Secret Coders

Secret Coders #1

by Gene Luen Yang, Mike Holmes (Illustrator)

Welcome to Stately Academy, a school which is just crawling with mysteries to be solved! The founder of the school left many clues and puzzles to challenge his enterprising students. Using their wits and their growing prowess with coding, Hopper and her friend Eni are going to solve the mystery of Stately Academy no matter what it takes!

From graphic novel superstar (and high school computer programming teacher) Gene Luen Yang comes a wildly entertaining new series that combines logic puzzles and basic programming instruction with a page-turning mystery plot!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Middle Grade, Comics, Mystery, Childrens, Fiction, Science Fiction

88 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2015

About the author

Gene Luen Yang writes, and sometimes draws, comic books and graphic novels. As the Library of Congress’ fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, he advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely. American Born Chinese, his first graphic novel from First Second Books, was a National Book Award finalist, as well as the winner of the Printz Award and an Eisner Award. His two-volume graphic novel Boxers & Saints won the L.A. Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award Finalist. His other works include Secret Coders (with Mike Holmes), The Shadow Hero (with Sonny Liew), Superman from DC Comics (with various artists), and the Avatar: The Last Airbender series from Dark Horse Comics (with Gurihiru). In 2016, he was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. His most recent books are Dragon Hoops from First Second Books and Superman Smashes the Klan from DC Comics.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yang's book is for math and computer science geeks, a book for maybe tweens and middle schoolers about a girl, Hoppers, and her friend Eni, students at Stately Academy, who figure out something about the janitor's robot--who looks suspiciously like a Teenaged Mutant Turtle (cute?!)--through computer binary coding. There's a mystery about this school that requires two crack computer programmers. This is the first volume of the series, and will be entertaining for kids. If my tweens love it I might bump up the rating a notch.

Gene Yang was recently named by the Library of Congress as its Ambassador of Young People's Literature, which is especially cool for a comic books guy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/04/boo...

Here is his inaugural address, which reveals his passion and his silly sense of humor, perfect for graphic novels for children and young adults.

http://boingboing.net/2016/01/08/gene...

Until recently he taught computer science for seventeen years in a Catholic High School in Oakland, while winning the Printz Award for American Born Chinese, and doing a lot of other great comics. This one is for somewhat younger kids, seems like. And, as I said, math/computer science junkies.

A video by Gene Yang pertaining to Secret Coders (how to binary code, narrated by him):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhqp-...

I liked it. I'm not particularly interested in computer coding or math, as an English guy, but I am glad he has set as his goal to support and encourage more YA texts about math, science, and technology. I have been an advisor for a couple years on a cryptography project, bringing together the history of math and comics, so I am passing this along to my math friends. Pretty cool stuff.

[Caryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one with my son, and after we finished, he went to the secret-coders website, watched Gene Luen Yang's video, downloaded the UCBLogo program, and did one of the coding exercises. He's psyched, and can't wait for the next book!

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whenever I see Gene Luen Yang has a new book out I get all giddy with excitement. And he has done it again and brought us something completely different and unique. The beginning of a new series "Secret Coders" has secrets, strange goings on and creepy staff at a private school that looks more like a haunted house. What makes this book so fun and novel is its interaction with the reader. Software coding is the topic of the day and Yang weaves this through the first volume by having the characters learn through puzzles and logic reasoning. Before the characters are told the answers to the puzzles and riddles they (and the reader) are asked to solve it themselves. (This is within the narrative of the story; it's not a puzzle book that you write in or anything of that sort). This first book in the series teaches binary code then moves on to the concept of coding being a set of commands. It's truly engaging and the plot involves strange birds with 4 eyes, a robotic turtle, a mysterious blue-skinned man, an evil janitor and the main character's father suddenly abandoning his family. The book ends with an unsolved puzzle leaving the reader waiting for the next book.

[Donalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfect for Maker Spaces

[Andrew Blok · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an extreme enthusiast/sucker for anything written by Gene Yang, I sort of expect to have my life changed in deep, fundamental ways every time I open one of his books. This book didn't do that, but it was still fun and delightful and I'm very glad to have read it. The biggest difference from his other work (what I've read) is that this book serves as a story (the characters obviously have depth and their relationships are interesting), but it also serves as an introduction to computer coding. I think it works for both (I'm excited to read the next in the series and any that come after and I can write 1-15 in binary), but because it's doing both, the story is mostly fun with out the emotional heft of his other novels.

(Editor's Note: I don't mean this to be criticism. I know it's not supposed to be Boxers & Saints 2.0. It's still really fun AND educational. Win-win.)

[Jean-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have child in a late elementary grade (around 3rd through 5th) and you want to introduce them to "coding" but don't know where to start, get this book. This graphic novel presents the idea of coding and programming in a very approachable way. I love how the story ties STEM concepts into a fun "to be continued" mystery. We're looking forward to reading Secret Coders #2. And when I say "we" I mean my 6th grader who has a couple of years of coding with Logo programming language under her belt, my 3rd grader who just started working with Logo this year, and me.

Also, check out the complementary website for this graphic novel series: http://www.secret-coders.com/

[Ashlee Tominey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly just picked this up because I have never read a Graphic Novel and because the topic interested me. I read most of it while my son was playing in the library. I liked the mystery and challenging myself to know what to do next. I still think I have a ways to go in my appreciation for Graphic Novels. I kept racing through the pages for the text and had to remind myself to slow down and look at the illustrations.

[First Second Books]

We're all big fans of Gene Luen Yang here at First Second, and it's really impressive what he's done in this book -- taking computer programming and turning into an actual narrative story, a la Encyclopedia Brown.

The story is still fun and interesting and crazy (and full of mysterious-school-mad-science problems to solve!), but at the same time, you learn how to count in binary and the basics of how programming languages work.

And there's more story still to come -- the next volume will be in stores next August.

Mike Holmes' art tells this story in the classic greens of the computer screen, in a really fun and dynamic way.

[CraftyChara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot about coding.

[Wendi Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I often go into reading without an idea of what the book is about (especially when I'm at the library or bookstore, and my toddler is giving me literally ten seconds to choose something). So, ahem. I thought this book was about tween decrypters. That sort of coding (or decoding). I am the least math oriented person, so finding out this book was about coding distressed me. I yelped about it to my partner, who is an amazing programmer, and thought I was being hilarious.

So anyway. I couldn't code any of the things in the book to discover the mysteries. No matter how much I tried. I did like the parts of the graphic novel I understood- girl goes to a new school and she tries to find out what mysterious things are happening there. The kids are diverse, and I was interested in learning about Hopper's family.

I have high hopes that my kids will get into coding when they're old enough, and they'll fall in love with this book. But alas, it's not for me.

[Kayla Leitschuh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this fast-paced graphic novel! Two unlikely friends band together to solve the mysteries at their crazy school while teaching themselves (and consequently the reader) basic computer coding skills.

[Abby Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really liked this book and I think I would have dug it when I was around Hopper's age. I remember doing some coding in BASIC when I was right around her age. The story explains some basic computer programming principles like how numbers are represented in binary and how computers follow programming commands. I think kids who are interested in that sort of thing but don't yet know much about it will get a kick out of it. The story does suffer from first-in-a-series-dom and it ends with a huge cliffhanger that'll have kids clamoring for the next book.

This may not be for everyone, but I think a certain subset of our Minecraft-obsessed patrons will really dig this.

I checked out the website the book points to for more coding fun, but at least at this time (August 2015), there's not a lot there? Maybe there will be more added closer to pub date.

[Lauren Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book awhile a go, when I was in elementary school. At the time it felt like a book that you would read and afterwards you would feel like ‘hmm, I don’t think I gained or loss any knowledge’. The story just didn’t connect to me, all the characters felt under developed especially Josh and Hopper. I am also a young student who happens to be female like Hopper but, nothing felt REAL. The sad thing about feeling like I didn’t gain knowledge is that I still feel like that, it’s not like a month later I was like wow I finally get what the story was telling me. To me it’s a book that you don’t need to read anytime soon, a throwaway book, a waste of a spot on your bookshelf.

