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This book is written by Sasha Ariel & illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton. This book was originally published on June 2, 2017.

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Book Review :

Sasha "Tech" Savvy Loves to Code is written about a young student named Sasha Savvy. This is the story of how she first developed an interest in coding. A high level grasp of the computer language and how programmers use it to create applications, games, and more is given to readers in this book. Sasha's mom, a Software Developer, gives her a unique formula to help her remember how to code but will it be enough to get her through a challenging first day of camp with bugs everywhere, computing errors, that is. The acronym Communicate, Organize, Demonstrate, Express (CODE) simplifies the coding process. Sasha encourages girls to participate in STEM fields and to have the determination to pursue all of their goals in addition to educating them.

A few of my favorite quotes are

““That’s cool Ashley. My mom says when you learn to code, you can make apps and games like the ones we use on our tablets,” says Sasha. “Wow. Really? I wanna make a game!” says Gabby” (Chapter 5).

They walk into the room where the coding class is being held. Each table has a laptop, notebooks and pencils. There are so many girls and they are all different ages” (Chapter 7).

“Sasha, Gabby and Ashley are all super proud. They just finished their first coding program. Their first day at camp is a success!” (Chapter 8)

(Grades 4-6)

Rationale :

The book starts off with Sasha not knowing anything about coding and wondering if she'll like it.  After learning enough information to spark her curiosity, she proceeds to persuade her closest friends, Ashley and Gabby, to join her. Sasha's enthusiasm suddenly fades while she's in the coding class, but she is given the encouragement she needs to gain back her spark. The book Sasha Savvy Loves to Code is enlightening and motivational for students to read. This text is designed to highlight and introduce students to what coding and STEM is, especially to girls who may not see themselves doing so because it is portrayed as a “man’s job”. “Sorry sweetie. That’s just an acronym, a short way of referring to several words using the first letter of each word. “S.T.E.M.” stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Remember, how I taught you an acronym for “C.O.D.E” earlier?” (2017, Chapter 4). The text also further deepens the students' knowledge of coding by teaching them the meaning of the abbreviation CODE, and what it stands for. “The “E stands for Express. When the computer knows how to do exactly what you taught it without any errors, you can share what you’ve created or solved with others. Isn’t that great?” (2017, Chapter 3). The explanations are clear, with talk of ‘semicolons’ and ‘parentheses’ being supported by a well equipped glossary at the back of the book, which covers the necessary basis.This text allows students to consider another role or profession that they may not have originally known or considered, coding. At a young age, this can be a great way to introduce the concept of coding. This text will push girls to consider a career and interest in STEM.

This text has won the 2018 Futurist by The Root magazine, Her Campus 22 Under 22 Most Inspiring College Women, and Pace University 30 under 30 Difference Maker.

The illustrations help emulate that this book is the perfect extension text because they are showing scenarios most students would find themselves in. The book goes through the story of Sasha choosing to go to a Coding Summer Camp, which was outside of her comfort zone. The language choice is also one we see in daily life between parents and children as well as children amongst themselves. Three instructional goals that I would choose to use include knowledge building, visual literacy skill development, and critical literacy.

After reading I would introduce a few fun resources for students to use and learn from. I believe introducing coding in a fun way can spark some interest in students! These resources include :

SCRATCH -  Scratch teaches students to create games, animations, and interactive media. The site encourages students to apply these skills across various academic subject areas.

CODE.org -  Code.org works to reach students of all backgrounds through fun coding activities.

CodeMonkey - CodeMonkey teaches the basics of programming languages like JavaScript and Python through a series of game-based courses.

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This book is written by Margot Lee Shetterly & Illustrated by Laura Freeman. This book was originally published in January of 2018.

