Coding is such an important skill for our younger set to learn. Books like this make learning some of the basic concepts fun.

My Thoughts:
Code Your Own Adventure: A fun book to introduce kids (and even adults!) to STEM, animation, and showing coding can be fun!

What I loved:
Having an engineering background myself, I always appreciate books that can instill an interest in STEM. Books like these are a fun approach to STEM using storybuilding and clear step-by-step instructions to work on coding. This also gives young readers an insight into how animated (and even regular ones with CGI) movies and video games are made. I love that this book includes diverse characters and adventures across diverse locales. The illustrations are bright and eye-catching. The resource needed for learning and working on the coding adventures in this book is free and available from MIT – Scratch.

I have to mention here that I worked on all the coding exercises in the book, and had a blast doing them! While some of the instructions followed somehow ended up a bit off for me, it was still a learning experience and I made tweaks at that point to see what would correct it or simply to see what else can happen 🙂 So with kids working on the projects here, if things don’t seem to work exactly the way they say, just have the kids tweak it and they will have fun!

On the other hand:
I felt that it could use just a bit more of a story-line to make it even more fun for the target audience. And while this is a more specific issue, the story-line in the first story here was a bit confusing and I found myself lost after a bit so I ended up focusing on the coding part of it. Two more additions that I feel are needed to help a more general, non-coding-background audience (as might be for the target audience) – a glossary that helps the reader understand more of what is in the book, and a helpful index of what is beyond.

One additional note – there are more books in this series that you can check out!

So Should You Read This Book?
This is a worth-it addition to instill the love for coding and showing it can be fun.

Rating: B
Reading Level: 9 – 12 years (and other age groups too who are interested in learning and new to Scratch)
Reread Level: As needed

Disclaimer: This review is for an eARC of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group-QEB and NetGalley. Opinions are fully mine.

'Code Your Own Adventure' by Max Wainewright with illustrations by Henry Smith is a workbook with 4 projects for kids to learn coding.

Using the program language Scratch, readers are guided to build out 4 different games and scenarios. They draw some of the characters they will use, and some are included (like bananas is, apparently). The reader builds on previous concept in the individual stories, and is told to save often. The adventures include explorers and pirates.

It seems aimed at fairly young kids, but, to me, it seems like it ramps up pretty quickly and explanations seems a bit brief. The steps are all laid out, so the reader is really just copying the steps. Some of the concepts are explained out, but I wish there had been a bit more explanation or a better glossary in the back.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group-QEB and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

I made sure to try every project in this book. There are quite a few mistakes. For example the instructions will say to “paint a new sprite” but the graphic to go with it shows “pick a new sprite”. That mistake is repeated every time they have that step. My next problem with this book is that it uses Scratch which is available free from MIT. It’s a very cool program, I just wish the cover said that you needed to use that program. Or reminded people that existing programs like Flash may need to run or be updated. I like the projects and think it is well set up, but it doesn’t really flow as a story, and I think the procedural part, while complete, and interesting, is way beyond what the cover makes someone think they are checking out. Plus, many of the elements they give the reader to do, don't seem like they work exactly right. For example you pick up the basket in the first project, by my character never picked up the basket, it walked past it. I'm an adult who can write code and I found it to be annoying, so I think it will be just as bad for kids. Overall, I like the concept, but the execution could be better.

As long as the reader has a basic understanding of Scratch this is a perfect book for them. The illustrations and steps are fantastic. You'll fins many creative ideas inside with wonderful step-by-step instructions to help create your very own adventure by coding. It is great and so fun! We enjoyed trying the ideas.

I remember computer science class in college, which convinced me that coding was not for me. To see it being taught to kids is mindboggling, but apparently MIT has invented such a way that makes it simple enough. I might even try it. . .
Nah.
On one page you get an adventure role-playing game—in the first case finding the lost golden city of the Amazon in the style of Indiana Jones or Lara Croft—while on the other side there’s a step-by-step process on how to code whatever the adventure tells you to. Similar games follow, such as knights, pirates, and astronauts.
The illustrations are pretty basic and broad, looking like the book is meant for kids too young to be working a computer.
The anaconda looks more scared of Maria than vice versa.
It’s possible kids may not have the patience to go through all those instructions. There has to be a genuine interest going in, rather than hoping this will capture that interest, because even though I wanted to learn, I got bored.