[Jenny (knasentjej) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute story of a girl who starts a new school and somehow makes friends with a boy. They start to look into the mysterious numbers around the school building and they find a robot turtle and the mystery thickens.

I like the story and the girl is cool. It's going to be fun to continue reading the story.

[Jason]

I was just starting to *really* get into it and it ended!! When's the next one coming out?

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun way to introduce binary numbers and coding, but don't read unless you've got all six volumes - it ends with a real cliff-hanger.

Loved the characters and the art

[Karis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book, would recommend for a younger reader.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this! It’s a great combination of a simple plot line (involving a creepy school with a secret, evil principal, and mysterious identity of a character’s parents) and some introduction to binary and the basics of computer coding. I haven’t checked out the Secret Coders website, but this is much more rudimentary than a drag and drop module of Scratch, but could eventually get complicated quickly. Great potential.

Kids will love the plot, and if they like puzzles, codes, mysteries, secret agents and map stories, etc. then they’ll like the coding bits, too. The characters have a LOT of attitude towards authority figures, but it’s believable for the age range and genre. It reminds me of one of those kids’ cartoons on PBS or one of those “educational” computer games from when I was growing up. Definitely recommend.

[Maria Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hopper starts at a new school, which is hard enough, but throw evil janitors and robot birds into the mix and things get even harder...

Gene Luen Yang is great, so it's no surprise that I loved this book (also I finally understand binary code???). As someone who grew up just before coding became a trendy thing to teach kids, I appreciated this book's explanations of how coding and binary work. I'm curious if kids who grew up with coding games will find it pedantic. Either way, this book is super fun, the math/coding puzzles were enjoyable, and I wish I didn't have so much other reading assigned because I want to read the next one and see what happens next!

[Shenwei · Rating 5 out of 5]

a fun, creative, and interactive way of introducing kids to coding. The coding aspects are embedded and integrated into a broader storyline following a biracial Chinese American girl who moves to a new school (where her mom teaches Chinese), only to discover that her school is hiding incredible and dangerous secrets. learning binary numbers and practicing basic programming skills is key to the progression of the story and unlocking the mysteries behind Stately Academy.

[Jennifer Bacall · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely flawless tool for introducing the concepts of coding to children. Fun story with cliff hanger chapters that the children are encouraged to solve. Look at the website for more tips on teaching coding. Cheers to Gene Luen Yang for integrating the appealing medium of graphic novel with the integral introduction to coding!

[Isatta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Secret Coders is a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, who is slowly but surely become a favorite of mine. This graphic novel appears to be an introduction to coding. I would consider it the dumbed down version of coding for dummies, if you will. I enjoyed it, it was a very informative yet entertaining graphic novel. It was an easy read and it did have some chuckleworthy moments.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting type of book. It's a graphics novel geared to teach the reader the basics of coding. The plot is a bit zany, but it is meant for kids and I'm not expecting an essay on binary codes. It was short read and ended in a cliffhanger and a problem to solve. Not sure if I can solve it lol.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

For late elementary school/early middle school. I like the concept of explaining a topic (such as coding) through the vehicle of a graphic novel, as opposed to a typical informational text. Characters were quirky and the book was informative, but just couldn't really get into it.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was cool. A graphic novel properly infused with a whole load of coding. I think this will go down a treat at school. A mysterious new school, a turtle robot and a strange janitor... whats the secret the school is hiding and can Hooper solve it? Yes for girl coders!

[Ramsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great comic book that can teach the future programmers of tomorrow!😀

[Becky Loader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh. My. Gosh.

I was obsessed with numbers when I was growing up. I would have eaten this series for breakfast and read them all by evening.

Like coding? Who wouldn't after reading this??

[vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was kind of surprised by how much I enjoyed this short graphic novel. There is a mystery set in a creepy school with strange adults in charge. There is also thoughtful coding activities and great gasp-worthy plot reveals. This ends in a cliffhanger and I’m interested in the second volume!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a PBS version of a graphic novel. A little heavy on the STEM emphasis, a little thin on plot. Good for kids, though.

[Ardyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super fun for both kids and adults! The binary number system will never confuse you again.

Also, our 8yo has read the whole series (six volumes) at least five times in two weeks.