The Firefly Code

Shirley J.                Juvenile Fiction              Scientist Parents, Genetically tweaked kids, A. I.                        The Firefly Code by Megan Frazer Blakemore         352 pages    

Mori and her friends have grown up in Old Harmonie, a small corporate town outside of Boston, where every parent is a scientist and works for the same company.    All the children have been genetically tweaked either before birth to create the designer babies the parents wanted ie. eye color, etc. or after.    After the kids are born the parents have the option to tweak their personalities as they see traits arising, ie. is the child too aggressive, etc. the parents can "dampen" unwanted traits genetically.  Are there fields of interest they would like to see developed ie. strong math/engineering skills, bents toward science or medicine?    All it takes is a visit to the "doctor" for a "check-up" and the child becomes genetically altered to the state required by the parents.    Then one day a new family moves to Old Harmonie.   None of the four friends, Mori, Theo, Benny nor Julia have ever seen a new family move in.   Every one that is here has been here all of their lives.   Interesting.   These folks are said to come from California.   Wow this new girl, Illana is an excellent athlete and while very nice, she is every bit as competitive as Julia, and she bests Julia and Theo at everything.    Mori's grandmother was also a scientist and is the one who came up with the program and the colony idea, down to all of their food being delivered to each of their identical houses.  There are many mysteries that will come to light as the story goes, and it is a good story that I think anyone could appreciate.  I certainly recommend it to the age group the author geared it to 8-12 year olds, but, it is a thought provoking story for any age group.