Book Review: The Cryptic Case of the Coded Fair by Barbara & Robert Tinker with Pendred Noyce, illustrated by Yu-Yu Chin
Disclaimer: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.
Once again the Galactic Academy of Science must reach out to kids from the 21st Century to preserve the timeline. This time Dr. G is sabotaging the International Science Fair to crush the spirits of budding scientists and create a public impression that junk science is just as valid as real science. Future teen Quarkum reaches out to two new field agents, Ella and Shomari.
Shomari and Ella must travel through time to learn about cryptography and cryptoanalysis, codes and ciphers, so they can crack the coded messages Dr. G is sending his minions while protecting their own communications. From Julius Caesar’s shift cipher to Whitfield Diffie and the public key, the experts of the past inform the children of the present to save the future.
This is the latest in a series of children’s books about science, with the framework of ethnically diverse youngsters traveling through time to learn about subjects firsthand. The language is suitable for fourth graders on up, with more difficult words defined in the text. It helps that Ella and Shomari are very literate for their age and bright enough to bring up examples when they’re appropriate.
Important or notable words are emphasized with colored text, and the illustrations are good. There’s information on how to find more codes and ciphers on the publisher’s website if the reader wants to play along.
There is some mild peril–Dr. G’s minions aren’t very threatening. And the story acknowledges that there are difficult topics that come up in the past, such as slavery, religious discrimination and sexism, which hinder or offend the children from time to time. However, they are treated as problems of the past, with no mention of such topics in the present.
Like many kids, I went through a codes and ciphers phase, and this book would have been fascinating to me then. Check out your school or public library.
Thanks. My niece is 13. She might be too old for this but I’ll let her know about it.
Hard to say, some kids’ books hold up well for slightly older readers, especially if they have a good plot.
Your observation that it mentions sexism, slavery and religious discrimination but not in contemporary terms is a valid and interesting point.
Some parents may want to avoid these matters altogether in their children’s literature. It’s especially evident in the Thomas Jefferson story. That said, if your young one is reading this, some other sources on President Jefferson’s…mixed relationship with slavery might be called upon.
This looks like a fun read. I love children’s literature, and like to break the occasional code, too.
The codes start relatively simple and then get trickier–Spanish is involved.