I am finding the amount of visitors coming to this blog to be most welcoming. Thank you all for coming. Today i will be looking at two books. I bring up two books instead of one because I wanted to compare and contrast. These books are as follows : Javascript for Kids: A playful introduction to programming by Nick Morgan and Create Working Applications Write Code like a Pro by Sarah Guthals, Ph.D. Looking at these books, I would say that the target audience for these books would be pre-teen to early teens. If I were in the target audience I would reach for Guthals "Write Code like a Pro" because it was much smaller. I would think that it would be much easier to go through. However when I am looking through the text I am seeing that i would go more for the books by Nick Morgan. I have found the Guthals book to be more structured like a formal classroom setting. At the beginning of the book you are given instructions to download a program to follow along and see your work. this sounds good but the book by Morgan shows how you can check your work on Chrome. I feel more independent from Morgan than by Guthal. Both books have colors and images. Both books show the text that make up the source code. The way that they are different is that the images in Guthal's book are exclusively for the corresponding text. The images in Morgans book are more creative and somewhat whimsical. For example I posted images of the text explaning what is camel case. Camel Case is when words in the code can be capitalized and shortened in a way that doesn't follow English grammar but helps the computer follow the program. Guthal has a red stripe and a image that looks like "Tip" is stamped on. Morgan, on the other hand, has a doodle of a camel wearing a fez. Other images do not correspond with the text. For example I do not know why the cover has a happy little kitten sniffing alphabet soup but I find it cute. Conclusion: While both books are for a specific market, both have different moods to it. I feel that Guthal's book is more formal and feels like a class setting. I feel that Morgans book is more informal, like I am reading a teenage student's study notes. Both of the moods can be reflected by the companies that publish them. Guthals book is part of the "for dummies" series and Morgans book is part of "No Starch Press." If you have not heard of "No Starch Press" they release a variety of technology and coding books, some of which include "Steal this Computer Book" which can be found in the "hacking" tab on their website. Either way, both books will help you understand Javascript and how it can help programmers build their site.
2 Comments
Evie
10/4/2018 05:47:44 pm
I love how you chose to compare two titles on the same subject. I recently provided a library patron with two very different titles on Microsoft Office. One only provided black and white photos, and seemed very wordy, while the other provided actual color screenshots of each program and step. Have you seen titles like "Coding Games in Python" by DK? I find there are many titles on coding for youth, some general others very specific types of coding. This title falls in your similar age range (grades 4-7). What do you think is most appealing to youth, coding in general or coding games or projects? Which do you think is more popular, coding in Scratch or Python?
Reply
Joseph Lutholtz
11/19/2018 03:47:56 pm
I really like your comparison between these two books! You do a great job highlighting the points in each and, while I'd be more inclined to favor Morgan's more "beginner-friendly" approach, Guthal's might do well in an academic setting where a teacher could help students work through a problem.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2018
Categories |