Science Comics: Computers: How Digital Hardware Works

Science Comics

by Perry E. Metzger, Penelope Spector, Jerel Dye (illustrator)

Boot Up! Science Computers is a new volume in First Second's middle grade nonfiction STEM series!

The whole world now runs on computers. They're everywhere, from your pocket phone to your microwave oven. But, what exactly is a computer? How could you possibly build machines that calculate things, play video games, and dim the lights on command? Professor Isabella Brunel, Victorian Era Computer Expert (and a Tyrannosaurus Rex), narrates a screwball comedy romp through the fundamentals of computer architecture. The madcap cast teaches you how these extraordinary devices really work, but the book's real message is technology is not magic, it's created by human beings, and what other people have figured out, you can understand too.

Genres: Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, Science

160 pages, Paperback

Published October 21, 2025

Reviews

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly didn't expect to like this one as much as I did. For one thing, (and the author's immediately called me out on this) I expected the book to be about software not hardware. Writing code, creating video games, etc. The fun stuff!

No, instead Computers is about just that: the wonky boxes filled with chips and other bitty things. The book explains how electricity zip-zapping through those circuits allows the computer to complete processes, which can then scale up to run the software we're more familiar with. Because this is a kids book, it's narrated by a Victorian dinosaur (top hat and all) who recruits another dinosaur to be a living computer, demonstrating how code stores, moves, and retrieves values from memory to achieve a goal. It's fascinating! Computers does a wonderful job of dumbing complex computer science down to a level even I can understand.

After the introductory stuff, the book continues onto more difficult concepts, but all still laid out in as simplistic form as possible. Admittedly, I got lost a few times and I think only the most precocious kids would get much from the book (aside from the dinosaur jokes). But this is exactly the type of book I need to get my brain-juices flowing. Riveting, engaging stuff that makes me feel 10% smarter, even if I could never build a computer on my own.

[libreroaming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science Comics has become a well-known graphic novel series, producing some of the most interesting methods of making information both comprehensive and entertaining to juvenile readers. Unfortunately, this one seems to have run into the problem where the method of teaching said information is not streamlined in a way that children would find engaging. It's an ominous sign when the introduction is filled with "we'll talk about this thing later" warnings because the author couldn't condense the concept of what a computer is without caveats. For example, the narrator's admission that their computer example won't involve electricity because "I don't have to explain how electricity works, which, trust me, would take an entire book of its own" may be true, but it is already established not all computational machines need electricity in the book already. Another comment is in illustrating the binary-designed BRAWNIAC, saying, "we don't have enough room to design the whole thing" which is, again, taking more space out of the book to describe how the narrator can't explain something rather than devoting that page space to simplifying it.

Also worrisome is when many of the characters talk about how tedious or boring the process is, like the poor velociraptor Edna who is forced to simulate a computer's retrieval process using old fashioned card catalogues and an embroidery hoop. Penelope Spector's art is lovely and the concept of Victorian era dinosaurs is a charming illustration theme to follow, but the writing never takes advantage of the limitless potential for images that the artist could achieve so most illustrations are just dinosaurs doing computational math on a chalkboard. Likewise, the images introduce a lot of things before explaining it, such as gate symbols being shown in a diagram and then only later being described what they mean. The small historical pages that involve Boolean or Babbage are nice, but not long enough to really get into their major contributions without resorting to footnotes. And some of the in-character dialogue, like a child t-rex mentioning a Van de Graaff generator, are not explained at all.

The information in this book is accurate and the illustrations are very nice, but this is a rare flop for the high expectations set by Science Comics standards.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

We normally LOVE Science Comics but this one missed the mark for us. I ended up bailing the read together at 25% and finishing the rest myself. I worked as a failure analyst in semiconductor manufacturing for 7 years so have a relatively solid grasp of computers and still found this confusing... as a 30 year old. Maybe a 10+ year old with a strong interest and solid foundation would find this book engaging but my 8yo got bored and overwhelmed with the content very quickly. The victorian dinosaurs were cute though.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC and we look forward to reading more Science Comics in the future (because we DO love them, even if we didn't love this one).

[Villain E · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone who was Dilbert Principled into becoming an I.T. professional, I was looking forward to this middle-grade explanation of computers, hoping I would learn something. But I found this tedious and impossible to follow. I read it out loud to my kids and it didn't hold their attention.

The narrator is constantly repetitive, reiterating things which were said as recently as the previous panel. I had a lot of trouble following any of the explanations. Even the characters in the book got sick of how repetitive and tedious this was.

I like the art, though. Victorian dinosaurs are an interesting choice of narrator.

[Rachel Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I love this series, this one was a bit of a miss for me. The author has attempted to make a very complicated topic more palatable for children (I definitely appreciated our dinosaur characters!), but I don't think we've quite hit that mark. The text read as dry and confusing for me personally. As someone who has no background in computer science, I just couldn't follow.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

[Cathlina Bergman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skimmed. GN that teaches the history of computers and how they work by using a dinosaur narrator. Too wordy for me.

[Andréa]

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.