November 1, 2019
Gr 1-4-A fact-meets-fiction series that introduces readers to a fictional classroom of kids learning about coding through a robotic classmate, Ro Bud. Each volume has a simple, well-defined focus. Code Confusion! teaches readers that robots only understand binary language. Debugging Disaster! has the class fixing an error in Ro Bud's programming. The class has to clean Ro Bud's programming after it gets a virus in Hack Attack! All the stories are easy to follow and encourage readers to think through the problem along with the children in the books. While Ro Bud is illustrated, the children and teacher are stock photos whose characters have their own distinct personalities. VERDICT Useful books appropriate for most collections. Educators will value these for read-alouds before introducing coding concepts in classroom and storytime settings.
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