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Crack open this book and set off on several fun missions while simultaneously learning the basics of writing code. Want to make a website from scratch? Create an app? Build a game? All the tools are here, laid out in a user-friendly format that leads kids on an imaginary quest to keep a valuable diamond safe from dangerous jewel thieves. Presented by Young Rewired State an international collective of tech-savvy kids in easy-to-follow, bite-size chunks, the real-life coding skills taught in this engaging, comprehensive guide may just set young readers on the path to becoming technology stars of the future."
(208 pages)
I actually agreed to review this all the way back in October, but I only got around to reading it a few weeks before this review needed to go live. Why? Because it's a fun premise for teaching kids to code, and I really love it, but I already knew how to do almost everything the book teaches. I did a two-semester HTML/JavaScript/CSS web coding class several years ago and took AP Computer Science (which teaches Java, similar to JavaScript) in my junior year. I already love to code–thus the fact that I'll be majoring in it when I start college (two weeks from now!)–so I don't really need the introductory material anymore.
"Why did you agree to review it, then?" you may be asking. It's a fair question, but honestly, I was hoping I could pass it along to my youngest brother and see him interacting with it. He's frankly more of the target age, and he was just getting into coding at that point. But he took one look at the book, saw that it didn't involve coding mods for Minecraft, and said he wasn't going to do it. Hmmph.
But honestly, after flipping through it, I still think Get Coding! would be absolutely perfect for just the right kid. I probably could have gotten my brother hooked on it if I'd tried sooner–heck, I probably would have gotten hooked on it if I'd gotten it before I took the other classes. It teaches a lot of interesting skills in a meaningful way, tying them together with letters and "missions" connected to this stolen gem that the coder is helping to protect from the "Bond Brothers" who want to steal it back. You have to make a website for exchanging information about the gem, then password-protect it, then build a checklist web app, then plan a route through a city (by embedding Google Maps), then make a game to train the security guards at the museum, then put together a full website to inform the public about the gem. It's sequential and interesting, and there are little newspaper articles to go along with the letters at each step.
If anything, I worry that the book packs too much of a punch at just 208 pages. It moves extraordinarily quickly, and while it explains things well I bet there will be kids who will get stuck early on, copy the code straight from the book without analyzing it, and struggle to understand the trickier concepts further on. That was definitely a problem when my brother and I worked through the web design textbooks a few years ago. The support website for the book, getcodingkids.com, actually looks very helpful, though, so it could be okay.
Basically, if you or your kid thinks the book's "mission" gimmick will make coding fun, then definitely buy Get Coding! If you don't think it will hold interest, though, then you would probably be better hunting around to find something that will be more attractive.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I actually agreed to review this all the way back in October, but I only got around to reading it a few weeks before this review needed to go live. Why? Because it's a fun premise for teaching kids to code, and I really love it, but I already knew how to do almost everything the book teaches. I did a two-semester HTML/JavaScript/CSS web coding class several years ago and took AP Computer Science (which teaches Java, similar to JavaScript) in my junior year. I already love to code–thus the fact that I'll be majoring in it when I start college (two weeks from now!)–so I don't really need the introductory material anymore.
"Why did you agree to review it, then?" you may be asking. It's a fair question, but honestly, I was hoping I could pass it along to my youngest brother and see him interacting with it. He's frankly more of the target age, and he was just getting into coding at that point. But he took one look at the book, saw that it didn't involve coding mods for Minecraft, and said he wasn't going to do it. Hmmph.
But honestly, after flipping through it, I still think Get Coding! would be absolutely perfect for just the right kid. I probably could have gotten my brother hooked on it if I'd tried sooner–heck, I probably would have gotten hooked on it if I'd gotten it before I took the other classes. It teaches a lot of interesting skills in a meaningful way, tying them together with letters and "missions" connected to this stolen gem that the coder is helping to protect from the "Bond Brothers" who want to steal it back. You have to make a website for exchanging information about the gem, then password-protect it, then build a checklist web app, then plan a route through a city (by embedding Google Maps), then make a game to train the security guards at the museum, then put together a full website to inform the public about the gem. It's sequential and interesting, and there are little newspaper articles to go along with the letters at each step.
If anything, I worry that the book packs too much of a punch at just 208 pages. It moves extraordinarily quickly, and while it explains things well I bet there will be kids who will get stuck early on, copy the code straight from the book without analyzing it, and struggle to understand the trickier concepts further on. That was definitely a problem when my brother and I worked through the web design textbooks a few years ago. The support website for the book, getcodingkids.com, actually looks very helpful, though, so it could be okay.
Basically, if you or your kid thinks the book's "mission" gimmick will make coding fun, then definitely buy Get Coding! If you don't think it will hold interest, though, then you would probably be better hunting around to find something that will be more attractive.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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