When you look at some coding news from all over the world, you might notice that there are some very young coders writing their software code, some as young as six! Some of the kids who are figuring out code are self-taught, some have coding programs in their city and at their schools, and some are learning at home through creative ways. One of these more creative ways is by reading. Some wonderful books introduce kids to the basics of coding, programming, and writing their own software. You can thank us later when they figure out something bigger than the World Wide Web.
Hello Ruby: Adventure in Coding
The Hello Ruby books follow an adventurous young girl as she encounters challenges and faces them using skills that coders use every day. Ruby learns lessons about pattern recognition, computational thinking, and higher-level concepts vital to understanding coding. There are also tie-in apps, online games, and additional information that go along with each story for your young reader to help them further their understanding of each concept.
Secret Coders
This book series comes to us from the graphic novel Gene Luen Yang who is known for his work with Marvel comics. His Secret Coders graphic-novel series follows Hopper and her friend Eni as they use their growing coding powers to solve the never-ending mysteries at Stately Academy. This series combines logic puzzles and basic coding instructions with a page-turning mystery plot.
Computational Fairy Tales
Did you ever consider that computer science could include more dragons and wizards? Computational Fairy Tales introduces principles of computational thinking while illustrating high-level computer science concepts with the motivation behind them, and their application in a fairy tale setting. The goal of this book is to provide a high-level overview of the breadth and excitement of computer science. It’s a quest that will take you from learning the basics of programming in a blacksmith’s forge to fighting curses with recursion.
How to Code
The How to Code series follows Pearl and her robot Pascal as they go about finding different computer science and coding concepts in everyday life. For example, in the first book, Pearl and Pascal are at the beach and want to construct sand castles. Pascal, being a robot, takes everything a little too literally. It’s great to see how the two come together and go through different concepts to get to the final sandcastle.
Adventures in Minecraft
Do you have a child addicted to Minecraft? Thankfully, there’s a way to turn that obsession into a learning opportunity. Kids and teens can learn how to extend the functionality of the game and their virtual environment through programming through Adventures in Minecraft. This book guides young readers through the process of launching a Minecraft coding project on a PC, Mac, or Raspberry Pi. By the final page, young readers will know how to write interactive games, build treasure hunts, create immense 3D structures, and create intelligent objects.