Tamara Ireland Stone | The Children’s Book Review | September 5, 2017
Get to know Allie Navarro—seventh-grader/computer coder/soccer player—from Tamara Ireland Stone’s Click’d, an empowering novel for young girls that combines friendship and first crushes with computer programming.
The Children’s Book Review: What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Allie Navarro: My best friends! I see Zoe first, since we take the bus together. I usually run into Maddie before first period because our lockers are in the same hallway. Emma and I always pass each other between third and fourth period when I’m walking to math and she’s heading to P.E.
All four of us went to different elementary schools, but we’ve played soccer together since third grade. We were so excited to finally go to the same middle school so we could see each other every day.
I see you have a bag with you. Will you tell us what you keep inside of it?
Let’s see… *unzips backpack* Whoa, this thing is a mess. I should probably clean it out.
So, I’ve got my social studies book, and a bunch of wrinkled papers… notes from class, tests, that kind of stuff. I see a few candy wrappers smashed at the bottom. And my headphones, for when I’m working in the lab. I always listen to music while I code.
Ha! I forgot all about this bag of gummy worms! Courtney, my roommate at CodeGirls Camp last summer, lives in Arizona so I never get to see her. Gummy worms are kind of our thing. She buys a bag and I buy a bag, and then we Facetime each other and eat them together while we catch up on school and life and stuff.
And of course, here’s my cell phone. I don’t far without that!
Are you hungry right now? Can we fix you anything to eat? Maybe we could make you your favorite dish?
I’m always hungry! And I just got back from soccer practice, which was, like, two hours of conditioning in the blazing hot sun. Now that I’ve downed this gallon of water, I could go for a few slices of pepperoni!
No sweat! We’ll dial for some pizza right now!
Do you like to read?
Yeah, but not as much as my best friend Emma. I read while I’m falling asleep at night and stuff, but Emma… she’s the one who escapes to the library when it’s too hot, too cold, or if she’s in the middle of a really good book. When she doesn’t show up at our lunch table, we always know where she is… sitting in her favorite beanbag chair in the sunny corner of the school library.
Do you have a favorite song?
Oh, I couldn’t possibly pick one. I have a playlist of my favorite songs to code to, and I listen to it when I’m working late in the computer lab after school. I love music, so I’m adding to it all the time! Wanna hear it? Check it out here.
Are you a rule follower or rule breaker?
Hmm… honestly, I’m guess I’m more of a rule breaker than a rule follower. Like, I know cell phones aren’t allowed during school hours, but everyone does it anyway, and when I was developing Click’d, I kind of knew Mr. Mohr and the teachers might not appreciate the scavenger hunt part of the game as much as the rest of the school would. So, yeah, that’s kinda rule-breaker-y, isn’t it?
When was the last time you felt embarrassed?
Ugh… I blamed one of my friends for something he didn’t do. I was stressed because I couldn’t figure out the glitch in Click’d, and I hadn’t slept much that week, and as soon as I saw him everything kind of caught up with me and… well, I just snapped. Once I said the words I had no idea how to take them back. He forgave me, but I’m still embarrassed about the whole thing.
If you weren’t answering the questions in this interview right now, what would you be doing?
Working on my next app! I’m so excited about it. I’m trying to get Courtney to San Francisco for spring break and I think this app will help us buy her a plane ticket! I know my friends are going to love it. But since you mentioned it, this one’s even more rule-breaker-y than Click’d!
Do you have any secrets you would like to share with us before you go?
*laughs* Okay, now I’m blushing! I guess I kind of have a secret, but I can’t tell you. Not yet. Maybe I’ll spill it in the next interview. 🙂
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Click’d
Written by Tamara Ireland Stone
Publisher’s Synopsis: Allie Navarro can’t wait to show her best friends the app she built at CodeGirls summer camp. Click’d pairs users based on common interests and sends them on a fun (and occasionally rule-breaking) scavenger hunt to find each other. And it’s a hit. By the second day of school, everyone is talking about Click’d.
Watching her app go viral is amazing. Leaderboards are filling up! Everyone’s making new friends. And with all the data Allie is collecting, she has an even better shot at beating her archenemy, Nathan, at the upcoming youth coding competition. But when Allie discovers a glitch that threatens to expose everyone’s secrets, she has to figure out how to make things right, even if that means sharing the computer lab with Nathan. Can Allie fix her app, stop it from doing any more damage, and win back the friends it hurt-all before she steps on stage to present Click’d to the judges?
New York Times best-selling author Tamara Ireland Stone combines friendship, coding, and lots of popcorn in her fun and empowering middle-grade debut.
Ages 8-12 | Publisher: Disney-Hyperion | 2017 | ISBN-13: 978-1484784976
Available Here:
About the Author
TAMARA IRELAND STONE is the author of Time and Time Again, a collection of her two novels Time Between Us and Time After Time, and the New York Times best seller Every Last Word. A Silicon Valley-native, she has worked in the technology industry all her life, first testing Atari game boards in her parents’ garage, and later, co-founding a woman-owned marketing strategy firm where she worked with some of the world’s largest software companies. She enjoys skiing, hiking, and spending time with her husband and two children. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit her online at TamaraIrelandStone.com, on Twitter @tamaraistone, and on Instagram at @tamaraistone.
This interview with Allie Navarro, a character in Tamara Ireland Stone’s Click’d, was conducted between Tamara Ireland Stone and Bianca Schulze. For similar books and articles, follow along with our content tagged with Character Interviews, Coding Books, Computer Programming Books, Friendship, Middle Grade Books, and Tamara Ireland Stone.