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Book Review :

Hidden Figures is a book that highlights four of the most important modeling figures representing the Black Women who aided the United States in the Space Race at NASA. These women include Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden. The book takes us through the stories of each of these women and how they became the women they are so well known for in each their own science careers. The time period is also mentioned with reference to the historical timeline of the space race with facts about the time as well as the inclusion of John F Kennedy and his presidency. This book also highlights the segregation laws that were in place at the time for people of color and women of color in a workplace that was mostly men. Being that this workplace is mostly men, there are also many instances where women are disregarded or are not allowed to participate because they are women, regardless of talent or knowledge. These interactions and separation of men and women in the workplace are shown in the book as well. While the segregation laws are in place when the book starts, the progression of the book shows change in the laws across schools as well as the leaders who influenced and inspired these changes. This book also highlights a few great themes that should be instilled in students such as perseverance, belief, and the art and process of engineering/scientific practices. At the end of the book there is a timeline highlighting all of the historical events leading up to when the women featured in the text worked for NASA.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is “But Dorothy, Mary, Katherine, and Christine knew one thing. With hardwork, perseverance, and a love of math anything was possible”. This quote is very inspiring and emulates the message of the book, that no matter who you are or where you come from you can accomplish anything. The perseverance and story of these women in the workplace is inspiring.

(Grades 2-5)

Rationale :

This particular text is relevant to students because there are many facts about the lives of four African American women who achieved great success in math and STEM fields. These women enhanced the development of rockets for the space race, supersonic aircraft, and warplanes during World War II by NASA and its forerunner. Men landing on the moon and launching a manned rocket are significant achievements in the space program. Southern segregation laws and the civil rights movement. Some great vocabulary words in this text include "aeronautics," "engineer," "orbit," "satellite," "sonic boom," "speed of sound," "turbulence," and "wind tunnel." references to Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, John F. Kennedy, Apollo 11, and Sputnik. This book also puts forth the inspiring message that women of color, and women in general, can succeed in math and STEM fields. Jobs in math and engineering are interesting and help to create essential technologies. Barrier-breakers open doors for others who come after them. Even when society isn't supportive of you, have faith in your talents, skills, and abilities. You can push through any obstacles that are keeping you back. These four African American female math geniuses who made history at NASA are excellent role models. In spite of all the odds, they managed to land positions in a competitive STEM sector that was previously only open to white men, and they relentlessly attacked the obstacles in their way. All four endured severe prejudice, yet they all won widespread respect at work. Their efforts helped produce supersonic jets, helped send a man in space and men on the moon, and notably aided the military effort during World military II.

This text helps students see the unfairness and discrimination caused by segregation. This is presented in an accessible, age appropriate, and engaging way. The book reached number one on The New York Times Nonfiction Best Sellers list and got the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction in 2017.

The language used in this text is spoken in a factual way. This author chooses to tell the story as it was while also providing insight to the injustices placed by segregation at the time for these women of color. The stories of each of these women are briefly told in which they happened and how they overcame these obstacles faced to achieve the feats in their STEM careers. The illustrations are beautiful and show the actions taken, the people involved, and highlight some of the important figures of the time that helped rid segregation for good.

Three instructional goals that I have for using this text include knowledge building, critical literacy, and visual literacy skill development.

I have a few ideas about before, during, and after reading questions to ask my students!

Before Reading:

Discuss the importance of having a chance to have you & your work recognized as important no matter your race, culture, religions, gender.

Before reading, have a class discussion to activate prior knowledge about the work of the forerunner of NASA, the creation of NASA, and how these four smart women impacted some of the early work of NASA. Make a list of student generated responses on an anchor chart or whiteboard.

Frontload vocabulary: math, science, NASA, segregation, space race, human computers, satellites.

During Reading:

What are you learning about Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden…the Hidden Figures?

How did their childhoods impact their education and hopes for their adult life & work?

Do you think that times have changed since the 1960s?

Are there more equitable opportunities for women and people of color to obtain careers in science, math, engineering, and technology? How so?

After Reading:

There is more information in the back of the book about each of the four women. Make a list for each woman that includes their specialty in working at NASA, and what projects they were a big part of there.

