TITLE: Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine
AUTHOR: Laurie Wallmark
ILLUSTRATOR: April Chu
PUBLICATION INFO: Creston Books, 2015
ISBN: 978-1939547200
SOURCE: personal copy courtesy of Wallmark
INTENDED AUDIENCE: ages 5 and up (biography)
GENRE: nonfiction picture book
OPENING and SYNOPSIS:
“Ada was born into a world of poetry, but numbers, not words, captured her imagination.”
From the publisher: “Ada Lovelace, the daughter of the famous romantic poet, Lord Byron, develops her creativity through science and math. When she meets Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first mechanical computer, Ada understands the machine better than anyone else and writes the world’s first computer program in order to demonstrate its capabilities.”
WHY I LIKE THIS BOOK: STEM … women … need I say more? This book has been so well-reviewed, I’m a little late to the party. One thing that struck me was how Wallmark introduced the idea of one of Ada’s early inventions — a flying machine — and reintroduced the concept at the end to show Ada’s impact on the world: an early computer program called Ada, which allowed modern machines to fly. It creates a perfect circle and a satisfying read.
RESOURCES/ACTIVITIES:
- Jump on the coding bandwagon! You can write your own computer programs and learn programming basics at Code.org.
- Try more coding in MIT’s Scratch.
- Wallmark’s website has a teachers’ guide and activities.
You’ll find way more cool books at Susanna Leonard Hill’s “Perfect Picture Books.” Every Friday folks review a host of new books. Join us!
Kirsten W. Larson 
Sounds like a good book. Thank you for making me aware of it.
What a powerful book for girls. Didn’t know Ada’s story. For some reason I can’t view the book cover above.
Darn, I’ve been having problems with the images. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll try again. There is another Ada book (maybe 2) coming out soon if they haven’t already.
Thanks for sharing about this book. Does it have a multi-level text? The fascinating History of the Computer Museum has a yearlong exhibit, ending in December, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Ada Lovelace’s birth.
Hi Ruthie! Just one level of text. I am eager to see the other book that has recently come out about Ada as well.
This seems like a really good book! 🙂