‘Evil Reborn’ by Javi Padilla is the second in the Mara Turing book series which follows a young girl and her friends as they find themselves immersed in a world of hackers and search for Mara's disappeared Uncle. We start the second book in this series a few weeks after the dramatic events in Times Square in book one, Rise of the Hackers. The events of the first book are referenced and briefly summarised, but I think to fully immerse yourself in the narrative, beginning with book one is advised. Mara, Noa and Danny are singled out by the school bullies, three children whocall themselves The Salamander Squad terrorise their fellow students and post videos of their antics online. Returning to ‘Evil Reborn’ to capitalise on the Salamander Squad, hunt down Mara and her friends and hopefully lure Mara’s Uncle, Arnold Turing, out of hiding is the evil artificial intelligence Hermes and its genius hacker creator, Falko McKinnon. This is another exciting mystery and adventure that explores coding and cyber security in an informative and yet entertaining way. The plotline of these books is one that I think seeks to entertain first and foremost, with plenty of action throughout, and provides education about digital safety as a beneficial byproduct. There’s more full page illustrations between the chapters in this book, highlighting the key moments and characters and they seem to be in a different style to the first book, although I loved the detail and the drama and tension created by the monochrome colour palette. In all, this is another action-packed tech adventure with another dramatic conclusion that will leave you wondering what will happen in the next book.
Charlotte Walker, A LoveReading4Kids Ambassador
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