Girl Geeks: Making Magic by Alex Miles

Penguin, 2019. ISBN: 9780143795087.
(Age: 9-12 years). Themes: Friendship, Computers, Coding, Technology, STEM, Drama, Arts, Costume & Design, Problem Solving. Making Magic by Alex Miles is the fourth book in the Girl Geeks series. It is written in conjunction with the Girl Geek Academy - an Australian-based global movement teaching one million women to learn technology by 2025.
The main characters, Maggie, Evie, Niki and Hamsa, are all best friends who love computers, coding, gaming and all things technology-based. With their classmates they are tasked with creating a SPACE-TACULAR production for the school community after a class unit of work on SPACE. The students can opt to join the group which they feel their expertise is best suited to.
Hamsa convinces Maggie to join her in auditioning for the lead role even though Maggie is known as the Maker and wants to only work on props and costumes. To everyone's surprise Maggie is given the lead role but after seeing Hamsa's disappointment, she persuades her teacher, Ms Atlas, into allowing her to continue with props and costumes. Hamsa is not given the lead role in the end but another role as the main robot. During the week of play preparations, Hamsa and Maggie have a falling out over Hamsa's insistence that Maggie is too quiet and needs to stand up for herself. Maggie is quietly confident that she is able to put forward her opinion when it needs to happen. Their difference of opinion is finally resolved but not before the two girls learn a valuable lesson in really listening to each other.
The opening night of the production is not without drama. The stage manager becomes ill and Maggie takes over the role successfully. She also cleverly saves a stage-struck Hamsa and encourages her to speak her lines.
Middle to upper primary readers will enjoy and relate to the realistic and honest relationships portrayed and appreciate the technical aspects and use of technology threaded throughout the story.
Kathryn Beilby