Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World

Since 2012, the organization Girls Who Code has taught computing skills to over 40,000 girls across America. Now, its founder Reshma Saujani wants to inspire you to be a girl who codes!  

Bursting with dynamic artwork, down-to-earth explanations of coding principles, and real-life stories of girls and women working at places like Pixar and NASA, this graphically animated book shows what a large role computer science plays in our daily lives, and how much fun it can be.  

No matter your interests—sports, art, baking, student government, social justice—coding can help you do what you love and make your dreams come true. Whether you’re a girl who’s never coded before or a girl who already enjoys coding, this entertaining book will have you itching to create your own apps, games, and robots to make the world a better place. 

Printed in bold two-color and featuring art on every page, Girls Who Code packs in a lot of information in a fun format that will appeal to even the most reluctant readers. Not only is the book visually appealing, but it also breaks up the text by including one or more graphic elements on each page. While the text uses a lot of coding vocabulary, readers can use context clues to figure out the meaning of most words. Many of the coding words appear in large green text to indicate that the word appears in a glossary at the back of the book. Some of the key concepts are further reinforced with quote bubbles. The book also uses a lot of info graphs including timelines, short biographies of real-life women, and comics. In addition, the teens that appear on the pages are a diverse group. 

One of the best aspects of the book is that it explains complicated concepts in ways that are easy to understand. For example, “An algorithm is simply a set of instructions you follow in a certain order to complete a task. A muffin recipe is an algorithm. So is a dance routine. . . your morning routine can be an algorithm.” The book gives multiple examples and includes illustrations to go along with the text. Even though the focus of the book is coding, there are also life lessons such as, “Nobody is perfect. Not even robots.” 

Girls Who Code is an educational book that will appeal to anyone who has wondered about creating computer programs, video games, or other apps. The book’s easy-to-read format and real-life examples make understanding the different aspects of coding easy. In addition, the book mentions many women who have made an impact in technology. Girls who enjoy coding and computer science may also want to read the following fiction books: Click’d Series by Tamara Ireland Stone and Emmy in the Key of Code by Aimee Lucido. 

Sexual Content  

• None 

Violence  

• None 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• None 

Language  

• None 

Supernatural 

• None 

Spiritual Content  

• None