Review by Booklist Review
While coding may seem relegated to cool apps, this entry in the Super Skills series explains how it is used in many household electronics and machines, from cell phones and tablets to televisions and washing machines. Its purpose is to teach kids basic coding skills through 10 lessons that build upon one another and only require a computer with Internet access. Beginning with Scratch, a popular software designed by engineers at MIT, children learn to design and create a game, which not only increases the fun factor but also allows the code to be tested easily. Along the way they practice such skills as fixing bugs, making loops, applying if-then conditions, and using lists and variables. Once the game is completed, readers learn to code a website using HTML and can include their Scratch game on it. The book is made more accessible with plenty of colorful graphics as visual references, information divided into manageable chunks, and a concluding list of useful web links. Kids will bite at this first taste of coding.--Leeper, Angela Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A tutorial lesson book on programming in Scratch, along with a Web-design primer. The spiral binding on this book is completely necessary, as it enables the book to lay flat for readers to consult while working on their Scratch programs via computerfollowing along with the book without having the Scratch website open would be a confusing undertaking. The first couple of sections feel disjointed and provide only minor background on Scratch's purpose and why one would program in it: it easily makes programs with graphics, and it does so while the programmer is online, requiring no software installations. After the rough start, programming teacher and prolific code-guide writer McManus (Web Design in Easy Steps, 2015, etc.) hits his stride in guiding readers through increasingly complicated codethe farther into his subject matter he writes, the easier his prose is to follow. He takes readers from simple quiz games to games in which the player's character jumps between moving platforms while dodging enemies. The book's full-color design takes advantage of Scratch's very visual, color-coded format, but the true-to-screen reproductions falter with some glossy code images of black text on dark colors, which are much harder to read than their computer-backlit equivalents. The final sections cover the basics of HTML tags and an impressive demystification of CSS, with the goal of embedding the Scratch game in a personal website. An uneven but very workable guide. (resources, glossary) (Nonfiction. 8-13) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
