Girls Who Code by Stacie Deutsch and Girls Who Code by Reshma Saujani

I normally blog about books that will interest boys, but recently I was asked if I would blog about girls and coding.  Since both are extremely important in schools I jumped at the fact.

I just realized that I read the second book in the series first, oops!  The good thing is that reader doesn’t have to go in order.    The Girls Who Code by Stacia Deutsch is a new series about a group of middle school girls that are in a coding club.  Book 1 starts with the girls getting to know each other.  Book 2 involves the coders participating in hackathon.  It sounds sinister (I know whom and what I wanted them to hack) but it is coding competition with robots.  It sounds like a fantastic day. 

Thank you Random House
for the copy.

Sophia is the focus of book 2 titled Team BFF: Race to the Finish!  The girls are participating in the hackathon, but first Sophia has chores to do and a babysitter to find for her younger sisters.  When her team is a bout to compete her abuelita show up to cheer her on.  Sophia ends the day with such confidence that she asks a boy to the dance!

The books are cute, but I do know it will be a VERY tough sell to boys.  That is ok! Truth be told it is a REALLY tough to get girls to think about coding.  As a teacher I will take any help I can get to get them into coding. The series will get them thinking about coding, but our responsibility is to get them involved in coding.

I do the Genius Hour in my class.  For an hour a week kids can learn about anything they want to.  A girl in my class selected how to code as her topic.  She told me that she wants to be a coder when she grows up.  This student comes from a home where Spanish is the primary language.  Our Title 1 school and the neighborhood is in the shadow of downtown Denver.  We are just blocks from the arts center, the Capitol building, Denver Art Museum, etc. Here is a young lady that wants a challenge.  She is using another book Random House sent me.

Random House also sent me Girls Who Code by Reshma Saujani.  She founded Girls Who Code.  Her TED Talk is on raising brave girls.  I am attaching a link.  When I think about L wanting to code I get excited and wish I knew more to help her, but I know she is smart enough to teach me.

So why do I care about this.  Well it is simple.  I have to do everything I can to make sure my kids are ready for the world. (Don’t tell admin because they think it is to get them ready for PARCC!)  Ms. Saujani is providing an opportunity for this generation of young ladies to be the next tech masterminds.  I have seen over the years that a book can inspire kids in ways I never imagined.