Super Questers: The Case of the Missing Memory by Lisa Moss and Dr. Thomas Bernard; illustrated Amy Willcox (QuestFriendz, 2023)
The Eighties were a great time for programming. Spending hours typing in lines and lines of code, eyes smarting from squinting at the minuscule type, fingers jittery from anticipation of the game that would finally emerge (or maybe from the litres of Cola consumed during the process), I was one of those teenagers who grew up glued to my Spectrum 48K (with the rubber keys), who read "Your Sinclair" magazine, and who ADORED programming. I loved Maths too - though it wasn't exactly my forte! - and even when I got to post-GCSE, it was decision maths that was my favourite discipline. Although I wasn't aware of it at the time, I guess the mathematical-logical side of my brain seemed to know what it was doing!
Thirty or forty years may have passed and those Spectrums are now collector items...but programming lives on! It's there, quite rightly, at the heart of the Computing strand of the National Curriculum. For young people from the very earliest age these days to find pleasure in developing perseverance and problem solving is a truly vital attribute to grow. I heard Ian Livingstone (he of Games Workshop fame and mega computing genius) speaking to Nikki Gamble recently. He talked about his experience of school as a young person himself then specifically of his involvement with the development of the curriculum in 2011:
ICT, as was taught at the time, was largely a hybrid of Office skills. Kids were learning Word, Power Point and Excel. They were being taught how to USE other peoples' software but had no insight how to create their own. What that meant of course is that they were effectively being taught how to read but not how to write. And for the world that's being transformed by technology, for them to be operators in this world, [they] have to have an understanding of how code and programming works, even if they don't become programmers themselves.
Enter the Super Questers books...
I am truly delighted to see the second adventure now published in the series - this time, titled "The Case of the Missing Memory". This book, like the previous one in the series, is perfect for every Year 2 and Year 3 child. The bright, colourful illustrations by Amy Willcox (diverse and vitally inclusive) are key in attracting this age of readers. These work beautifully in tandem with the carefully graded puzzles that introduce, with the very lightest of touches, many key programming skills and understanding of the knowledge behind the code; in Quest 5 for example, we have a bit of Decision Maths in the form of the Bake-O-Matic problem (I wish I had got a doughnut sticker when I completed my A-level homework like this!!); while Quest 7 is a full-on programme, so elegantly written that the 'language' is perfectly understood - another example of the brilliant interplay between pictures and puzzles. Ian Livingstone's goal for children, those 'operators of the future', to learn how coding works, really couldn't be in safer hands.
I'm so glad a series like this exists today, that treats young children with the respect they deserve in the field of programming: coding is only complicated when we have our 'grown up glasses' on; kids massively enjoy it and they succeed as a result. Getting such young children, who are moving from the infant to the junior stages, excited and keen on computing and problem solving is absolutely what these SuperQuester books are about and I can't recommend them highly enough!
Before I go, and to whet your appetite for the sort of puzzles in "The Case of the Missing Memory", here's an example of just how approachable and expertly written similar problems are in the books. Leo has a Python programme for you to solve. I'm thrilled that this language is highlighted here - I spend a lot of my Year 6 computing time using Python and the kids love it. Once you've found Leo's object, explain why the remaining objects are NOT the ones he was looking for!
Ahhhhh! Takes me right back to post-dinnertime evenings at my Spectrum, battling with BASIC...except this is even more fun!
Super Questers: The Case of the Missing Memory was published on 28th February. Do support your local bookshop where you can!
Also, you can listen to Nikki Gamble's interview with Ian Livingstone here: https://justimagine.co.uk/podcast/ian-livingstone/
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