Hacker

This story of a young, black female computer expert trying to clear her father of electronic embezzlement, while simultaneously struggling with the uncertainties caused by adoption into a mixed race family, takes the reader on a meandering ramble through the superimposed labyrinths of identity crisis and artificial intelligence. This might sound like daunting stuff, but the telling is so nimble that average independent readers should find the book absorbing. Only those children with a sound knowledge of database operation will appreciate all the technical nuances. I certainly didn't, but my ignorance didn't detract from my enjoyment of a clever and well-paced thriller. The climax requires a fairly strenuous suspension of disbelief, but the narrative twists and cliff-hangers make the exercise well worthwhile. Very highly recommended.