ZEROES AND ONES: The Geeks, Heroes and Hackers who Changed History

by Cristy Burne

This non-fiction middle-grade book is about the creators of today’s digital technologies; the coders, the crackpots, and the trailblazers. It’s about failure and despair, dedication and daring. But most of all, it’s about what ordinary people can do with some creativity, determination, and a whole bunch of zeroes and ones.

Paperback

Published August 1, 2018

About the author

Cristy Burne is an internationally published award-winning children’s author working on the intersection of story, science, technology and creativity.

Cristy has worked at CERN (home of the Large Hadron Collider!), at Questacon (as part of a science circus!), and in a ute (as a rubbish collector!). She has also bungee-jumped, sky-dived, back-packed, and exploded sewage on her neighbour.

Cristy’s books have been shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Book Awards and the Wilderness Society’s Environment Award for Children’s Literature, won the WA Young Readers Book Awards, and been recognised as Notable Books in the Children’s Book Council of the Australia awards.

Cristy’s latest titles include Fiona Wood: Inventor of Spray-on Skin, Beneath The Trees, and the co-authored Wednesday Weeks science-meets-fantasy series of comedy adventures.

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aimed at a middle grade audience, I found this book fascinating. From the earliest days of computing in the 1800s until now, Zeroes & Ones is a fascinating look at the evolution of computers and the Internet.

I found events through the 1980s and 1990s particularly interesting as it brought back memories of our first computer at home, the campaign to get an Apple IIe computer for school, early websites, and more.

For young readers who are interested in facts, history, computers, and coding, this is a fantastic book for them to read. It should it be in libraries everywhere.