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Book Title: Alicia Connected: Tricked with Treats by Derek Fisher
Category: Middle Grade Fiction (Ages 8-12), 86 pages
Genre: Middle School Fiction
Publisher: Securely Built
Release date: July 2021
Formats Available for Review: print-softback USA, e-book PDF format
Tour dates: November 22 to December 10
Content Rating: G. Suitable for everyone.
Halloween is here, and it is Alicia’s favorite time of year. What's not to like about dressing up in a costume and getting free candy? But there is something even more exciting happening this year. For the first time, Alicia and her friends are throwing a virtual party in TullyTown!
Putting together a party in TullyTown isn't easy, and Alicia and her friends want to do the best they can to make sure it is enjoyed by plenty of avatars in TullyTown. For one of Alicia's friends, getting ready to throw a TullyTown party leads to looking for easy treats. But what if it's a trick?
Alicia has been using her tablet for a while and is getting more used to how to use the technology. However, there is always something new for her and her friends to learn.
Fisher is an award-winning author who has spent decades in the computer engineering field, with the last 10 years in cybersecurity as a leader, speaker, and instructor. His passion has been to take complex security topics and make them simple and easy to understand. He holds several security certifications and teaches cybersecurity at Temple University, where he is also an external advisory board member to the cybersecurity program. Alicia Connected: Tricked With Treats is the second book in the Alicia Connected series. The first book, Alicia Connected: The Big Gift, was a second-place recipient of the prestigious Purple Dragonfly Award in the STEM category.
Connect with the Author: Author's Website ~ Facebook ~Instagram
Writing about cyber security
One of the unique challenges of writing this book was making sure that I wrote it in a way that is appealing to a broad audience of both children and parents while still trying to weave in topics about cyber security.
Since I teach secure software development at Temple University in Philadelphia PA, and I also lead a team that works to protectsoftware in a financial institution I know how dry to the topic of cyber security can be. In these roles, I have complex conversations around securing technology on a regular basis. Writing about this topic for a younger audience meant that I would have to subtly present security concerns in a way that is friendly and helpful. Most importantly, not boring.
In Tricked with Treats one of the characters is tempted to find an easy way to accomplish something that she really wants. This leads to some unforeseen problems that require her and her friends to put their heads together to overcome. This is not uncommon to what we all face online. There are certain things that we see that are too good to be true and in the vast majority of cases, they are too good to be true.
However, there are a lot of good things that children can use technology for, but there is an equal number of negative things. As parents we need to help children build that healthy distrustfor things online, as much of what is online is either false or looking to get something from us. In Tricked with Treats I didn’t want to dwell on the negative activity, but instead wanted tofocus on some of the concepts that can help parents and children build good technology habits.
Alicia Connected: Tricked with Treats is written by Derek Fisher. This is a middle grade fiction book aimed towards children that are 8-12 years old. I read this book with my 8 and 10 year old sons and we all enjoyed it.
I love the lesson that this book teaches. It is a great reminder how we have to be careful on the internet. My children and I talk all the time about dangers of the internet so I loved that this was a change from my lectures.
Alicia and her friends plan a virtual party in Tully Town - it's going great until someone tries to get free “Tully Bux” and suddenly they are locked out. They realize that the website stole the password. This book teaches how to be safe and touches on bullying which is so present in the age group this is geared towards.
My children and I enjoyed this book. My 8 year old was able to read without any issues. It lead to great discussion between us. While I strictly monitor what my children are doing there are real dangers out there.
I received a copy of this book through the author and IRead Book tours all thoughts are my own.
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Thank you for your review, and I'm glad that both your sons enjoyed it!
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