Girl Geeks 1: The Hackathon by Alex Miles

Penguin, 2019. ISBN: 9780143795056.
(Age: 9-12) Themes: Friendship, Computer programming. What would the Internet look like if more women were building it? Alex Miles in collaboration with the Australian Girl Geek Academy present an exciting new series Girl Geeks. Their first novel The Hackathon encourages engagement with technology, getting your inner geek on! This series is written for girls from eight to twelve with coding, computing and creativity at the core.
Hamsa loves arriving at school early, setting out her friends' places in the classroom. She's finally fitted in with a group of girls at school. When new girl Niki, recently returned from the USA, arrives, Hamsa is torn between her old and new friendships. School is exciting - they have a special Making Room where they work with the latest technology. When Ms Atlas announces a super group activity The Hackathon, Hamsa is worried, she doesn't know anything about coding and she's in a different group to her old friends. The setting up of the groups, their roles and the projects is explained in a very detailed manner, with plenty of computing terminology.
Hamsa, Nikki, Eve and Maggie communicate via message feeds, sharing their project ideas, planning and development, uploading files and images. At new girl Niki's house, they have a peanut butter and jelly/jam taste-testing and brainstorming party. When Hamsa unfortunately shares their group's PlasTICK! pitch to her friend Zoe, she's shocked to find their idea is stolen. Can Hamsa and her new friends step up, refocus and present in front of her mum and three other industry professionals?
Alex Miles explores themes of loyalty, friendship, school and family life in The Hackathon. The Girl Geeks series is written to encourage girls to learn and embrace technology, The Girl Geek Academy aims to teach one million women by 2025.
Rhyllis Bignell