A review by thehermitlibrarian
Team BFF: Race to the Finish! by Reshma Saujani, Stacia Deutsch
3.0
Race to the Finish brings Sophia's perspective front and center in the confines of the girls' coding club. She not only has the difficulties of varying personalities within her club to maneuver, especially with the hackathon coming up!, but with regard to her family. So many expectations, so much pressure, so little time.
There's a lot of energy in the girls with respect to the things they love outside of coding, such as sports, jewelry, etc. This translates better for some than others into coding club activities and it shows.
There's definitely a strong leaning toward moral fortitide here which I think is the ideal rather than the strict norm but hopefully the readers that are the age of the main characters will see that as something to work with that lay down for or ignore entirely.
I would have loved to get more time actually spent at the hackathon. More time seemed to be concentrated on Sophia's problem getting there than actually competing. Another thing: her parents were by far and away the most lax parents when it came to her and her friends changinging plans at the last minute. Even if the change was something that they would've done prior to a last minute emergency, the escapade of the Rocking Robotics Club was a bit how in the heck to me.
The cast seemed pretty diverse, but going from my experience of this book alone, I'm not sure how well I'd say the series does it overall. There are small inclusive pieces, such as Sophia's abuela and Leila's hijab, but in Sophia's case at least, since we spent so much time in her point of view, it felt dismissive.
As for whether you can read this book out of order from the other books, I'm not too sure about that. I feel like there's some personality set up for the characters that would have been beneficial. From the point of view of someone who has only read book two, there were times when they seemed a bit much.
Team BFF: Race to the Finish seems like a good companion to Code It! Create It! as well as a further addition to the Code Girls series. It's an encouraging novel for girls looking not for role models, exactly, but for girls very much like them that are interested in coding and other things and how those differing interests meld together.
Reshma Saujani's organization and continuing work opens doors not only fictionally but in the real world for girls that might still be looking for their place, that might have been told their place isn't available because it's "boy" territory. Never be afraid to explore your interests, like Lucy, Sophia, Maya, Erin, and Leila!
I received a copy of this book from Penguin Young Readers for promotional purposes and an honest review.
There's a lot of energy in the girls with respect to the things they love outside of coding, such as sports, jewelry, etc. This translates better for some than others into coding club activities and it shows.
There's definitely a strong leaning toward moral fortitide here which I think is the ideal rather than the strict norm but hopefully the readers that are the age of the main characters will see that as something to work with that lay down for or ignore entirely.
I would have loved to get more time actually spent at the hackathon. More time seemed to be concentrated on Sophia's problem getting there than actually competing. Another thing: her parents were by far and away the most lax parents when it came to her and her friends changinging plans at the last minute. Even if the change was something that they would've done prior to a last minute emergency, the escapade of the Rocking Robotics Club was a bit how in the heck to me.
The cast seemed pretty diverse, but going from my experience of this book alone, I'm not sure how well I'd say the series does it overall. There are small inclusive pieces, such as Sophia's abuela and Leila's hijab, but in Sophia's case at least, since we spent so much time in her point of view, it felt dismissive.
As for whether you can read this book out of order from the other books, I'm not too sure about that. I feel like there's some personality set up for the characters that would have been beneficial. From the point of view of someone who has only read book two, there were times when they seemed a bit much.
Team BFF: Race to the Finish seems like a good companion to Code It! Create It! as well as a further addition to the Code Girls series. It's an encouraging novel for girls looking not for role models, exactly, but for girls very much like them that are interested in coding and other things and how those differing interests meld together.
Reshma Saujani's organization and continuing work opens doors not only fictionally but in the real world for girls that might still be looking for their place, that might have been told their place isn't available because it's "boy" territory. Never be afraid to explore your interests, like Lucy, Sophia, Maya, Erin, and Leila!
I received a copy of this book from Penguin Young Readers for promotional purposes and an honest review.