This book is very weird. It's both a biography of Alan Turning, while at the same time there are monsters that are trying to defeat Turning. The entire point of the book is completely lost. There's more time spent on the monsters trying to defeat Turning that on telling the reader about the man and his history. This was a wasted read. I like the illustrations but nothing else.

Alan Turing and the Power of Curiosity by Karla Valenti is a picturebook that combines fact and fiction. One sunny day in June 1912, a new super science hero was born. He hadn't figured out he was a super science hero; though everyone else around him was pretty sure about this early on. His name was Alan Turing. Super Evil Nemesis decides to call on his minion Ms. Deception to confound and confuse Alan—but because Alan likes working on puzzles, he's not easy to defeat. The minion in this book will speak in code (which will read like nonsense). As the story progresses, Alan will crack the code on Ms. D's enigma machine and be able to decipher her speech, which is how he befriends her. At the end of the book, we will provide a decryption key that allows the children to decipher what the minion is saying in earlier pages. This is the (mostly) true story of how Alan Turing had a superpower that helped him become a successful scientist. But, of course, the super power is really something we all have inside of us.

Alan Turing and the Power of Curiosity is a book that shares interesting information on the life and accomplishments of Alan Turning. His work in codes and artificial intelligence has had a great impart on the world. I thought the fictional and fun story about the nemesis trying to stop learning and curiosity is likely to capture and hold the attention of those that might have lost interest in a straight narrative.I thought the illustrations were very well done- and the hidden objects and code on the pages add an extra layer of interest. I also enjoyed that the book offers readers a chance to learn and use codes. I enjoyed the read and found it both interesting and engaging- and I think most readers will agree.

Alan Turing and the Power of Curiosity is a great way to learn about an incredible science hero!

This series is goofy but loads of fun! Evil monsters read about the famous heroes of science at the beginning, which always makes me chuckle and smile. It's a unique way to tell this story and I really like it! Alan Turing is going to do something that makes these monsters mad: create something amazing and innovate in a way the world has never seen before! Watching the monsters jump in and try to sabotage Alan but only help him is a fun way to learn about history. I truly think this series is a fun way to introduce some really important and incredible people to younger readers.

Three out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Kids for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

This was an interesting book about Alan Turing's life. I enjoyed the idea of the book and the illustrations.

Alan Turing and the Power of Curiosity is a fictionalized biography of the famous mathematician and cryptanalyst and part of the My Super Science Heroes series. Due out 1st March 2021 from Sourcebook Kids, it's 50 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

I'm a pretty huge science nerd myself and really love good biographies for kids about scientists. This was such an odd treatment. I do understand that the author/publishers are trying to jazz up the presentation and make it more super-hero-y, but the final product does a distinct disservice to the pretty super-hero-y reality of Turing, his *immense* contribution to the war effort, and the efforts of the entire team at Bletchley Park.

Instead of being about Turing and the history of enigma and the war effort, it's fictionalized with an evil monster (Super Evil Nemesis) and his hench-monsters trying to Take Over The World (boo-hiss). With every hurdle, young Alan seems to sail effortlessly through (which is dangerous for young kids who take frustration for lack of talent with potentially disastrous results). Additionally the biography part of the book consists of young Alan being born, going to school, and suddenly being an adult. There's nothing about his life, really, apart from being born and going to school. I know there are a lot of aspects of Turing's life (and tragic death at the age of 41) which would be... challenging to include in an age-appropriate manner, but the author here has simply sidestepped the whole issue to the distinct detriment of the whole.

I will say that the art and illustration are top notch. There are some really captivating graphics, with sidebars and fun reader puzzles as well as lots of age-appropriate resources for further reading. The illustrations are colorful and full of small details which will fascinate and engage readers. It's unfortunately not, in my opinion, enough to counterbalance the really odd treatment.

Three stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This book has a unique handle on attempting to turn a biography-type picture book into a story about Alan Turing vs. a super-top-secret-agency that has a scheme to take over the world(!). So it's a little different kind of book than I expected, but I can still see the value in the way the story is formed, which allows kids to still get the facts of Alan Turing's life and inventions, with some added fun (Oh no, what are the minions going to do next to Alan?! How will he stop their antics now?!)

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in return for an honest opinion.

The Super Evil Nemesis wants the spread of knowledge to stop, but they have to stop Alan Turing. Alan’s intelligence is his superpower. It was an interesting concept but not necessarily easy to follow. This is not a straightforward biography. The facts were good, but I was not a fan of Super Evil Nemesis.

I'll start with the positive, which is the bit at the end. The information about the different codes was interesting and I liked the way that the timeline was presented.

Sadly that's it though.

Like other reviewers, I found the whole Nemesis thing baffling. It added nothing to the story and just made everything confusing. I'd have thought that stories relating to WWII would already have enough evil in them, without having to create a fictitious set of villains? It seems that an opportunity has been missed, to educate people about this amazing man and the context in which he achieved these incredible things.

This leads me to my second issue with this book, which is the censorship of Alan Turing's sexuality. There is so much detail of his life in the book, that leaving this out can only be deliberate and this is really disappointing, to say the least. It took years for him to be posthumously pardoned for his "crimes" following his horrific treatment and death and it doesn't feel right that this book ignores this.

I would not be happy to share this book with children and fortunately there are far better books out there to choose from.

A kind of science fiction version of Alan Turing's life, this book was a bit confusing for me to follow because of the extra "evil" bits. For that reason even though it is full of information and lessons for children about how knowledge is power, I am not a fan because it was hard to follow.

I like parts of this book. The illustrated timeline at the end is comprehensive, the book does tell about many of Turing's accomplishments, and the pages inviting children to figure out codes are excellent. However, personally, I like biographies for children that don't use devices such as a Super Evil Nemesis and a minion named Ms. Enigma. In other words, as a children's librarian for twenty years, I like my biographies "straight up." There was enough drama in Mr. Turing's real life, for example, the race to crack Hitler's secret codes, without adding something artificial. This reflects my personal preference, while others may favor the cartoonish Evil Nemesis and the added drama.

Alan Turing's life was amazing. There is no doubt about that. He figured out the enigma machine. He invented the early computers that helped win the war. He invented the Turing Test, and he wrote early computer software.

And he died early because of his misery from forced chemical castration.

No, I don't expect them to include that in a picture book for kids. But to leave out why he died, to leave out his homosexuality, and just focus on the other things about him seems wrong somehow, but I was willing to let that go, if it hadn't been for the addition of a subplot to the otherwise normal biography, of throwing in an evil creature that wanted to take away Alan's curiosity.

It wasn't cute, it cut into the story, and it wasn't as fun as it was supposed to be.

I am all for dumbing down biographies, but in this day and age to we really need to censor a persons sexuality, especially if it was the indirect cause of his ultimate death? And if you want to see well done children's books that address the famous people's sexuality even in board books, check out the Little People Big Dreams series, especially the one of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3195675681" target="_blank">Alan Turing.</a>

So, no I can't recommend this book, in its present form.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.