Summary
DIGITAL ADDICTS, UNITE!
Andy Wagner spends every waking moment on his phone, watching one video after another. His parents mostly put up with it … until he gets so distracted that he walks straight into a raging river!
It’s time for a crackdown and soon, he’s enrolled at Camp Digi-Detox, a mysterious summer program operating inside his former hometown, Infinity Point. Undaunted, he and his fellow addicts launch a daring raid to get their devices back. But as their plan unfolds, they make a startling discovery.
Camp Digi-Detox isn’t helping them.
It’s using them.
Now, Andy and his friends must turn the very digital habits that landed them in camp against the adults running it. Because Infinity Point hides an incredible secret—and someone is getting dangerously close to finding it.
My Review
Cracking Time by David Meyer is fast paced and energetic. The book is written with five points of view in first person, present tense, which made it hard to keep up with at times, at least for me.
The summary gives the impression it’s Andy’s story, but he’s not really the main character. We get everyone’s POV and backstory in great detail. They all play different roles in the story, which is great! We even get the antagonist’s POV, which worked well. I do love knowing what the bad guy is up to. But even though each chapter heading tells us whose POV we’re in, the chapters are so short, it’s hard to remember which character is narrating. I think if the story was written in third person or only in Andy’s POV, it would have been easier to follow.
When kids arrive at Camp Digi-Detox, they have to turn in their phones.
The camp is supposed to cure kids of their addiction to their cell phones and other electronic devices. It’s a type of torture where they have to play some kind of game called Word Place almost non-stop. They have to solve clues and get them exactly right or they start over. They do this for HOURS. The idea is they’ll get so sick of being on the computer or their phones, they won’t do it as much after they leave camp. There are guards and other adults there to keep them on track.
The four kids, Andy, Felix, Doris, and Trish, decide to band together to try and get their cell phones back. But during the course of playing Word Place, they figure out it’s not really a game, but ciphers that need to be translated. But they have no idea what they’re translating.
This adds to the search for their phones. What is the director of the camp, Jason Pitts, trying to find?
I had to go back to Chapter 8 to remember. Jason is looking for something called The Boda Scythe. What it’s for doesn’t come in until much later. It turns out to be something that you can swipe through the air to open up a way to the past of the person holding the scythe. Jason wants to go back to save his dad.
This is a very cool concept! But, alas, we only see the past opened a couple of times when the kids find it. Other than that, nothing happens with it. So disappointing!
Still, the story is well written. I enjoyed it and was as surprised as the kids at what The Boda Scythe turned out to be. It’s filled with action, excitement, and adventure. Kids who don’t read a lot will find it easy to read because of the short chapters – 50 in all. Kids who love mysteries will enjoy it.
About the Author
David Meyer is an author, marble-maze builder, sock puppet aficionado, wannabe cartoonist, a creator of some things and breaker of others, a yogi and martial artist, and the owner of the reddest hair you’ve ever seen.
He’s a man of few apps, but many books. Creatively, he prefers to work in circles, following “the pull” rather than pushing. He’s tried—and abandoned—nearly every productivity tool known to man. He likes new ideas, old stories, and the big picture. He dislikes small talk, busyness, and infinite scrolling.
He’s married to the wife of his youth, who knows his worst, yet loves him best. He’s also the father of two kids who just so happen to be his favorite children of all time.
- Publisher : Guerrilla Explorer Publishing
- Publication date : November 11, 2025
- Language : English
- Print length : 301 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1962128040
- ISBN-13 : 978-1962128049
- Item Weight : 11.2 ounces
- Reading age : 8 – 14 years
For Further Reading…
Check out a review of David Meyer’s middle grade novel Misguided here.
Pam Halter is a former home-schooling mom, has been a children’s book author since 1995, a freelance children’s book editor since 2006, and was the children’s book editor for Fruitbearer Publishing until January 2023. She’s the author of Fairyeater, a YA fantasy, and the Willoughby and Friends picture book series (available on her website.) Pam has also published short stories in Ye Olde Dragon Books , the Whitstead Anthologies and Renewed Christmas Blessings. Her first short story won Readers Choice in Realmscapes.
Pam lives in Southern New Jersey with her husband, Daryl, special needs adult daughter, Anna, and four cats. When she’s not writing, Pam enjoys spending time with her grands, reading, quilting, gardening, cooking, playing the piano, Bible study, and walking long country roads where she discovers fairy homes, emerging dragons, and trees eating wood gnomes.