ALA Booklist (Wed Jul 05 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

When her father takes a new tech job on campus, Maddie begrudgingly becomes a guinea pig for his team's various augmented reality (AR) projects. She quickly learns that she can use their AR tech to distract herself from problems, like dealing with the loss of her mother or avoiding her neighbor Mateo who wants to be her friend. But she soon realizes she needs to do some healing of her own, and making AR available to others that could benefit from it helps her get out of her own head. Mass clearly finds the technology fascinating and does a worthy job explaining its many uses, from running exercise games to immersive empathy programs en part of the book can be scanned and shown in AR. With the focus on AR's many applications, some may feel that the overall story and character relationships take a back seat. Mendez and Tse's artwork does a great job showing the difference between the AR world and reality, as well as showing Maddie and Mateo's emotional journeys. A thought-provoking exploration of grief and healing.

Horn Book (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Color by Cai Tse. In this moving and memorable graphic novel, twelve-year-old Addie loves tortoises, outer space, and moon trees (planted from seeds that traveled with the Apollo 14 mission before germinating back on Earth). A prologue reveals that when Addie was ten, her mom was injured in a bicycle accident and had surgery; things got worse from there. The main narrative begins almost two years later, after a traumatic (and ambiguously shown) incident, with Addie and her futurist dad adjusting to a "new normal." The pair is now living on a college campus for the summer, her dad working with a fun-loving group of young researchers studying augmented and virtual reality. Thrust into a new environment, Addie makes friends (including Mateo, a kind, free-spirited neighbor kid) and has experiences that push her as she challenges assumptions, processes feelings, and grows in empathy, vulnerability, and confidence. Character, setting, dialogue, and plot are skillfully delineated, and the inclusion of sunny moments balance heavier, introspective scenes. Well-paced, deftly illustrated panels convey characters' emotions and experiences; especially striking are fanciful VR-related images superimposed over realistic settings. When Addie's family situation (involving addiction and incarceration) is fully disclosed, it is presented with care, compassion, and hope. Back matter includes notes from the creators and a link to additional resources, including augmented reality that can be integrated into the reading of the book.

Kirkus Reviews (Mon May 08 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A young girl avoids a troubling family matter by escaping into virtual reality.Addie Brecker had the perfect life: a devoted mom who shared her love of tortoises and a caring dad who worked as a futurist. But after her mom had a terrible cycling accident, she changed. Addie takes her time with sharing exactly what happened as her mother fell into painkiller addiction, but Mass' story gathers steam when Addie and her dad take a road trip to Spring Haven University, where they will be staying for six weeks while he works on a virtual reality project. At Spring Haven, Addie meets quirky and fun-loving neighbor boy Mateo Vargas, who has his own secrets. Not yet ready to open up about her mom, Addie spends much of her time helmeted in VR, beta-testing her dad's students' work. But she comes to realize that she can let people in and enjoy the real and virtual worlds equally. This artfully rendered graphic charmer is carefully nuanced and adroitly paced, exploring such issues as addiction, grief, and technology's role in our lives. As the stories of Addie's mom's struggles and a tragic event in Mateo's family unfold, readers are granted admittance into their lives alongside the characters. The Breckers read White; the Vargas family is cued Latine, and there is racial diversity in the supporting cast.An affecting examination hitting many contemporary notes. (author's note, bonus comic, illustrator's note) (Graphic fiction. 9-13)

School Library Journal (Mon May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Gr 4–7— "He can make me go with him, but he can't make me interested." Addie packs up and spends a summer on a college campus where her futurist father is leading a team of students developing virtual and augmented reality projects. Despite Addie's initial reluctance, she becomes interested in VR as a way to escape and explore, and she even makes a friend in real life, Mateo. They share interests—geocaching, moon trees—before they finally share more personal stories, like what happened to Mateo's brother and Addie's mom. Ultimately, with the help of some students, Doug, Lily, and Surekha, they work together to develop VR experiences for people in the hospital where Mateo volunteers. At its heart, this is a story about empathy, whether it's a stranger with chemo or your own parent. Addie reflects, "I think it's harder to have empathy for the people we love the most. When they do something wrong it feels so personal." The layout is creative and dynamic, and the illustrations are full of relevant details. Mendez and Tse do excellent work with shadow and light, and the faint shimmer of VR. Panels set in the past have a gray outline with rounded corners, while VR panels have a half-round cutout along the middle of the bottom. Addie and her family present as white; there is diversity among the secondary characters. VERDICT No goggles or controllers are needed to fully immerse yourself in this summer STEM story about family, friendship, and empathy. Highly recommended.— Jenny Arch