 | Lo & behold Author: Mass, Wendy | |
| Price: $11.47 | ||
Summary:
With her life recently turned upside down, 12-year-old Addie is uncomfortable in her own skin until the world of virtual reality sparks her imagination and leads to an exciting new project, a new friend, and to reconnecting with who she's always been. In graphic novel format.
| Illustrator: | Mendez, Gabi |
| Tse, Cai |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (03/01/23)
School Library Journal (05/01/23)
Booklist (05/15/23)
The Hornbook (00/07/23)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 05/15/2023 When her father takes a new tech job on campus, Maddie begrudgingly becomes a guinea pig for his team’s various augmented reality (AR) projects. She quickly learns that she can use their AR tech to distract herself from problems, like dealing with the loss of her mother or avoiding her neighbor Mateo who wants to be her friend. But she soon realizes she needs to do some healing of her own, and making AR available to others that could benefit from it helps her get out of her own head. Mass clearly finds the technology fascinating and does a worthy job explaining its many uses, from running exercise games to immersive empathy programs—even part of the book can be scanned and shown in AR. With the focus on AR’s many applications, some may feel that the overall story and character relationships take a back seat. Mendez and Tse’s artwork does a great job showing the difference between the AR world and reality, as well as showing Maddie and Mateo’s emotional journeys. A thought-provoking exploration of grief and healing. - Copyright 2023 Booklist.
School Library Journal - 05/01/2023 Gr 4–7—"He can make me go with him, but he can't make me interested." Addie packs up and spends a summer on a college campus where her futurist father is leading a team of students developing virtual and augmented reality projects. Despite Addie's initial reluctance, she becomes interested in VR as a way to escape and explore, and she even makes a friend in real life, Mateo. They share interests—geocaching, moon trees—before they finally share more personal stories, like what happened to Mateo's brother and Addie's mom. Ultimately, with the help of some students, Doug, Lily, and Surekha, they work together to develop VR experiences for people in the hospital where Mateo volunteers. At its heart, this is a story about empathy, whether it's a stranger with chemo or your own parent. Addie reflects, "I think it's harder to have empathy for the people we love the most. When they do something wrong it feels so personal." The layout is creative and dynamic, and the illustrations are full of relevant details. Mendez and Tse do excellent work with shadow and light, and the faint shimmer of VR. Panels set in the past have a gray outline with rounded corners, while VR panels have a half-round cutout along the middle of the bottom. Addie and her family present as white; there is diversity among the secondary characters. VERDICT No goggles or controllers are needed to fully immerse yourself in this summer STEM story about family, friendship, and empathy. Highly recommended.—Jenny Arch - Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
