Mathematician and Computer Scientist Grace Hopper

STEM Trailblazer Bios / Biografías de Pioneros STEM

by Andrea Pelleschi

Have you ever taken something apart to see how it works? As a child, Grace Hopper took apart five alarm clocks in a row, trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together. As an adult, she joined the Naval Reserve during World War II and worked on the world's first large-scale computer.

After the war, Hopper served on a committee organized by the Department of Defense to create a standard computer language. That language, Common Business-Oriented Language, or COBOL, quickly became popular. How did a curious little girl grow up to become the "Grandmother of COBOL"? Learn how her outstanding innovations changed the field of computer programming.

Genres: Science

32 pages, Library Binding

Published August 1, 2016

About the author

Andrea Pelleschi has been editing and writing children’s books for over 12 years. As an editor, she's worked on everything from coloring and novelty books to picture books and textbooks. As a freelance writer, she’s written primarily nonfiction, but her passion is scifi, fantasy, and paranormal. She has an MFA in creative writing, and The Carousel Ghost is her first novel. Currently Andrea lives in Ohio with her cat Ella, who, unlike her namesake Cinderella, never does any housework.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grace Hopper wrote the first computer manual, developed a compiler, is the “Grandmother of COBOL,” was indispensable to the Navy so she was called out of retirement at 59 to serve 19 more years, won the Defense Distinguished Service Medal and the National Medal of Technology, and earned her MS and PhD in mathematics at Yale.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A picture book-sized biography of Grace Hopper, illustrated with lots of photographs.

A good introduction to who she was, what she was up against as she got involved with the early computers, and what impact she had.

[Will Hampton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a bio. That said much of the story felt missing.