A STEM Book Review: My First Coding Book
Of the several children’s coding books I have read recently, My First Coding Book by Kiki Prottsman is the book I would recommend to be in every school and library for elementary school students. The beauty of the book is its interactivity. Isn’t that what coding is about? I could imagine how a book like this could be made into a series of books focusing on different types of programming concepts.
My kindergartener loves this book because it has flaps, wheels and sliders. In general, she likes interactive books. I had to read the book with her, but she thought it was so much fun. She might not understand all of the terminology used in it, but she understood the problems in the book enough to do all the interactive problem solving by herself. I think she will play with the book again.
My second grader read and solved all the problems by herself very quickly. I asked her what she thought of the book. She said it was fun. I asked her what’s a variable, and she was able to tell me in her own words, which reflected a good understanding of what she read. She thought the exercises were simple so she will probably not read the book again.
A review of the book with our engineers revealed an interesting debate. How early should we introduce to kids that coding is about breaking down a problem? Problems can be simple and complex, and there are often many ways to solve a problem. Students should not assume that the way they approach a task (page 5 of the book) should be the same way a computer tackles a task. What is more important is a higher concept of understanding the objectives or goals of the problem and thinking through ways they should be solved efficiently if solvable at all.
Overall, we should have more of this type of book in circulation. They do not even have to be labeled as a coding book. Giving young children fun activities with colorful illustrations in books that teach computational analysis concepts are the first step to get children ready for their computer science education.
There is something to be said about a coding book that is interactive since all coding applications give control to the users. It is easier to circulate books than to circulate laptops or tablets for early learning. I hope the publisher will make a few more of these books for the youngest learners.
Linda Chen is the Founder of Baby Monster Group, a company focused on giving children of any age, gender and economic background an equal opportunity to learn STEM. Linda has a Master of Arts degree in Statistics from Columbia University, an MBA from the London Business School and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She currently lives in Mercer Island with her husband and their two daughters.
Related Links: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/553647/my-first-coding-book-by-kiki-prottsman/9781465459732/
