Everything You Need to Ace Computer Science and Coding in One Big Fat Notebook (Workman Publishing) {Review}

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

My entire childhood is filled with summer and after-school memories of Brain Quest. When I discovered some materials in a series called The Complete Middle School Study Guide and saw how colorful and interest-based all the books were I had to start buying them. My oldest student is on the cusp of middle school as she finishes up her fifth-grade studies and she has already started working on some materials for sixth-grade in our homeschool. Already, she loves this series. When I heard a new book was being added to the series, I was delighted! Through the blessing of the Crew, we were able to get a copy to review of the Everything You Need to Ace Computer Science and Coding in One Big Fat Notebook. Now, we own the entire set of six books from American History, World History, Science, Math, English Language Arts, and now Computer Science and Coding. What a great way to start out the next school year! (Or even preview a bit over the summer!!) Workman Publishing always has the best educational additions to our bookshelf.

Everything You Need to Ace Computer Science and Coding in One Big Fat Notebook is a great addition to our bookshelf for learning about STEM. Especially for my older daughters heading toward that middle school level.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is the hot topic of education for the last few years and as I am married to an Enginerd, I appreciate the opportunity to encourage my children to learn the basics of the subject. As a blogger, I have found myself learning the highlights of coding and HTML but not to an extreme extent. I am fond of this series and I think it will be a good summary of the materials for my daughter to learn. The Big Fat Notebook Series has over four-million copies in print and it is expected that the Computer Science and Coding book may even out par the Science and Math books eventually as the next important STEM companion. The format of this book matches the others as on lined notebook paper as if you are indeed getting to delve into the notes from the smartest kid in class.

In addition to my daughter reading through the beginning of the book, I had my Enginerd husband sit down and look at it. He is a Georgia Tech degreed Mechanical Engineer that works in the biomedical field of research and design in engineering. It is his opinion that this book is very straight forward and easy to comprehend. He said it does not teach, but reinforces materials to help understand computer science. As the back cover copy claims, it makes all the stuff you learn in school “sink in”!

These books are flex-cover bound with each one a great vibrant color. The Computer Science and Coding book is purple. The interior of the book is full color, 566-pages of handwriting style font with highlights, underlines, amusing illustrations to help get the point across. One of the things that I love about this series of books is not only the information that it portrays to the student but the fact that it is an excellent example of how to take notes. Vocabulary words highlighted in yellow. Definitions set aside in boxes. Important detail written boldly in blue and main ideas underlined. With doodles and illustrations to help with memory.

I love this book overall for the introduction to computer science and coding. As we are reading other books about people who grew up to change the format of how we interact as people in our cultural age, it is exciting to also read in a bit to what the actual science is. Grace Hopper is an interesting historical person as the “queen of computer code” and being able to see a bit of what she was so passionate about makes the subjects of study even more interesting. Computer systems, binary code, algorithms, computational thinking, loops, events, procedures, programming, SCRATCH, PYTHON, Boolean expressions, web development, cybersecurity, HTML, CSS, and on and on… many things are briefly highlighted and provide a great introduction.

Connect with Workman Publishing on social media:

Facebook: facebook.com/workmanpublishing/
Twitter: twitter.com/workmanpub
Instagram: instagram.com/workmanpub
Pinterest: pinterest.com/workmanpub
YouTube: youtube.com/workmanpublishing

#hsreviews #BigFatNotebooks #BigFatNotebook #EverythingYouNeedToAceComputerScienceAndCoding

Workman Publishing is helping us to include more computer science in our homeschool with their Everything You Need to Ace Computer Science and Coding in One Big Fat Notebook. However, we are not the only family currently reviewing this new release. Many other families on the Crew also are sharing their opinions this week. Make sure to click through the banner to see what others are thinking as well.