Books Teaching Coding to Kids with Gene Luen Yang & Carlos Bueno: October 14th @ 4:00pm

We will be hosting an event to promote two artists’ books “Secret Coders” by Gene Luen Yang and “Lauren Ipsum” by Carlos Bueno. Both books frame the topic of coding in a way that is fun, fresh, and approachable to kids.

In his book “Secret Coders,” Gene Luen Yang, best known for his award winning book “American Born Chinese,” frames the topic of coding in a enigmatic and fantastical school with magic-like properties, all-the-while emphasizing the power and utility of thinking in code. The characters of “Secret Coders” go to a school where the powers of computers and programming rule the land. Like real life, the characters give a computer a command to do what they want but with much more extravagant results as they work through all the riddles and mysteries at their learning institution.

Similarly, Carlos Bueno’s new graphic novel “Lauren Ipsum” attempts the same results—to get kids interested and able to think in code— with whimsical fantasy elements.  This book will not deal with the nitty and gritty concepts of coding, but with the more general ideas and ways of thinking that come with proficient coding. By writing a fairy tale through which Lauren Ipsum must traverse, Carlos Bueno sets up analogous obstacles to concepts that can easily stump coders without the proper mindset.

At Mission: Comics and Art, we aim to promote such books to parents, children, and anyone else who wants to see the young people think in the language of the changing world! Come by and meet, greet, and converse with these two authors, and bring home your own copy of “Lauren Ipsum” and/or “Secret Coders” to open a new world for someone young and inquisitive close to you!