School Library Journal Starred Review

Gr 5-8 Maggie's friendship with Allie and Emily is not the only thing coming to an end. This is the last year Odawahoka Middle School will be in existence, and this year's sixth grade is the final class. Classrooms have been shuttered, programs have been suspended, and labs have been locked up tight. As Maggie's old friends are finding different interests, new girl Lena appears. Lena is a self-possessed artist, into photography and the Dada movement. She is very un-Odawahoka, and she has decided that she is going to be Maggie's best friend. The problem is that Maggie is harboring some secrets and she needs to decide how much she is going to let Lena know; she's often the one left taking care of her cranky grandfather, her mom disappears into her room at night with a bottle in hand, Maggie is maintaining a secret website selling vintage autoparts, and there is her late father's Hacker Bible. Before he died, her father was a brilliant engineer who pulled off epic hacks with aplomb, and Maggie is determined to follow in his footsteps and make this last year at Odawahoka Middle School memorable for her classmates. As controlled chaos seems to reign beneath the crumbling roof of their middle school, both girls discover more about friendship, family, school spirit, and themselves than they imagined. VERDICT This pitch-perfect start to a new series captures the power dynamics between adults and children and allows for the realization that everyone has a story worth hearing. Stacy Dillon, LREI, New York City

ALA Booklist

Two things happen to Maggie the morning seventh grade begins. First, she meets Lena, the new girl who will become her best friend. Next, a practical joke fills the middle-school hallway with happy chaos: tennis balls bouncing, toy cars zooming, helium balloons floating upward, and a toy mouse parachuting down. Soon, "The mouse is in the house!" becomes the students' rallying cry as the autocratic new principal tries and fails to stop an escalating series of hacks. That's hack in the MIT sense: to carry out elaborate, creative pranks with precision, secrecy, and flair. Best known for The Lemonade War (2007) and its sequels, Davies brings the same strong sense of narrative along with a well-drawn, small-town setting and a number of believable, sometimes quirky characters. Throughout the book, Lena's artistic outlook complements Maggie's engineering bent. An appended activities section includes such related features as "Why Maggie Loves Sir Isaac Newton" and "How to Make a Dada Poem." A flying start for a new series.

Horn Book

Sixth grader Maggie enjoys "hacking," a form of pranking her late father learned at MIT. When equally nerdy Lena moves to town, Maggie shares this once-private part of her life. Maggie's mother struggles with alcoholism and her grandfather's health is declining, adding depth to the shenanigans. Full of unapologetic girl power, the book also includes appended activities based on the girls' interests in physics and Dadaism.

Kirkus Reviews

Sixth-grader and budding engineer Maggie Gallagher occupies her fertile mind and connects to the father who survives only in her head by planning and executing elaborate pranks at school. Maggie's father pulled notorious pranks while in college at MIT. He died before she was born, leaving only a box of notebooks describing his hacks in meticulous detail. She re-creates them at Odawahaka Middle School using money earned from secretly selling her grandfather's vintage car parts on the internet. Maggie dreams of nothing more than leaving her dysfunctional family and getting out of her dying small town until dadaist new student Lena Polachev chooses her as a friend. Together they become an unstoppable force against the school's new dictatorial principal. The story is full of stylish and satisfying pranks, some chronicled step by step and others simply mentioned. Toy cars spill out of lockers, ping-pong balls rain down on the principal, school banners are reworded. Where Wildcats ruled, the Mouse is in the house, and what was simply funny becomes a revolution bringing much-needed change to a depressed, evidently all-white community. A vividly realized present-day setting, distinctive, believable characters, subversive humor, and a satisfying ending give this title solid kid appeal. With plenty of threads to hang sequels from, this series opener will make readers roar for more. (activities) (Fiction. 10-13)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Davies (The Lemonade War) begins a new series with a dynamic novel featuring a pair of resourceful pranksters, sixth-graders Maggie and Lena. Maggie never knew her father, who died before she was born, but she has inherited his gift for hacking (-Hacking means pulling off a prank with style,- she explains) and uses his -Hacker-s Bible- as a guide. Once she joins forces with Dada-loving new student Lena, there-s no stopping the girls from livening up their dismal middle school with playful surprises for classmates, much to the principal-s dismay. After secretly selling Maggie-s grandfather-s old auto parts to fund their missions, the two create tiny explosions in the gym, hang banners in precarious places, and inflate a gigantic mouse on the football field. The story-s high entertainment value is balanced by more serious moments when the girls reflect on tricks that backfired or cope with family problems (Maggie-s mother develops a drinking problem; Lena wishes her artist mother was home more often). As Davies highlights individualism and friendship, she leaves the door wide open for future adventures at Odawahaka Middle School. Ages 8-12. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. (Nov.)