Take Me With You

Gr 7-10–With an effortless writing style and almost leisurely pace, this could be a bridge book for tweens on the path to YA novels. Eli, Eden, Ilanka, and Marwan do not know one other, but they all receive the same message to report to the music room. The room is empty but for a seemingly innocuous device that sits on the teacher’s desk. It comes with so many rules and threatens the students if they break the rules or even discuss breaking them. It sets off fire alarms, fries phones, responds to texts for them, and deletes files. Over the course of just a few days, this device ends up controlling their lives. Despite all the rules, the device only has one task: to learn how to fit in. While the group grapples with how to manage all its requests, where it came from, and how to dispose of it, they form connections and find a true sense of belonging. Altebrando provides a timely look at technology and the large role we let it play in our lives. Told from alternating viewpoints of the four main characters, the story gets stalled out at times by stilted interactions.