This is a great book for middle school students who feel like their parents are smothering them, and also a good one for a lot of parents to read. Averil's parents have installed the Ruby Slippers app on her phone, which allows them to constantly contact her and track her every move. Averil feels trapped by this continous oversight and forced to find creative ways to get a little freedom. When she learns of a new update that will allow parents even more control, she and her new friend Max set off to find the creator of the app and convince him to make some changes. There is some great information about women computer coders woven in as well. The Wizard of Oz references are spot on. Highly recommended for grades 4 & up.

I like that novels for middle school grade students are beginning to tackle the topic of online safety and also the issue of privacy. This title is relevant and covers issues like women in STEM (and likewise, gender discrimination of girls involved in STEM). Students will grasp onto the themes of autonomy in tech. Nice shorter at around 200 pages--this will make the book accessible to our middle grade readers.

Not many middle grade books acknowledge the existence of phones in tween hands. This one does, and makes for an interesting discussion of surveillance apps and our society's increasing comfort with/embrace of.