Title: Hackerteen Volume 1: Internet Blackout
Author: Marcelo Marques and the Hackerteen Team
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Pages: 101
ISBN: 978-0-596-51647-5
Rating: 7/10
Summary: wish fulfillment tween/teen boy hacker fantasy
Read on for a tag team daughter/father review of O'Reilly's Hackerteen
Volume 1: Internet Blackout
[10 year old daughter]
Hackerteen is a comic book about a boy named Yago, who has exceptional
computer skills. His worried and clueless parents enroll him in a school
for hackers, which has a reputation for teaching hackers to use their
skills for good (white hat hacker school).
I think it was a very good idea to make something that kids will read
that shows the good side of the word _Hacker_. I personally thought it
should have had some twists or something of the sort that would make it
less predictable. I can see that the girl that Yago helped out is going
to turn into something but she is obviously not a hacker. There is a
girl hacker on the Yago's team but she doesn't really do anything. All
we girls out here need girl role models. All in all I think it's a good
idea yet it still needs a little help to get it on the right path.
[Her old man's take]
Hackerteen is a good guy hacker story for tween and teen boys. Young boy
becomes good guy uberhacker, fights bad guys, faces moral dilemmas,
saves the family, and tries to win the girl. The plot and character
development are fairly 2 dimensional. The other downside is that girls
are portrayed as weak, beautiful, and contribute little beyond needing
to be saved.
Tossed into the mix are footers with url links for interested kids to
find out more about technological and organizational references. There
is a lot of not so subtle healthy propaganda against the abuses of big
business and central governments. But not much more than the
anti-establishment vigilantee leanings you'll find in your typical comic
book.
Two things I liked very much were that the hero, Yago, isn't perfect. He
makes a bad choice and has to deal with the consequences. Also, in the
end, the bad guys are defeated not through the heroic efforts of a
single individual, but by people working together.
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