Story: 7 / 10
Characters: 7.5
Setting: 6.5
Prose: 6

Although the book does have a coherent story, it only teaches a limited amount of coding ( )

Although I've wanted to learn computer programming for a while, the few times I've tried I've given up, finding it too technical to focus or wrap my head around. I figured children or middle grade books would be the perfect way to have it explained plainly. So when I heard about the Girls Who Code movement and the creation of this book series I was very excited to get a hold of them.

The book explains in a very straightforward manner commonly used coding terms and then follows up by giving examples and scenarios of how they would be used. Equivalating the terms to real life examples made it easy for me to follow along and actually wrap my head around it. The plot line focuses around four girls who become friends as they start to solve mysterious notes with coding problems. The mystery of who leaves the notes was fairly obvious but that's fairly typical of a middle grade novel. Overall a fun little read. ( )

Mentioned in a blog post at https://booksbeyondbinaries.blog/2020/07/20/chapter-books-whats-good/ (July 20th release)

children's fiction (4th-6th grade) Girls who Code* book for kids who are interested in coding

*Side note: Girls Who Code was formed to diversify the coding industry; it welcomes girls as well as non-binary, and gender non-conforming persons, though the name of the club remains the same.

I read a couple chapters of this one then skimmed through the rest - the story won't have general appeal, but would be good for readers who are already interested in learning how to code.

This book checks all the boxes for diversity: group of friends with obviously different ethnic backgrounds (as well as very different extracurricular interests), a mom who is a programmer, dealing with bullies, having to work together with former bestie, problem solving and learning patience. The story itself also teaches some basic coding principles but the series will be of limited interest to anyone who is not already very interested in learning to code. ( )

Lucy is desperate to learn code so she can make an app to help her uncle remember when to take his medications. She joins the afterschool coding club but fears the pace is too slow for her to really learn what she needs. She teams up with some other girls -- potential friends and possible frenemies -- to help accelerate the rate of learning. They are helped by some mysterious notes left on Lucy's locker that they must all work together to decode.

This is a sweet tale with lots of informative details contained within its pages. First of all, it features positive examples of friendship and other good behaviors. The characters represent a diverse group of children. Obviously, coming from the Girls Who Code group, it includes a bunch of beginner information about coding. This is a great way for kids to learn without an overly didactic title.

On the down side, it sometimes felt the author didn't trust her audience. Even with the short length of the book (roughly 130 pages), there were times when it felt repetitive. The author would sometimes repeat the same thing (e.g., 'if Alex didn't leave the notes, who did?') with only slightly different wording two or three times with a handful of pages. It dragged the pacing of the text down a bit.

Overall, however, this was a good read I'd recommend for girls and boys who like realistic fiction and/or are interested in computers and technology. ( )