AVERIL OFFLINE, by Amy Noelle Parks, Nancy Paulsen Books, Feb. 13, 2024, Hardcover, $17.99 (ages 10 and up)
A girl sets out to determine her own future and learn from her own mistakes in Averil Offline, by Amy Noelle Parks.
Twelve-year-old coder Averil can’t do anything without her parents knowing. That’s because her mom uses the Ruby Slippers surveillance app to check where she is, who she texts, and even what she eats for lunch. Averil wonders how she’s ever going to grow up if she’s not allowed to learn from mistakes.
When she learns that Ruby Slippers is about to become even more invasive, she teams up with Max, a new kid at school dealing with overbearing parents of his own. Together they figure out an almost foolproof way to ditch their parents and run away to the college campus that’s home to the quirky Ruby Slippers creator.
It’s an extreme challenge just getting to meet with him — but the two kids cleverly figure out a series of puzzles and get their meeting. What they find gives them pause — and gets them thinking about the value of honesty in a new light. After all, isn’t trust at the heart of their parents’ need to know? —Synopsis provided by Nancy Paulse Books
Averil Offline is one of those books that parents and kids should read.
Averil’s parents take helicopter parenting to a new level. I found myself anxious on Averil’s behalf as her parents checked on her every move throughout the day. Under their parenting plan, she basically had no autonomy. And as history has told us, when you deny people something they desperately want, they’ll find a way to get it, no matter what the risk.
So, when Averil learns she’s likely to lose even more privacy, she takes action.
Averil is smart and thoughtful. She loves her parents, but she’s conscious to a fault of never stepping out of line. She’s cautious and clever and likeable from the start. At first glance, Max is a bit of a wild card, but the truth is, he just wants to be a normal kid. The two personalities are a nice balance, and offer greater appeal for a wide-ranging audience.
Author Amy Noelle Parks has done an excellent job of getting to the heart of the parents’ fears without making the parents themselves seem super awful. And her mix of puzzles and science take the book up a notch.
At just under 200 pages, Averil Offline is an accessible length for middle-readers. The pacing is smooth and the story compelling.
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