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The book is written by Andrea Beaty & illustrated by David Roberts. This book was originally published on September 3, 2013. 

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Book Review :
Rosie Revere, Engineer is about a little girl named Rosie who loves to create and invent her own gadgets. Rosie is an aspiring engineer who has grown up loving to make new inventions for her family and friends. After making inventions her whole life and doing them all successfully, one day she made an invention for her uncle that did not go so well. She failed and the invention backfired. Rosie became embarrassed and no longer wanted to make inventions, afraid she would fail again. Rosie tries one more time to make an invention for her aunt and fails again. She is ultimately defeated until her aunt shares her perspective and how failing is okay, it's all about how you get back up and try again. This inspired Rosie to embrace the mistakes and failures and to use them to make successful inventions.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is“You did it hooray! It’s the perfect first try! This great flop is over. It’s time for the next” (2013, page 25). This quote emulates the message of the book, when you fall down you get back up and try again. This is a great message to teach at any grade level. This can be inspiring for kids who are constantly trying new things and trying to find their niches. It is okay to fail or not do so great, what matters is that we don’t give up after our first try. Another quote in the book that stood out to me is “At Blue River Creek all the kids in grade two build gizmos and gadgets and doohickeys too. With each perfect failure, they all stand and cheer, but none quite as proudly as Rosie Revere” (2013, page 31). This quote ends the book. I love the ending visually showing all the kids in the classroom attempting their builds and that reminder that we can all try and we can all fail. Failure is okay. We can just try again! This page as a whole also shows the wide creativity and differences between students which is accurate in all classrooms. Not all students are the same, each is different and awesome. As well as on the last page, the illustrations of Rosie’s inventions throughout the book showing her vision and inventions come to life are amazing. These really add to the experience of reading the book. This can be used as a whole class read because it is a bit under grade level but it is a very inspiring read!

(Grades 2-4)

Rationale :
This text is potentially relevant to students for two reasons. One reason being that this text provides a great message. This book strives to show that it is okay to fail or not do so great, what matters is that we don’t give up after our first try. The book also touches upon the discussion on the importance of not giving up, trying again, and transforming the common refrain "can't" to "yet". The other reason that this is relevant is because this is inspiring to see that women can do the stereotypical man's job, in STEM or engineering. It shows all students that anyone can do anything if we strive for it and try our best.

This book gives a glimpse of what an engineer does daily. This can be anything from creating machines and gadgets with mechanical parts. This book also showcases the kinds of tools used, including a power drill, protractor, gears, screws, pipe segments, glue, tape. Rosie's Aunt Rose is seen working as a riveter on a plane in World War II. This detail gives a little history about women working to support the war effort in the 1940s.

This book opens up the idea of trying new things, going outside your comfort zone (failure), and creating new things. This could be outside of the comfort zone of most kids at that age.

Rosie Revere, Engineer was awarded the honor of being on the Amelia Bloomer Book List in 2014.

The illustrations in this book were incredibly detailed including historic planes from the early 1900s. The illustrations also made Rosie’s inventions and ideas come to life, including showing her plane, hat, and other earlier inventions. In terms of language, the entire book uses an AABB rhyme scheme. An example of the rhyme scheme is “But questions are tricky, and some hold on tight, and this one kept Rosie awake through the night” (2013, page 17). Highly descriptive language is also used. An example of this language is “The heli-o-cheese-copter sputtered and twitched” (2013, page 21).

Three instructional goals I would have for this book are knowledge building, reading comprehension, and sentence study. Knowledge building would come from the history within this book of what an engineer is and what one does. Another aspect of knowledge I would want my students to acquire would be the background of the women who contributed to World War II history. Reading comprehension comes from some of the highly descriptive figurative language used in this text. Some words are larger adjectives that may or may not be in a 4th graders vocabulary. Lastly, sentence study would be done with the sentence structure they are seeing (AABB Rhyme).