Coding Capers is a book that children need to read. It includes mentions of skills that include STEM which would be beneficial for both boys and girls to be encouraged to pursue in today's society. This is a bright and smart book for children that showcases a hobby that we do not see promoted enough. I will be sharing this one with my little girl.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was received as an ARC from National Center for Youth Issues - Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I loved this book from cover to cover and loved the approach Angela Cleveland took while writing this creative coding story. It's starts out with Luci having a dream that she will get to program her own robot. She wakes up and hurries to get ready and finds out that she and her friends have their favorite class computer science first period. Mrs. Lansing the teacher walks in and the class is split up in teams of three and designates the teams to find the class robot and reprogram him and the winners will each get their very own robot to program. Luci and her friends are too excited that they are determined to win and find the robot and they do with each of them getting their very own robot. This gets me excited due to the way it was written to get children excited about technology and how it could change the world and it all starts with reading a book.

We will consider adding this title to our Picture Book Collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

This is a great read for children! The illustrations are bright and colorful, and the subject matter is engaging. Not only will they enjoy the story line, but the book is educational, as well. Luci and her friends compete with their classmates and work together to locate a missing robot. The prize for the winning team members: each one gets a robot of their very own. The students must decipher the codes (clues) provided in order to locate the missing robot and reprogram it. At the end of the book is an activity relating to a section of what took place in the story. This serves to reinforce the coding and allow it to be relatable to a younger audience. Also, provided is a link for additional coding resources. Kids will definitely enjoy this book. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to review this book.

I think this is a fun and interesting way to get kids acquainted with coding and thinking about what they can do. The illustrations are cute, and I would definitely recommend this to friends with kids.

This book gives insights about basic concepts of computer science for kids. Here kids learn to work in teams and achieve their goals together.Overall, It was interesting to read)) Recommended for 7+

My feelings about this one are all over the place. A good premise, weak writing, and passable illustrations combine to make a book that I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable recommending... even though the overall message is fine.

Luci is paired up with her friends to find a robot that their teacher has hidden somewhere in the school. They follow clues--learning about three different coding concepts along the way--until they reach their goal.

A trend I've noticed in self-published picture books lately is a tendency to italicize dialogue. This book does that... but only with the speech that's not spoken by the main character. There are grammar and punctuation issues throughout, and the writing really could have used some more speech tags.

As for the story, it's kind of unrealistic, and a bit confusing in places. There's a sort of jump after Luci and her friends find the third clue, and suddenly they're in the science lab. We don't know what the clue was that sent them there (I'm guessing it was the room number, but the text doesn't really say). This is a bit disappointing, because the puzzle is such a big part of the story; it's a shame it ended up glossed over. The ending is also kind of ridiculous, with the kids each receiving their very own robot to program. Luci plans on using hers to basically act as a service dog for her blind grandmother. I don't know if technology is there yet... but I'm fairly certain it wouldn't be found in a cheap robot won as a prize!

That said, I do like the coding aspect. Three concepts--algorithms, loops, and conditionals--are explained clearly through the narrative in an easy-to-understand way. So that's probably the strongest part of the book.

Overall, this is a book with a good premise that could use some work on the technical side, ironically enough. If the writing were cleaned up and made clearer (and the puzzle solution explained), this could be a good book for getting kids interested in learning how to code. I would, however, be sure to explain to kids that they shouldn't expect to be able to program a robot to act as a service animal.

What a great book to introduce kids to coding! STEM and computer science are such hot topics right now. And since our society is only going to grow more in this area I think it is great to have books geared toward young readers discussing these concepts. Plus I like that is also teaches about hardwork and determination. Cute illustrations!

This book was super cute. I loved the illustrations and the engaging storyline. It was insightful, quick, educational and kept me so engaged. I highly recommend this for all kids. Not just coding or science or math fans. It was cute and very educational as well.