You Had Me at Hello World
By (Author) Rona Wang
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
1st February 2026
Export
United States
Young Adult
Fiction
Childrens / Teenage general interest: Countries, places, cultures and national i
Childrens / Teenage general interest: Computer and video games
Paperback
320
Width 140mm, Height 210mm, Spine 22mm
Jenny Han meets Silicon Valley in this drama-packed debut young adult novel about a Chinese American teen who navigates a high-stakes coding competition, sabotage, and first love when shes invited to a summer hackathon at MIT.
Sixteen-year-old Charise Char Tang is desperate to ditch her dead-end small town. So when shes invited to a highly selective hackathon at MIT, she seizes the opportunity to jet across the country, spend the summer building an app, and maybe even snag the top prizea golden ticket to a new life.
When she arrives, she teams up with Khoi Astor, coding wunderkind and creator of last years biggest mobile game. Khoi, who has soft eyes and a gentle smile. Khoi, who can make anyone laugh. Khoi, who is easy to fall forand already dating her camp roommate. If only Char could reprogram her heart to forget about him.
As the competition heats up, so do things between Char and her teammate. But sabotage lurks around every corner, and she soon discovers that the glitzy tech world has a dark, dangerous underbelly.
Rona Wang graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2023 with degrees in mathematics and computer science. She grew up in Oregon and currently bounces between San Francisco and New York City. You Had Me at Hello Worldis her debut novel.