Hello Ruby: Adventures in Coding

I wasn't involved in the Kickstarter, so I can't comment on any of the pricing issues, but I can comment on what the book has meant to me. No, your child is not going to "know how to code" after reading this book. This is not textbook by any means. This book teaches programming CONCEPTS, stuff helpful to understand before approaching actual syntax and advanced concepts. This is for FOUR to EIGHT year olds, so unless your kid is a child prodigy this is perfect. I love that it explains things in simple, fun ways for my two girls. This will help them with critical thinking and problem-solving skills while their brains are barely beginning to be capable of abstract thought. This book will lay the groundwork for them, and then when the time comes for tech-oriented courses they will feel completely comfortable. I want my daughters to know that they are capable of anything, not just "girly" careers. Books like these are invaluable in changing the lopsided tech field.

First off, I bought this book because I am a first grade teacher at a STEM school, and I teach the afterschool robotics club for K-1 using bee-bots. And I love teaching Science! I love this book! I think it does a great job of introducing ideas of coding to children. I can see the links they are going to make between using bee-bots, or learning about the engineer design process. I also love that it includes the idea that one solution to one problem won't always work for another problem - and they may have to reevaluate and find a new/better/different solution. If you know a lot about coding, and programming, I can see how your conversations and questions could make this book very beneficial for children and help them make those connections into coding. I also loved the sneaky hints they put throughout the book to android, apple, firefox, etc. However, if you expect to just hand this book to your kid and have learn about coding you will be very disappointed.

This is an inspiring book for children as well as parents. It shows how kids can develop a certain set of skills that they can later use for programming. Despite the 'instructive' value of the book, it is all done through a gripping tale of a treasure hunt so it is never tedious or too pedagogic in style. The book is a remarkable attempt to join the technological and the traditional picturebook aspects. I recommend it to every parent or educator.

Hello Ruby is an interesting hybrid of chapter book and activity book. Oddly, though, the activities are included in the back half of the book and not in or at the end of each chapter. The introduction also says that the book is designed for a parent to read the story to their child(ren) and work through the activities together. The story is cute and simple with a pretty easy reading level (with some help a second grader could manage), however it jumps from something realistic into what I think is Ruby’s imagination. Ruby’s dad has hidden gems and left her some cryptic messages as clues to finding them. I was a little confused as to how Ruby managed to create a map for a world that I thought was supposed to be around her house, but ended up with a river and a forest. I stuck with it and the story eventually made more sense, it just required accepting that this was not our world. I’m not sure kids will be thrown by the leap into Ruby’s imagination since they are less familiar with genres and rules about worlds and stories. Some of the chapters were a little confusing unless you looked at and did the activities with them. I did appreciate that the activities built on each other, getting more difficult as the book went on. One helps kids understand Booleans which I might have to use in the library when we talk about them. Considering it needs a parent to go through it with the child (not a bad thing! I wish more parents of older kids were still reading and working with their kids), it’s probably not the kind of book that would be popular in my library. It should work for a public library or a home collection if coding is popular. What I think I might do is buy it to have in the makerspace I run.

Adventures in Coding Early Concepts might have been a clearer title. It is for younger learners and touches briefly on the ideas *behind* coding rather than teach you how to code something by the end of the book. I think some of the negative reviews are because this is not made so clear in the item description/title. For my 6 year old daughter (and her IT geek Daddy), this book is so much fun. In each short chapter, a few simple concepts are woven into the story & then there are fun activities in the back of the book that build on that concept (and I think more on the authors blog). So no, you would not have a child who can sit down and program something from scratch by the end of this book, but YES you would have a younger child who has been exposed to some of the logic etc skills to code someday....and had fun in the process. I think this book is an asset to our homeschool.

As a long term sub in a computer class, I was looking for a tool to help me teach the students about computers without just turning them loose on educational computer games. I bought this book to read to elementary students (KG - 3). This is probably the best book I could have found for them. I have the ability to teach simple coding concepts by first reading the story, then using the great unplugged ideas at the back of the book. As I read the story, I used the white board for a visual for the students. They loved pretending to be Ruby and going on her adventure.

My daughter in second grade checked this book out from her school library, and we liked it so much we bought our own copy, as well as the sequels.

My Daughter hasn't been able to put the book down. She has read it to me and herself multiple times and loves the activities in the back of the book. I will absolutely be recommending this book to anyone with a young child. I love that it teaches core programming concepts without actual code or technology, it allows kids to learn how to apply these concepts in their daily life, not just when in front of a computer.

Ludique et fort sympathique, voilà un livre pour enfant réussi et qui charmera aussi tous les geeks qui sommeillent en les parents. C'est un condensé de bonnes idées pour initier nos petits aux questions qui comptent !

I'm reviewing based on the Finnish version now, but I'll update this later if needed. (Update: The second half of the Finnish book has a better layout than the English book: the Finnish publisher has used the space more carefully so that most of the texts are larger, which is more inviting. It doesn't affect what I wrote in my review.) I find the book useful as an adult. I know coding, but I didn't know simple ways to talk about it with people who don't. I found the part about exercises especially useful, and I think some of them could be modified for older children or even adults. I like the charming way the author has drawn much by hand and I like the colours. The book started at Kickstarter as a crowdfunding project, and I noticed that some people complained that they paid more than the book costs now. Isn't that the idea of crowdfunding, to support the project that you would like to see coming to life. I have lately supported a successful crowdfunding book project, and my biggest wish is that the authors make the book available. My rewards aren't that important, and I happily paid much more than they will be worth. I think that is what crowdfunding is all about, making things happen for greater good. I don't know the author of Hello Ruby personally, but if this was my idea about crowdfunding, it may have been hers too, and she probably thought that her biggest duty towards the supporters was to make the book widely available. I'm happy that she did because I think this brilliant book is worth it. Thank you for all who gave their support for this book. I enjoy the many half-hidden computer world references in the first part of the book. I think the book has quite good insights about what's different about computers and people. People can grow into creativity and wisdom, while computers handle data. Computers are there for people to tell them what to do, not the other way around. I'm pleasantly surprised that a book that is listed as a children's book manages to address these profound topics in such a lively way. It also reminds us that we don't want our children to become like computers, and how important it is that they spend time around people and not just computers and like devices. This book helps to learn what computers are about, not just blindly using them. I recommend the book for teachers, parents and computer science students. It's a good teacher resource whatever the age of your students, and the ideas in this book can bring some life to more complicated materials. I recommend it especially to Waldorf school teachers who may be looking for creative ways to introduce the topic. Note: the exercises in this book are done without a computer.

Aún no termino el libro pero lo que llevo me parece excelente, su visión del porque enseñar a los niños me agrada mucho. Soy fan de Linda Liukas

Sympathisches Bild eines jungen, cleveren Mädchens; liebevoll gezeichnet; ordentliche Buchbindung - ein Buch, das man gerne in der Hand hat. Allerdings stimme ich der Kritik eines anderen deutschen Rezensenten zu, dass es keine wirkliche Einführung ins Programmieren ist. Es ist eine Kindergeschichte mit Bezügen zum Programmieren. Wer selbst programmiert wünscht sich ggfs mehr. Wenn die Erwartung an das tatsächliche Programmieren allerdings nicht so hoch ist, bekommt man ein schönes Buch.

My 5 year old LOVES this book. Very happy with it. Cute story & then activities at the end.