Graphic Novel Week: Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences by Gene Luen Yang & Mike Holmes

Welcome to Graphic Novel Week! This week, I will be posting reviews of graphic novels, specifically ones from :01, which is a favorite graphic novel publisher of mine. Here's a link to their website.

So, Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences by Gene Luen Yang & Mike Holmes is the third book in the Secret Coders series of MG graphic novels. The first volume (Get With The Program) was awesome! (Scroll down two reviews to read about it.) The second one (Paths & Portals, review is just below this one) had some issues and felt more like a cartoonized computer programming workbook. With one hit and one miss already in the series, I wondered if Yang and Holmes would be able to capture the magic of volume one, or if they were doomed to repeat the mistakes of volume two in the third installment of the series. I requested a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review to find out. While #3 feels much more like the story-driven #1 instead of the workbook-esque #2, I am still not a fan of these cover concepts. However, that is one of my few complaints.


Luckily for readers, Secrets & Sequences delves more deeply into the mysterious conflict happening at the Bee School. Hopper continues to try and solve the riddle of her father's disappearance, and she and her friends do their best to outwit the diabolical Dr. One-Zero. 

One of the best aspects of this book is that it shows how understanding computer coding gives the kids agency and illustrates that these skills enable them to fight back against injustice or feelings of powerlessness--a timely message in today's world. The story has a great balance of action and character development, and there's plenty of coding still happening, including a few mini lessons where kids (or, really any readers) who are reading along and want to learn computer coding can stop and work out the problems for themselves. But, because Secrets & Sequences is so much more character and plot-driven than its predecessor, it never feels like a workbook. This is a win, and it makes me excited for the release of volume four: Robots & Repeats, which is due to hit shelves on October 3rd. I will be reviewing it later this year, but here's a peek at the cover: