This book is kind of odd. The art is lovely, but it seems as though it was trying to do too much. The book starts out with a little girl with brown skin looking at a device. A ghost-like version of her appears and introduces itself as Al (short for algorithm). Al tries to convince the child that all that matters in the likes/hearts of the echo chamber that the child experiences virtually. The child does push back some and by the end decides "I'll go rhythm" & joins a band instead.

The book rhymes, a lot, almost too much. It seems like it was going for a Sneetches type feel but a lot of the intent & meaning is lost in the attempts to rhyme. I'm an adult & it took me several times to read some pages to really get what it meant.

It's like someone realized that the words "I'll go rhythm" sound like algorithm and started from that spot instead of trying to write a real book about sensible use of internet/social media. It makes it seem like there are only two choices, the mind-numbing 'likes' on social media or real life. It is more complicated than that & so is the concept of algorithm. This isn't a good starting place for kids about this topic. I'm not sure if there are better books out there about this concept. But this book just isn't it.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* get where this was going but i think its too confusing for most kids, sure maybe those kids who are 7 with their own tiktok but i none of the kids i know would understand this book at all

The book is has beautiful illustrations with a great message, but I think the way it is expressed will make it difficult for young readers to understand. The author has rhymed all the words, which makes it sound sophisticated and poetic, but the words and phrases used are very uncommon in practical life, even for native English speakers. I am fluent in English, yet I had to re-read many parts of the book to understand it's unnecessarily complicated idea. I think this book will do well if simple words are used, this book could be a great favourite among children.

I'll Go Rhythm is a cautionary tale about losing oneself in the lure of social media. When Charlie, a young kid full of creativity, meets an algorithm that promises her fame and adoration, she happily follows AL's instructions... until she realizes that she's sacrificing her real self in the process.

This picture book features lovely illustrations and a powerful message, but one that is perhaps executed too didactically to make a real impact, especially with young readers. I think more subtlety would've enhanced the message and made it more fun to read. Some of the writing also felt a little too complicated for young kids— depending on what age range is the target for this book, they might struggle to understand some of the storytelling and metaphors being used here. Overall, the art was wonderful and captivating, but the text could be worked upon to be less complex and didactic, maybe shorter, and more fluid.

Thank you to the publisher for providing this ARC!

This is a fun book that has the somewhat hidden message of teaching children to be wary of what they see on the internet, and to create their own thoughts and ideas. I liked some of the unique ways of describing these algorithms that take place online, and this could be a good way to explain those concepts to young readers. I do think some of it was very wordy, and might be geared towards an older audience.

Cute concept. Forces and/ or near rhymes and confusing lines like “others might say something that you agree not” make this not suited to reading with children. Algorithm as a name paired with I’ll go rhythm is also a difficult construct - in English, we don’t say “I’ll go rhythm”…maybe I’ll go play or I’ll go jam.

A decent read. I liked the rhyming, and the illustrations. It was a bit of a head scratcher as the text felt a bit confusing as this is directed towards children. I do believe the message is good, but just executed a bit complicated.

A very important theme, but executed far too abstractly for young audiences. "On A Magical Do-Nothing Day" is, I hate to be cruel, the better book around this theme. Illustrations are wonderful. Storyline is heavily biased against social media and such a negative story could alienate those who see some positives in use of technology. The book critiques too many concepts and could do with simplification, or just focusing on one negative aspect of social media. The storyline feels shoehorned into a rhyme, rhymes are important - but not if it gets in the way of the sense of the story.

A very interesting kids book about how social media "likes" don't equate to making us feel better or valued. Happiness comes from making connections with others instead of external sources - such a great message! And cute illustrations too.

This seemingly simplistic children's story was a cautionary tale about getting sucked into digital experiences. Told in rhyming verse, and illustrated with childlike drawings, the story seems so innocent but tells about much bigger dangers that we as adults succumb to as well as children.

I think the message is very important and the play on words of Algorithm and I'll Go Rhythm was a meaningful way to get the idea across. This would be a good way to start conversations about safety in the digital age and the dangers that aren't as evident, such as confirmation bias and losing one's sense of self to the approval of others.

This book would be a great tool for counselors, teachers and librarians to kick off important conversations.

I appreciate the idea but I feel kids this age will find it a bit difficult to read and understand this storybook. It's a bit towards the philosophical side which might confuse the kids.

The artstyle is basic and the illustrations are basic as well.

Thank you, author/artist, for the advance reader copy.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This one just wasn't for me. I couldn't quite get the concept. There was too much going on in the book and the pages were cluttered with way too much text.

Unfortunately, I didn't love this. I appreciate the message, for the most part (I'm the LAST person who'd defend the way social media and its corporate overlords have infiltrated society toward mostly toxic ends), though I do think the focus on echo chambers/bubbles was a bit oversimplistic and villainizes the Internet to an extreme degree. Also, the rhyme scheme was sometimes ignored, at that made the thought of one day reading it aloud to a child seem difficult...

This was a sweet and up-to-the-minute book of about 20 pages, creatively illustrated by Stark, and written in rhyme by Webb. It's about how people are herded and misled by the social media that most of us are hobbled to. I loved the title! Very much my kind of a play on words!

If you wanted to watch something truly scary for Halloween, you should have ditched the usual fare and watched a documentary on Netflix titled The Social Dilemma which is about how the social networks drill down on you and record your every nuance every time you do anything online. They know you better than you know yourself and they have algorithms in place to take advantage of the vast database that they own and that is you, and they will feed you things that are not intended to be necessarily in your best interest, but which are certainly intended to stroke your ego and keep you addicted to the platform you're on. There's a reason people who avail themselves of these services are called 'users'. It's the reason I have zero social media presence.

That was very much a documentary aimed at grown-ups; this book could well be the young children-accessible equivalent, right here. The story explains in terms children can understand, how your 'phantom friend' will come and lure you into seeking approval, getting those all-important likes, going down rabbit holes that reinforce themselves all along the way, and essentially wasting time getting depressed about your life and feeling bad about yourself, buoyed up just enough, now and then from the occasional thrill of finding something you like or that seems designed especially with you in mind, to keep you coming back. It's a sad and dependent way to live, and this book illustrated the dangers admirably - along with the wise choice of the girl to go her own way and follow the beat of her own drum. I commend it as a worthy read.