Hello all! I am so excited for my stop today on the Reading Without Walls Blog tour. You can scroll all the way down to check out all the other stops on the tour. For my stop, I got to read three STEM related graphic novels: Secret Coders, Secret Coders: Paths & Portals both by Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes, and Human Body Theater: A Nonfiction Revue by Maris Wicks.
Both Secret Coders and Secret Coders: Paths & Portals by Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes are part of a graphic novel series about a group of kids who are into coding. They mainly star this girl named Hooper who is new in school. She is really into basketball and has a bit of a tough exterior. Hooper does not like her school, but through a series of happenstances ends up making friends with two boys – Eni and Josh. So, anyways, the three students stumble upon secrets relating to their school and make good use of coding.
The two books are incredibly fast reads. I mean, they’re perfect if you have a readathon or a goodreads challenge to beat. They are easy to understand. Also? The graphics and colorization are right on point. I enjoyed how this series thus far makes coding seem accessible to girls and boys and crosses ethnic lines as well. So, if you’re looking for books where girls of color do something , check this series out.
Next up, I started Human Body Theater by Maris Wicks. I am the worst, though, so I haven’t finished it yet. Basically, it is this non-fiction graphic novel narrated by a skeleton. It goes fairly into depth on the human body – even going so far as to describe what molecules we are made out of. I genuinely enjoy this book so far. I mean, I will probably seek out more by Maris Wicks in the future. Also, there’s full colorization and it definitely keeps my attention for sure.
I’m glad for the wave of middle grade STEM books. I especially love that they are inclusive of boys and girls. It reminds me of how much things have changed since I was a kid. Granted, okay, I was a kid in the 1990s and very early 2000s. However, there just did not seem to be a big push at that time for girls to go into STEM fields, nor do I really remember reading anything as cool as Secret Coders aimed at girls. I also love how these books take subjects that I personally find to be overwhelming and hard and complicated and put them on a level that engages and is understandable. Kudos to these graphic novels – I hope they make their way into school libraries across the nation.
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