Cover Image: The Chinese Hack

The Chinese Hack

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Member Reviews

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This was atrocious. I don’t know how it ever even got to print. The storyline was simplistic, which may have been forgivable if there weren’t constant tense mistakes in the writing. What’s worse, all the dialogue was stilted so that it sounded like either the characters were all aliens or this was written in another language and then translated. Most likely the reason is bad writing—not everyone can write well!

There were obvious inconsistencies in the writing. Such as how the cyber attackers demand included an increase in money every 4 hours but then the bank manager said the demand was increasing money every hour. And also how the father spoke to his son Carlo who said he was outside of the embassy but then the father said multiple times after their phone call that Carlo must have been bored stuck in the HQ building all day. There were other inconsistencies too but these illustrate the issue well enough.

Even if this failed to entertain me, it would’ve been good enough to say that it’d achieved its goal of educating the reader. But even at that it failed. The over-simplification of tech and hacking meant anything learnt was rendered essentially redundant in real life.

Thank goodness this short because it was painful to get through and I didn’t enjoy a single part of it. Wouldn’t recommend to even my enemies.

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I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publishers for an honest review. It has a potential for a good story but it needs more. I also feel kids wont really understand a lot of the technical terms in this book. My daughter is 8 and this is not something she would enjoy. The only positive thing to really say is that the story is trying to teach kids about internet and computer safety.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the review copy!

Great for kids. Artwork was great and the story was easy to follow and read. Just a note: this is not a graphic novel as you would think. It is a story with illustrations so when i started reading it wasn't aware but honestly i think it made the story better.

I highly recommend this read!

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It doesnt support or open after I download the pdf version of it. It's also not showing in my shelf in netgalley and I cant open it to read

Please look into the issue and if you can send me the pdf in my mail ID- taniagungunsarkar@gmail.com

I cant read the book from here. Please look into the issue

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This was cute book that I originally thought was a graphic novel which I would have like more. The story was too short and wish we had more back story on the main characters. The illustrations were beautiful, just wish there were more of them.

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Reviewed eBook version

Three things I would say about this book.

1. The message for online safety is key for kids online and is well overdue.
2. The illustrations are great and will keep children interested, especially early chapter book readers.
3. The storyline is both topical and engaging as aimed at 10 year old children, I guess, ideally (of which I have two).

I would also echo it's not a graphic novel but a story with illustrations. My kids loved it and I quite enjoyed it myself.

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As the cover evidences, this merging of illustration and prose presents an adventure story that is sure to grab young attention. An engaging text that should be in the hands of young readers.

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An exciting adventure commences as Carlo tags along to his Dad’s workplace for the day. Of course a massive hack begins pretty much as soon as Carlo gets there, so his Dad leaves Carlo under the supervision of his colleague, Naomi. Later, Naomi also gets called into action, and despite Carlo’s promise to remain in the car, he finds a way to get in on the action.

I really enjoyed this book, it had great illustrations, a variety of characters and an interesting storyline. It also got some great, every day cyber security tips in there, without loosing the fun of the story to solely educating kids about e-safety. At the end there is a link to a free downloadable online safety pack, for those further interested in the topic. I haven’t looked at this myself, although I think it’s a great way to encourage kids to use technology safely, as opposed to the “technology is dangerous- don’t use it” message that is often given in schools.

One critique I would give is the marketing. Really this book isn’t a graphic novel, but a story with illustrations. Even though there are two great female characters, I would also say it is more suited to boys rather than boys and girls, as the story mostly revolves around Carlo and his Dad.

Overall, it’s a fun, action-packed read, that is definitely worth a go.

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The Chinese Hack by Anthony Sweeney is definitely a book that is aimed and designed more for 8-12 year old children, with the whole intention of educating them when it comes to Internet Safety. Children today are being brought up knowing how to use technology and the internet really easily, but do they know how to protect themselves while using them?

This book not only educates children on Cyber Security, Internet Safety and Hackers, but aims to do so in a fun and exciting way, appealing to their age with a secret agent storyline. There are many good examples thrown in through out the story, of simply mistakes that everyone has done, adults included, from simply connecting to public wi-fi, that can leave you open to attacks and leave you vulnerable, to speaking to people you don't know online. The story is brought together with the beautiful illustrations within, thanks to Dan Harris the illustrator, which makes this feel more like a comic and definitely grabs the eyes of young ones. Those illustrations bring this book to life and add an extra boost to it and it is always nice having some visuals within a book. Even more so when it's a book aimed for children.

I was a little let down by this book, even though it was aimed for 9-12 year olds, this book was disappointing. The idea behind this book is great and is amazing as children do need to be educated when it comes to security and safety when it comes to the internet, however, the execution was slightly lacking. Not only did the story feel rushed, which I understand that it is for children so it needs to be relatively short, but if it's idea is to educate, then the story will also need to emulate real life and not be wrapped up in one afternoon. 

I gave this to my nephew to read, who's 9 years old and this book does make an interesting starting off point for me to speak to him about his safety when using all his computers, phones and other technology that connects to the internet. It did actually surprise me how much he did already know regarding public Wi-Fi, general safety when it comes to speaking to strangers online, for how young he is. His favourite part of the book were definitely the illustrations.

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Do you want your children or students to be aware of internet safety? Do you want a fun way to introduce them to digital lingo? The Chinese Hack by Anthony Sweeney is a graphic novel that combines a mystery with learning to help younger children learn about digital literacy and internet safety.
In the first book of the Cyber Spooks “The Chinese Hack”, Carlos joins his father Recon and his group of Cyber Spooks at Cyber Spooks HQ (the headquarters). Carlos’ dad Recon gets called away on a mission and Carlos is supposed to stay out of trouble and wait for his Dad to return. However when Kali, one of the Cyber Spooks, is in danger, Carlos has to make the decision of whether to risk his own safety to help her, or “stay out of trouble”. His decision changes the mission and his relationship with his father.
This is a quick and easy read to share with your children or students. I enjoyed the illustrations as well as how Sweeney included different cyber safety tips within the story (I never knew that a “pineapple” could be more than a fruit!) that helps children and students learn how to be safe on the ever changing internet. I also liked how the author include strong female characters within the cyber security team! It’s awesome to see representation. While the book was good, there were some typos and errors that I as an English teacher had a hard time ignoring! I would put this title in my classroom library for students to grab if interested but I would probably not use it as a whole class instruction or suggest it simply because I strive to only give my students strong examples of what their writing should look like.
I would rate it a 2/5 stars. If it were not for the typos and punctuation errors I would have given it 3/5.

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An adventure for young readers that really needed to do better; the story is the usual one of a cyber-genius leaving his son back at the high-security office while he tries to work out who's extorting a national bank online. Because everyone who is ultra-cautious and at the front line of cyber security has a Bring a Brat to Work Day. Every beat of the "drama" is designed to pump awareness of online safety into the young, which is the only good thing to say about the book, as it's not done very well either. However worthy the lesson and however decent the artwork on the full-page illustrations, this is not great. One and a half stars.

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