Hacking the Code: The Ziggety Zaggety Road of a Dyslexic Kid, written by Gea Meijering and illustrated by Mads Johan Øgaard, tells the story of how fifth grader Kees comes to discover and embrace his dyslexia. But it’s so much more than a story about dyslexia!
From explaining how every brain works differently, to addressing the frustration kids feel when they struggle to accomplish something, to displaying how to support friends, this book covers a lot of important topics in a way that easily connects with young readers.
Hacking the Code reminded my daughter and me of books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, full of friendship, pranks, and incredibly relatable childhood experiences. While I felt the occassional illustrations were a welcome, yet relatively simple addition, my 7-year-old pored over each of them with intensity. I found myself constantly saying, “Okay….okaaay, I need the book back to keep reading.”
Perhaps her favorite part was the test in the back of the book, to help you figure out how your brain works. We took a bet over what her results would be and she laughed and cheered when she was right after all.
When I asked her for her review of the book, she said, “I loved it! This is the winner!” She then asked if the author had written any more books about Kees (and urged me, “Tell her she has to write more!”) and even created her own book about a dyslexic dog and his adventures with his friends.
One side note: I felt my daughter was just able to really understand and follow along with this story at the age of seven. This is a story about fifth graders nearing the end of the school year, so they do act older and talk a bit differently than she does with her second-grade friends. If your child is on the younger, less experienced side of six, it may feel a bit less relatable.
Overall, I enjoyed the positive messages in the book and my daughter loved everything about it. She’s rooting for author Gea Meijering to write a sequel and I’m positive she’ll pester me regularly to check if one has been written yet.
You can pick up your copy of Hacking the Code: The Ziggety Zaggety Road of a Dyslexic Kid on Amazon or on the author’s website. Want more? You can follow author Gea Meijering’s writing on her website, Facebook, and Instagram.
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