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Debian Perl: Digital Detective Book One by Melanie Hilario, Lauren Davis
5.0

What a delight this comic is! Debian Perl is a technomancer living in Megalopolis, a rapidly gentrifying city on the west coast of North America. In this future sentient robots have full civil rights, intelligent beings live all across the solar system, and humans come in every color of the rainbow. Debian is just walking home from her favorite bubble tea spot when she hears some loud crashes coming from an arcade. Inside she finds a confused antique robot, a furious shop owner, and a curious teenager who immediately starts filming the unfolding drama on her egg (a levitating smart device). Debian manages to talk the robot out of its panic and determines that its CPU is dangerously overheated. Debian and the teen, Digits, take the robot back to Debian's workshop home. When they look at the robot's motherboard they realize that its memory drive has been stolen, and its hard wear illegally tampered with. Digits is amazed by how Debian can communicate with this ancient tech and asks to learn this secret, magical language. Debian explains that this language is code, and that anyone can become a coder with practice. Together, they follow the clues to solve the mystery of the missing memory- discovering an exciting potential new partnership along the way! Katie Longua's art and Brittany Currie's vivid colors perfectly capture this vibrant, exciting, heartwarming story. Lauren Davis and Mel Hilario have crafted a satisfying middle grade mystery with educational elements woven in so well that readers may leave the story surprised by how much they have learned. I'm very excited for the next installments in this series!