret Coders website to learn more.
Highly recommended for middle grade readers who enjoy graphic novels, school stories, and computers. I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
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