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Bitmask and the Virus in the Vending Machine is a new book by Drew Knight. It is a book that teaches kids about cybersecurity, and it also introduces them to coding and cybersecurity terms.
My kids and I were gifted a book by the author. I read it to my older two kids (ages 8 and 11), and I think they were the perfect ages for this book. It has 9 chapters, so we read it several chapters at a time over the course of a few days. It took us around an hour in total to read.
Book Overview
The book starts with a briefing that explains cybersecurity terms used in the story that kids may not have heard before. It was helpful and informative, and made the rest of the story easier for us to read once we had an understanding of the terms.
The story follows a 6th grader named Max, who is a “walking disaster”. He may be be clumsy at school, but at home in his room he becomes Bitmax who solves cyber mysteries with his pet iguana Patch.
At school Max and another student, Maya, notice the snack machine is acting funny. After a few days of unusual behavior from the snack machine (giving wrong snacks, flashing QR codes and morse code), Max decides to investigate at home with the help of Patch.
Max changes into his costume to become Bitmax. As Bitmax, he enters the digital world where he can fight the virus that infected his school’s vending machine (and could possibly spread to all school devices on the network).
He communicates with Patch his iguana to come up with a plan to take down the virus: Snax.exe. He shoots firewalls to help tame the virus, but it has grown and spread so much that they need a mega-patch to remove the virus.
Max battles the huge Snax.exe virus with his firewall blaster while Patch the iguana looked for a file that can eradicate the virus. He discovers the file has been corrupted and was never installed on the snack machine.
Max exits the digital world for the real world, where he and Patch have to work together to code and create a new patch file. I liked how Max and Patch are described coding the new file and writing the logic. I hope that reading about a 6th grade character being able to create a patch file helps motivate my kids to get into coding.
Once the patch file is complete, Max becomes Bitmax again and goes back into the digital world to fight Snax.exe and plug in the patch file. He has to battle some unexpected obstacles, but eventually he gets the file installed and neutralizes the virus.
The next day at school Maya notices the snack machine is back to normal, but she still questions if the problem is completely gone. Maya seems like a smart and interesting character, and I would have loved for her character to have a bigger role in the book. Based on the ending of the book, I’m hoping she will be partnering with Max more in future books.
Book Review:
The author, Drew Knight, works in cybersecurity. He told me, “My goal behind the series is to introduce more kids to the cyber space through a fun, humor filled adventure book series.” I think that this book achieved that. There is a second book in the series set to come out soon, as well as a picture book that will introduce cyber terms in a way that even toddlers can understand.
My son was immediately drawn into the story because he just started 6th grade – the same grade as the main character Max. I don’t know if he could relate to Max’s clumsy side (I know my youngest daughter could), but I hope he saw Max’s computer skills as something he can aspire to work on developing.
I thinking learning about and understanding coding and digital security is so important for kids. I take any chance I get to try to get my kids more into learning these subjects, that’s why I was excited to read this series with them. In our tech-filled world it is essential that kids understand not just how to use computers for education and games, but how to create new worlds with coding and how to keep data safe with cybersecurity.
If you’d like to see the Bitmask book for yourself you can order it using my Amazon affiliate link here.
What do you think of this new book? Is this something you would like to read to your children?
