Hello Ruby: Adventures in Coding by Linda Liukas
HELLO RUBY: ADVENTURES IN CODING
Written and illustrated by Linda Liukas
(Feiwel & Friends; $16.99, Ages 4-8 )
Linda Liukas’s Hello Ruby is a book that first caught my eye on Kickstarter. In fact, I heavily modeled my Kickstarter project after it since its campaign had tons of contributors and raised over $380,000! After receiving a lot of attention, it got picked up to be traditionally published with an imprint of Macmillan, Feiwel and Friends.
Hello Ruby is all about teaching young kids the building blocks of coding. The book is broken up into nine small chapters. There’s a fairly simple story-line: Ruby needs to find five gems her dad has hidden around the house. Ruby goes on her adventure and starts with a plan by making a map. She ends up in the imaginary world of the map (I was a bit unsure how she got there, but it works with the book). She meets penguins, a snow leopard, foxes, robots, and a young boy on this adventure. As she goes along she is doing things that are the basis of coding.
Immediately following the story there’s a thorough and fun activity section that would be done with a child and parent or teacher. The kids (and adults) can learn about the basics of coding, such as strings, sequence, loops, selection, functions, and more! It’s written simply and clearly for young kids to understand.
I loved the adorable illustrations and so will your budding coders! Liukas has a bright, cheerful and kid-like illustration style that complemented the story and activities well. I know it’s the teacher in me, but I’m partial to books that have a teaching element and since my husband is a software engineer, I’m also familiar with these concepts in their basic forms.
A few months ago a friend asked my husband what apps or online activities are out there to help kids with coding and he gave these three sites saying …
If children are young there is scratch.mit.edu. There are also good exercises at code.org. If the kids are a bit older inventwithpython.com has books that teach more “real” programming skills.
With Hello Ruby, Linda Liukas has done a wonderful job portraying and teaching simple coding concepts in an entertaining and hands-on way. I think her website helloruby.com should be added to my husband’s list too. The website has great information and helpful teaching tools, along with some printables. Although it’s listed online for ages 4-8, I’d recommend Hello Ruby for children ages 5-9 (or anyone who wants to learn some fun kids activities that have coding concepts). Happy reading and coding everyone!
– Reviewed by Lucy Ravitch