How Do Computers Follow Instructions?: A Book About Programming

by J.T. Liso, Srimalie Bassani (Illustrator)

Overview

Have you ever wondered how computers follow instructions so well? Or how they do math so quickly?

In the How Do series, readers are invited to guess and then explore the science behind the right answers. Basic principles of coding, including variables, binary code, loops, programming languages, and more, are explored in this newest engaging addition to the How Do series.

About the How Do series: These visually appealing STEM titles for inquisitive readers and young science enthusiasts, are fully illustrated nonfiction picture books that are a great introduction to various STEM topics. Each title includes facts and figures, simple diagrams and hilarious illustrations and is written in a question-and-answer format to encourage readers to ask questions and guess the answers before exploring the science behind the correct answers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781486716524
Publisher:	Flowerpot Press
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Series:	How Do?
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	810L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

J.T. Liso is a software engineer with a degree in computer science from the University of Tennessee. Ever since he was a little kid, computers had always fascinated him, and he used that curiosity to study how computers worked. J.T. grew up in Franklin, Tennessee, but now lives in Seattle, Washington, where he spends his free time hiking with his dog Zoe and cooking fun new foods!

Srimalie Bassani lives and works in Mantova, Italy. Her mother has always encouraged her artistic expression, and she is the inspiration for her passion. Her work is full of surprises. She always tries to diversify her style based on every story she illustrates. It's almost impossible to remove her from her writing desk, where she keeps a stack of books and teacups of many colors.

Editorial Reviews

Educational and interesting.

From the Publisher

Educational and interesting.

Booklist

Educational and interesting.

Booklist

2019-07-28
An introduction to programming concepts, framed around the notion of telling computers what to do.

Through questions and answers, this book walks young readers from the ideas of computer languages and input and output to data variables, Boolean logic, and loops. The questions come in pairs, the first straightforward and the second ludicrously silly, providing humor and a chance for an audience response of "No!" For example, the text asks if computers and programs use phones to call or text with users to determine when to run a program, if computers keep track of programs via a "secret diary," and if computers flip coins to determine whether or not to do something—that question comes with charming art of a computer unplugging itself in response to a coin flip. The lively art—cartoon drawings with a thin line, frequently on graph-paper backgrounds—implies notebook doodles and features ethnic diversity among the depicted children. A superfluous final section, illustrated with photos of diverse children, gives examples of programmed technologies such as televisions, vending machines, cellphones, laptops, and gaming consoles. The text features overly wordy passages and suffers from sentence-to-sentence redundancies. That said, the explanations are all solid, and the computer-logic portions—Boolean, if-else statements, and loops—are demonstrated well through speech-bubble exchanges among characters. A glossary concisely defines terms.

A broad-(key)strokes rather than nuts-and-bolts computer-science introduction. (Nonfiction. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews