ALA Booklist (Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2015)

The future belongs to machines, as Ginger Crump knows all too well: her town of Flinkwater, Iowa, is robot central and the hub of all the latest technological developments. Flinkwater itself is something of a Silicon Valley of the Midwest, and it's stuffed to the gills with the precocious, gadget-happy offspring of its inhabitants. But high-tech tools tend to have high-tech problems, and over the course of five Encyclopedia Brown style episodes, Ginger finds herself in the middle of everything from local to national emergencies: computers are putting people into comas, a talking dog is on the run from animal-experimenting scientists, and Homeland Security is prowling suspiciously around. In addition to all of this, the snarky, ever-practical Ginger has plenty of other problems to contend with, not the least of which is plotting how to get her first kiss. Hautman, a National Book Award winner, makes his first foray into middle grade with this quirky, dryly funny offering of a maybe-future.

Horn Book

Ginger Crump, thirteen, just wants to be kissed before her birthday, but she finds herself up to her underdeveloped chest in classified scientific intrigues when a computer screen saver zombifies the residents of her Iowa town. And that's just the beginning of this wildly unfettered sci-fi adventure in which Hautman satirizes techno geeks, Homeland Security, and corporate culture.

School Library Journal (Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2015)

Gr 3-6 Ginger Crump lives in Flinkwater, IA. That may sound dull and boring, except for the fact that a screen saver or "screenie" is turning people into drooling zombies. Most people in town work for ACPOD, a Silicon Valley-like technology company. This means that most residents are of high intelligence. Ginger quickly figures out how to avoid getting "bonked" by the hidden code. She and her crush, Billy George, have to solve the problem while dodging the authorities who think they are terrorists. Hautman creates fun, smart characters with brilliant minds. Just when they think they have solved the "bonking" problem, a talking dog enters the scene, which takes the story in another hilarious direction, and readers meet even more colorful characters. While all of this is going on, Ginger is also concerned with the simple things such as, when will she finally get to kiss someone? Hautman includes a guide at the back of the book explaining which scientific details mentioned in the chapters are real or science fiction. Is the poop-net real? Readers will likely want to find out. VERDICT Middle grade fans of Carl Hiassen's mysteries will enjoy Hautman's inventive characters and plot. Kris Hickey, Columbus Metropolitan Library, OH