Independent Reading Level: 3rd- 5th grade
Awards/Honors: Junior Library Guild Selection ( )

"The inspiring story of Grace Hopper—the boundary-breaking woman who revolutionized computer science—is told told in an engaging picture book biography." ( )

In "Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code" we are getting to know a software tester, ace inventor, and avid reader, that goes by the name of Grace Hopper. She is a rule breaking and huge chance taker but also a troublemaker. Throughout the book, we go along with her as she has done what no one has ver done before. Introducing this specific book to the classroom, will have the students engaged with science as well as being a role model. The students will also have math situations that they will catch as reading. ( )

Grace Hopper coined the term "computer bug" and, through coding, was able to teach computers to understand and "speak" English. ( )

I learned a lot while reading this book! Grace Hopper was always very inquisitive, and tinkered a lot as a child. She had a very supportive mother, and worked extremely hard to work through school. I loved knowing that she failed her Latin class, which meant she could not go to college. Instead of letting this be the end of her dreams, she persevered, and eventually was able to get into Vassar. After Vassar, she was only one of two women in her class at Yale. Eventually, she made her way to the Navy, where she worked hard on computer programming, and teaching computers how to "speak English". The term, "computer bugs" comes from Grace, as there was a moth in a computer, which was making the program compute incorrectly. Something I found refreshing about Grace was, she took breaks from math to work on art; I think this is a valuable lesson for kids to learn. Grace was known as, "Amazing Grace", and I think this is accurate. Although she was asked to leave the Navy at 60 years old, they soon realized how valuable Grace was. She returned and worked for another twenty years! This book is very inspiring as well as informational; it reminds children the importance of determination, hard work, and following your dreams. It also reinforces the notion that science, math and computers are for everyone. I would use this book before working on a project that might take students a few tries before they "get it", such as robotics, or building a structure of some sort. ( )