What happens when imagination meets science and math? Things, wonderful, wonderful things. Ada grew up in a big house in the country. Much like her father, Lord Byron, she was a creative with a head full of ideas dreamt up by an overexcited imagination. Like her mother, she was interested in science and math. Growing up during the Industrial Revolution was an exciting time for Ada who was fascinated by machines. Socialising with London’s high society at the age of seventeen, Ada was bored by conversations on fox hunting, fashion and idle gossip. A meeting with Charles Babbage and his science and math-minded acquaintances would captivate her. Together, Ada and Charles would create something revolutionary and Ada would forever be remembered in history as a STEM pioneer… An unexpected friendship, a brilliant inventor and a visionary coder make for a fantastic biography that is both a celebration of STEM and of an amazing and significant woman. Beautiful illustrations and a perfectly balanced informative and entertaining narrative depict an incredibly important moment in history as Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer, paved the way for the modern computer programs of the twenty-first century. Ada was the cool computer whizz with a brilliant mind for STEM. In a society dependent on technology, it would be a travesty if children did not know the name Ada Lovelace. Here, Ada gets the recognition that she deserves and children are able to discover an ahead-of-her-time pioneer and familiarise themselves with her work. It is hard to imagine a world without computers but this was the world that Ada existed in yet she had the foresight to envision something that was way into the future. It would be over one-hundred years later that code, that she had wrote, would be used to create the very first computer. If you’re reading this on an electronic device then you have Ada’s brilliance to thank! Ada’s story is coded with imagination, perseverance and following your heart (and mind). Despite following a traditional path-of-the-time that her mother pushed her along - home-schooling, high society, marriage, children - Ada still blazed her own trail, and evidently had an immense amount of fun along the way. Obstacles regularly presented themselves to Ada, including illness that curtailed her life way too soon and having to challenge gender stereotypes - she was only able to put her initials against her work for fear that her ‘Notes by the Translator' wouldn’t be taken seriously if people knew she was a woman, but she still achieved greatness in her field. Detailed back-matter adds a a further layer of interest and includes additional commentary on the work of Lovelace and Babbage, the incredible work at the London Science Museum who tasked a team with building both the Difference Engine #2 and the complex Analytical Engine (this blog from the museum is a worthwhile read), controversy surrounding the rightful author of the infamous Notes, a timeline of important dates, a selected biography and a glossary.
Ada is the role model that STEM-minded girls need. She ignored those that told her what she should or should not be doing, was not afraid to challenge society norms, rather than conforming she pursued her passions and used her genius and her visionary thinking to accomplish great things. Recommended for 7+.
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