GET CODING!

Young Rewired State, an online community of young coders, presents a guide for kids starting online programming.

Readers participate as the coders in a storyline involving a recovered stolen diamond—in each of the six missions, their coding knowledge builds on itself in a natural, efficient progression of skills. Readers first meet the protagonist, white male Professor Bairstone, blue-haired woman of color Dr. Ruby Day (a shoutout to the Ruby programming language common in kids’ coding books), and dog Ernest. In the first adventure, they ask readers to build a webpage about the legendary stolen Monk Diamond and its recovery, using basic Web code HTML with page design via CSS. Next, with the jewel thieves on the heroes’ tails, they ask readers to password protect the webpage and give instructions on how to do so in JavaScript (the basic security’s easily overcome, so readers shouldn’t use it for anything sensitive!). The third mission is building a Web-based app—a to-do list—and the fourth is embedding a map to guide the heroes and the diamond to the museum using Google Maps’ API. Mission No. 5 uses loops to create a reflex-testing JavaScript game for the museum guards, and No. 6 puts everything together to build a full website. Some missions are rather long, but they accommodate thorough explanations of each code element in easy-to-follow step-by-step guides.

A fast, fun way to become a confident, versatile Web coder.