Little People, Big Dreams: Ada Lovelace; Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara, illustrated by Zafouko Yamamoto

With an absent father and a mother who was often not around, young Ada spent a lot of time at her grandparents house with Mrs Puff the cat for company. With her big imagination, Ada dreamed of flying machines. It would be her love of numbers and ability for solving mathematical problems that would really take flight though and have her go down in history as the world’s first computer programmer…

Ada brings the cool to computing in a life story that shines with perseverance and imagination. Big on girl power, the girl with the mind for maths will empower and encourage other young girls to make a difference in the world of STEM.

As an adult who was born in the 1980’s it is hard to imagine a world without computers, for a child born in the twenty-first century such a thing is an impossibility. However, this was the world that Ada Lovelace grew-up in, one without such technology and where computer code had not been invented yet.

Along with famous mathematician Charles Babbage, Ada not only helped invent a device - the calculator - but developed code that would eventually be used to create the very first computer over one-hundred years later. If you’re reading this on an electronic device, then you have Ada and her creative mind to thank for it.

A visionary she most certainly was, she was creating the language for something that would not be invented until over a century later. Despite many obstacles, including a three-year illness in which she used her time to study and being a woman living in the 1800’s, Ada achieved greatness in her field.

Packaged between mathematical-themed endpapers is a delightfully illustrated story told in short and simple sentences. At the back of the book there is a short overview of her life which includes key facts and dates and a historical timeline featuring photographs.

Recommended for 5+.