If you have kids interested in learning to code, this is the book for you! I read through it and realized that it could even teach me what I needed to get a basic start in coding. I am excited to use this book with my kids this fall. and e homeschool, so they will be learning some basic coding methods.

Great read, informative, and super easy to follow! Get ready for some hands on fun!!

For older children who are interesting in coding this is an interesting how to guide. It was a little hard to see how things would work because I would rather have a print book to flip through if I also needed a computer to do the activities.

Colorful, engaging, and informative - Code Your Own Adventure provides step-by-step instructions in a comic-book format for kids to code their own game using Scratch. Kids will learn how to draw characters and shapes, animate plot lines, and create games all while learning how to code. A fun way to gain useful knowledge and coding skills!

Who would have think that coding may be so easy and using a basic language - Scratch, that can be downloaded for free - you can easily create your own games. Sounds fantastic for me and I bet I am not necessarily the target of this book. Recommended to active children with a passion for computers - both in school or home schooled - this book offers step-by-step inspiration to set up your own characters, background and course of action for a computer game. The language is easy and there are tons of directions for setting up your own online creation.
PS. I would actually give a try to it as well, just because coding can be so easy and smart.

Readers of CODE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE will have a blast learning basic coding as they look for hidden treasure, search for the Lost City of Gold, and discover the Book of Spells. Highly recommended as a fun, effective intro to coding language.

Grateful to the Quarto Publishing Group - QEB and NetGalley for the early copy, in exchange for my true review.

#CodeYourOwnAdventure #NetGalley

Code Your Own Adventure was just so-so for me. The book is broken into 4 individual books/sections to teach the reader how to make 4 differently-themed games using Scratch, a coding language for beginners. Each page has clear illustrations and instructions to guide you through the process.

I like the concept a lot, but found myself at the end of the book realizing I didn't fully understand some of the terms. I really wish there was a glossary for reference at the back of this book (seriously, I have no clue whether "Superlooper" is a specific term used in Scratch or just what the author randomly decided to call both a rocket ship and the explorer character in the Captain Maria adventure). I also got a bit confused because some instructions tell you to refer to a specific page, but I didn't realize at first that each book runs from its own separate page 1 to page 31, so I was looking in the completely wrong place.

I quite like that the characters used to teach each lesson are diverse in gender and colour, but I found it perplexing that even when the character for a specific adventure is a PoC, the step-by-step instructions always show the whitest of white character being built. Since each of the characters being created have unique instructions, there is no clear reason why the decision was made to illustrate the instructions that way.

Final verdict: 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for providing me with a free DRC of this book.

Scratch is a wonderful tool for kids to learn how to code, but this book takes it to another level. Instead of simple providing instructions on how to use Scratch, kids will become engrossed in the story. Whether they decide to go on an adventure with a pirate or a knight, kids will learn the basics of how to use Scratch in an engaging way. This book is a great starting point for teachers or librarians looking to teach the basics of Scratch.

This book is a good introduction to MIT's scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/).
I am not sure what the target age for this book is but I'd guess that it is 10 or older (this is way over my 6 year old's interest/attention level).

There isn't much story here; there's just enough to guide the plentiful activities.
This surprised me and is one reason why my daughter isn't interested now.
The illustrations were great/plentiful and should help draw children in.

The book looks fun, but I honestly can't say more than that because I didn't end up reading it--it's was too hard for me to try to read it as digital content.

I loved this. It reminded me of one of my favourite gifts as a child; a ‘how to knit’ interactive story. By encorporating storytelling into the adventure, you ensure full engagement.
Will be letting all my IT teachers know about this gem.

I am a software developer myself and I always think it's a great idea to introduce development in a younger age. Some people are talented in software development - yes, it's also hard work but some people definitely has talent and brains for it!- so fab to discover this tendency in a young age.

The book follows Scratch, an algorithm -teaching programming language for kids, of course not like the normal programming languages but more of a playful learning thing. You can actually have a go online at the website. It's free. https://scratch.mit.edu/

It has tutorials and examples to follow, clear instructions, awesome illustrations. So if you're looking to a kick start introduction of algorithms for your child, there you go, an excellent book to have!

I have been having my children summer read these books! So far they have loved everyone one of them. I t is nice to see them read outside their usual comfort zone!