How to Code: A Step-By-Step Guide
By Max Wainewright
Become a master coder, with these step-by-step instructions and robot helpers too! Learn how to use Logo, build games in Scratch, program projects in Python, experiment with HTML, and make interactive web pages with JavaScript.
Published: October 2016
Computer Coding Projects for Kids
By Carol Vorderman
This colourful illustrated guide uses step-by-steps to show kids how to build a range of projects, from birthday cards to music and games, using the programming language Scratch. Projects can be personalised and adapted to encourage creativity.
Published: July 2016
Coding iPhone Apps for Kids
By Gloria Winquist and Matt McCarthy
Swift is Apple’s iOS programming language that’s designed to be beginner-friendly and accessible. Learn the fundamentals of programming with Swift and Xcode. Then you’ll put your new programming skills to use and make fully-functioning apps
Published: February 2017
Kids Get Coding
By Heather Lyons and Elizabeth Tweedale
This book will help budding young developers explore the fundamental elements of computer code: programming languages, algorithms, loops, variables, co-ordinates. You can then try out new skills on the companion website.
Published: August 2016
Computers and Coding
By Anna Claybourne
From Discovery Kids, Computers and Coding has 300 stickers to make your own code and computer characters! Discover the world of computers and complete activities and puzzles along the way. Then get programming with the building blocks of computer coding.
Published: November 2016
Writing Computer Code
By Chris Minnick and Eva Holland
This book serves as a guide to help you start writing in the odd-looking languages that make the web work. Follow simple steps as you work with real code to build, customise and operate your own web robots.
Published: June 2016
Learn to Program with Minecraft
By Craig Richardson
If coding and Minecraft are great activities on their own … just think of the possibilities if you combine the two! ‘Learn Python with Minecraft’ is a fun, interactive introduction to programming in the popular Python language that will teach you how to customise Minecraft Pi, a free version of the popular game that runs on the tiny Raspberry Pi computer.
Having taught coding at high school and worked for the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Richardson really knows his stuff. He’ll get you started with short, simple Python lessons and use your new skills to modify the game for instant results. You’ll write code to trap enemies, teleport, super jump, turn boring blocks into gold, make blocks magically move on their own, turn swords into magic wands, design colour-changing disco dance floors, and build secret passages and forests.
You really will transform your world with the power of Python. Fans and newcomers alike will learn how to make the Minecraft world their own, while learning programming basics that will come in handy in Minecraft and beyond!
Published: December 2015
Raspberry Pi Projects For Dummies
By Mike Cook, Brock Craft, Jonathan Evans, and Aaron Shaw.
The arrival of the high-on-engagement, low-on-price Raspberry Pi has opened up a whole new world of programming innovation. ‘Raspberry Pi Projects For Dummies’ makes sure you make really good use of these devices with a stack of practical challenges.
Featuring a variety of hands-on projects, this easy-to-understand guide walks you through every step of the design process and will have you creating like a Raspberry Pi pro in no time. You’ll learn how to prepare your workspace, assemble the necessary tools, work with test equipment, and find your way around the Raspberry Pi. Then it moves onto a series of fun, lively projects that will bring your Pi to life, from creating a magic light wand to enhancing your designs with Lego sensors, installing and writing games for the RISC OS, and building a transistor tester.
The authors introduce the Raspberry Pi basics and offer a hands-on approach to understanding all the essentials you’ll need to take on your first project. This book suits innovators of all ages and will add the power of Pi to your coding journey … guaranteed!
Price: NZD$30.33 – Order now
Published: August 2015
JavaScript for Kids:
A Playful Introduction to Programming
By Nick Morgan
JavaScript for Kids is a fun, easy-to-understand introduction for teachers and students (ages 10 and up) to JavaScript, the programming language of the internet.
Morgan – a front-end programmer at Twitter – takes a light-hearted approach to teaching programming essentials through patient, step-by-step examples combined with amusing illustrations. Beginning with the basics, like data types and variables, arrays, objects, conditionals, and loops, you’ll move on to more advanced topics, from building interactivity with DOM and jQuery to making things move on the Canvas. Along the way, you’ll write games, such as Find the Buried Treasure, Hangman, and Making a Snake.
You’ll also learn how to create functions to organise and reuse your code, write and modify HTML, program real user-controlled games with collision detection and score keeping, and more.
With visual examples like bouncing balls, animated bees, and racing cars, you can really see what you’re programming. Each chapter builds on the last, and programming challenges at the end of each chapter will stretch your brain and inspire you to make your own amazing programs.
Published: January 2015
Published: September 2014
Adventures in Raspberry Pi
By Carrie Anne Philbin
Want to give coding a try but don’t know how to start? ‘Adventures in Raspberry Pi’ will provide the helping hand you’ve been looking for. For starters, it’s easy to read and understand – not dumbed down but simply pitched at an understandable level. It’s aimed at 11-15 year-olds and uses the Raspberry Pi device to explain and the basic principles of computer programming.
Following an intro to what Raspberry Pi is all about, there are nine chapters – engagingly titled as ‘Adventures’ – that walk the reader through specific projects (one per chapter). It begins with the very basics of how to plug in the board and turn it on, through to more complex tasks like using Python, programming Minecraft worlds and building a Jukebox.
This is definitely a ‘hands-on’ book. The explanations and instructions are clear and well illustrated. Each project also includes an instructional video so you can jump right in and get you up and running really quickly.
Price: $26.78 – Order now
Published: February 2015 (2nd Edition]
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