A Female Ahead of Her Time: Ada Lovelace Cracks the Code

Ada Lovelace Cracks the Code, a nonfiction narrative written by Corinne Purtill with the cover and inside illustrations by Marina Muun and the cover lettering by Monique Aimee, is an eye-opening look at Lovelace's perspective in a period of history that changed the course of the world as we know it.  My daughter and I loved reading this book aloud and marveling at Ada's story!

Ada Lovelace was born into privilege since her father was the world-famous poet, Lord Byron.  But she was not interested in that type of life.  She wanted to study math and flight.  Living in England in the early to mid 1800s didn't offer Ada the chance to do it on her own so she made friends with like-minded people.  One person, Charles Babbage, was working on a Difference Machine and Analytical Engine.  Ada helped him with it and foresaw the large number of possibilities it had.

When she alerted Babbage to this notion, he scoffed and told her to keep her imagination to herself.

Due to the lack of respect women had in scientific fields Ada kept her ideas to herself.  She did continue to follow the industrial revolution and was excited about the possibilities these technological breakthroughs could have on people's lives.  Towards the end of her life she took Babbage to the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations.  Readers can study this and other Great Exhibitions to learn about the ideas that we see today.

At the end of the book is a surprising section of coding activities for readers to try based on Ada's computational thinking:

The activities are all written by the Wogrammer organization that aims to increase women's accomplishment in the sciences.  They have a podcast if you want to listen to their topics.

Another notable aspect of this book are the fanciful illustrations sprinkled throughout the text.  Each chapter opens up with clues to the next part of Ada's journey so the reader can infer what could be happening next.

Finally, readers can consider the relationships that Ada formed and how those affected her life.   Starting with her mother and her absent father.  How did those change over the story?  Can readers relate to having adults in their lives push them in one direction that they don't want to explore?  Ada's relationship with Charles Babbage is also one that is relatable to many readers.  How many times have they had to work with someone on a project where they differed in their approach to the task?  Teamwork, collaboration, reaching consensus are all parts of Ada's story that connect to our lives today.  Readers can think about what they would do in Ada's shoes when Babbage refused to see her vision for the machines they were designing? 

This is a must-have book for elementary and middle school-aged readers because it's engaging and offers a real model of a female scientist who pushed against gender norms to pursue her interests. I'm looking forward to reading more from the Rebel Girls series to add to our biography & STEM collections.

 

11 Mathematics-related books for children

As an educator, I want my students to embrace learning and be able to connect it to what they read.  In the books listed below, readers can find how math plays a role in everyday life through different formats: chapter books, picture books, poetry, nonfiction and biographies. 

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty, a middle-grade chapter book. Listen to the author read aloud the first chapter here.  Check out a book trailer for the story:

The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins, is a picture book appropriate for all ages but is ideal for pre-K, 1st and 2nd grades.

Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi: A Math Adventure by Cindy Neuschwander and Wayne Geehan is a middle-grade picture book that is part of a series on math concepts. 

Polar Bear Math: Learning about Fractions from Klondike and Snow by Ann Whitehead Nagda and Cindy Bickel is a non-fiction picture book for elementary-aged children that teaches about math concepts through two polar bears held at the Denver Zoo.

Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain by Cheryl Bardoe and Barbara McClintock is a picture book biography for elementary-aged readers.

More Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School by Louis Sachar is a chapter book aimed for third-graders and up. It is full of mathematical and logical puzzles based on the humorous Wayside School series.

Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy is a picture book that is aimed for kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders.  The story follows a student who is given a homework assignment to measure a pet with different forms of measurement.  

Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith is a hilarious, non-fiction picture book for any elementary-aged reader. It shows how everything in our lives can be turned into a math problem.

Marvelous Math: A Book of Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and Karen Barbour is a collection of math-related poems for kindergarten, first, second, and third graders. Here is an excerpt:

How Much is a Million? by David M. Schwartz and Steven Kellogg is a non-fiction picture book that helps elementary-aged readers visualize big numbers.  Here is a Reading Rainbow episode that features the book:

Calculator Riddles by David A. Adler and Cynthia Fisher is a funny, non-fiction, interactive book that is for third graders and up.  The book contains a number of riddles that can be answered by turning the calculator upside down.

How We Got to the Moon: 3, 2, 1...Liftoff!

In How We Got to the Moon, written and illustrated by John Rocco, the reader is transported to another era.  A time when the impossible became a reality through the hard work of over 400, 000 people.

I think people, including myself, have taken for granted what went into getting to the moon.   Rocco starts from the beginning of the space face with the launch of Sputnik.  What follows are the important people, their ideas, and the establishment of NASA as the foundation of our country's space program. 

Told through beautifully drawn illustrations, text boxes abound this book that feature specific people, women, problems and solutions, as well as diagrams and quotes of those who were working on this complex task.

Growing up with an aerospace engineer as a father, I appreciated all things associated with flight.  I enjoyed the astronaut ice cream, was in awe of the space suit displayed at the Smithsonian and sorrowfully remember the Challenger explosion when I was in elementary school.  This book put all of those memories into context and connected them into the story that takes the reader all the way to the moon.

Even though I knew that the launch would be successful, I still held my breath as Rocco broke down each part of the process, humanizing it and laying the groundwork for today's technological advances.   Saying this is just a STEM book is an understatement.  It is a book for anyone who is infatuated by flight.  Young readers can learn much from the graphics and older readers will learn even more from reading about the journey from start to finish.