Ziso the Book is a German children’s book introducing kids to the perils of cyberspace. Written by Christina Bäck, it follows the superheroine Ziso and her furry sidekick Sniffer as they chase hackers, viruses, worms and trojans through the internet. Opening verse:
Es gibt eine Welt, die sich “Cyberspace” nennt, und die ihr aus Laptops und Handys schon kennt. Hier ist alles möglich und vieles erlaubt, dennoch wird leider recht oft auch geklaut. Hacker und Viren machen Dinge kaputt - zurück bleiben Chaos und Mengen an Schutt.
(Rough translation: there’s a world called “cyberspace” you know from laptops and phones; anything’s possible, but stuff gets stolen, and hackers and viruses break things, leaving chaos and rubble.)
The rhyming picture book came out via Buchschmiede on 2 October 2023 as “Ziso und das wilde Internet-Rambazamba”, 46 pages, recommended from age four. Say the heroine’s name out loud in German and it sounds a lot like CISO, which makes it ideal bedtime reading for anyone who has to explain ransomware to the board.