How to Code a Rollercoaster

by Josh Funk, Sara Palacios (Illustrator)

Overview

Pearl and Pascal take their coding adventures to the amusement park in this follow-up picture book from our Girls Who Code program!

Pearl and her trusty rust-proof robot, Pascal, are enjoying a day out at the amusement park. Spinning teacups, ice cream, and of course: rollercoasters! Through the use of code, Pearl and Pascal can keep track of their ride tokens and calculate when the line is short enough to get a spot on the biggest ride of them all—the Python Coaster. Variables, if-then-else sequences, and a hunt for a secret hidden code make this a humorous, code-tastic day at the amusement park!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425292037
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/24/2019
Pages:	44
Product dimensions:	10.20(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

By day, Josh Funk writes C++, Java Code, and Python scripts as a software engineer, which he's been doing for the last twenty years. In his spare time he uses ABC's, drinks Java coffee, and writes picture book manuscripts such as How to Code a Sandcastle, Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast, The Case of the Stinky Stench, Dear Dragon, and more. Josh graduated from the UMass Amherst Commonwealth College with a degree in computer science. He is a board member of the Writers' Loft in Sherborn, Massachusetts and the co-coordinator of the 2017 New England Regional SCBWI Conference.

Sara Palacios illustrated the Pura Belpré honor book Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match. She divides her time between San Francisco and Mexico City.

Editorial Reviews

2019-06-23
Pearl and her robot, Pascal, take their coding skills for a spin at the amusement park in this Girls Who Code picture book, a follow-up to How To Code a Sandcastle (2018).

The park has many rides to choose from, and Pearl has 10 tokens to last her the day. But her favorite ride, the Python roller coaster, looks busy. Pearl decides to do something else fun, using code concepts such as variables to keep track of the length of the line and her remaining tokens and a conditional statement to decide when to return to the Python. Throughout, computer science terms are defined crisply in the text and vividly illustrated in the pictures, which use images such as popcorn bags for variables and the Ferris wheel for loops (keeping track of ice cream flavors seems somewhat contrived). The backmatter explains these ideas more fully. Pascal's too-literal interpretations of Pearl's statements make for several amusing moments along the way. When Pearl runs short of tokens (a missed opportunity to talk about checking for more than one condition?), she's undaunted by the disaster, taking readers on a fun hunt for a secret hidden password, in a nod to the importance of proper sequencing. Pearl has brown skin and black curls; others at the park have a variety of skin tones.

Despite minor bumps, a ride that's worth returning to. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews