Baby Loves Coding!

Baby Loves Science

by Ruth Spiro, Irene Chan (Illustrator)

Big, brainy science for the littlest listeners.

Accurate enough to satisfy an expert, yet simple enough for baby, this clever board book showcases the use of logic, sequence, and patterns to solve problems. Can Baby think like a coder to fix her train? Beautiful, visually stimulating illustrations complement age-appropriate language to encourage baby's sense of wonder. Parents and caregivers may learn a thing or two, as well!

Author's
The goal of the Baby Loves Science books is to introduce STEM topics in a developmentally appropriate way. As a precursor to learning programming languages and syntax, Baby Loves Coding presents the concepts of sequencing, problem solving, cause and effect, and thinking step-by-step. Practicing these skills early creates a solid foundation for reading, writing, math and eventually, programming.

Genres: Picture Books, Science, Childrens, Nonfiction, Technology, Juvenile, Stem

22 pages, Board book

First published June 5, 2018

About the author

Ruth Spiro is the author of the Baby Loves Science series, published by Charlesbridge. These adorably illustrated board books contain expert-reviewed science, yet are simple enough for the very youngest readers. Another new picture book series, Made by Maxine, will be published by Dial in October, 2018.

Ruth is a frequent speaker at schools and conferences, and recent presentations include the Early Childhood STEM Conference at CalTech and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Reviews

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kid loves trains, and this book adds a little learning to the equation. Is she going to be a programmer despite her liberal arts parents? Who knows. Does she enjoy hearing about a train choo-chooing and yelling “STOP” along with the book? Very much so.

[jess ~has abandoned GR~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I see a lot of negative reviews on this series of books, saying that a) that is a far too elementary explanation of this very serious scientific subject! or b) babies can't understand this kind of book! Rahh!

Okay, coming from a mom who works with kids everyday in a library...

These books are great. I love them, my son loves them, your kid will love them. For pre-verbal children, the most important thing is to hear words read aloud to them, and to begin associating books with positive experiences. Literally any book can do this. I remember sitting on my father's lap while he read the newspaper to me. I don't remember anything about the local news from the late '80s, but I remember the positive experience of hearing him read aloud to me.

That's what you're aiming for.

These books are meant to 1) create positive bonding experiences with your child, 2) introduce holding books, turning pages, going left to right, and 3) for caregivers to grin and learn a little something about science. They successfully do all three, and are favorites in my household.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. While I appreciated the introduction of some coding/computer science vocabulary, I didn't love how the concept of algorithm was presented. Computers might solve problems the same way every time, but Baby could choose a different route to get her toy.

[Bronwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute introduction to programming.

[storymamas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The dynamic duo Ruth Spiro and Irene Chan have created yet another amazing Science book for babies and toddlers. Baby Loves Coding explores the beginning ideas of what coding is using a baby and a train. While the book is written for the youngest of readers it still includes some wonderful vocabulary words like algorithm, programmer and code. We love the simplicity the book brings to the complex idea of coding through everyday things that babies can relate to: playing, eating and listening to music. If you haven’t read any of this series be sure to get your hands on one of them; they also make great baby gifts!

[Andy Dremeaux · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is unfortunately a little bit too far away from coding, even for the youngest baby. The use of a simple branching path or loop structure would go a long way in showing the all-important _logic_ that defines programming.

[Kristina · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the better coding board books, but still! Can we let babies be babies? Coding will change so much by the time they are even in grade school. Are we really expecting children to know their colors, ABCs, address, phone number, and coding before they start school?

[⋆.˚ Ariana ᡣ𐭩ྀིྀི · Rating 2 out of 5]

Choo Choo! ‘Twas the last read for my volunteering summer camp.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accurate enough to satisfy an expert, yet simple enough for baby, this clever board book showcases the use of logic, sequence, and patterns to solve problems. Can Baby think like a coder to fix her train? Beautiful, visually stimulating illustrations complement age-appropriate language to encourage baby's sense of wonder. Parents and caregivers may learn a thing or two, as well!

Author's Note:
The goal of the Baby Loves Science books is to introduce STEM topics in a developmentally appropriate way. As a precursor to learning programming languages and syntax, Baby Loves Coding presents the concepts of sequencing, problem solving, cause and effect, and thinking step-by-step. Practicing these skills early creates a solid foundation for reading, writing, math and eventually, programming.

[Marissa Elera · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a worthy addition to the surge in board books featuring STEM topics. Spiro tells a simple tale of a child doing something a real child would do and highlights how the actions and goals of getting and putting a red train car onto the tracks involves an algorithm. Spiro touches on the fact that algorithims helps lots of other things work that directly impact baby's life, such as being able to "listen to music, eat a warm lunch, and play a game". This book's success is in that direct relationship between these advanced concepts and baby's day to day experiences, all done in an appropriate short text length. Plus, those illustrations are too cute!

[Eileen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have liked this book better if it started with "can baby think like a coder to fix her train?" or something of that nature. Instead it ambiguously starts with a train that's "broken" because it is missing a car and baby needs to move to get it. It's only HALFWAY through the book that the authors explain baby's movement is an algorithm and then move on to how that relates to computers and coding.

Our first foray into this particular series and I have to say I hope the others are better. Previously we had enjoyed Future Engineer (which gets at the point from page 1!) and I mistakenly thought this was part of that series.

[Danielle T · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really clever way to conceptualize how coding is instructions to follow a path for an action, and the order in which commands are given.

Consider supplementing with Computer Engineering for Babies and Computer Engineering for Big Babies (which I'll have to belatedly add here on GR because H has handled both of these)

[Cara Byrne · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Baby always follows the same steps to get from the rug to the toy box and back again. This patten of steps is called an algorithm. The train follows an algorithm, too. A tiny computer tells the train what to do."

Like other books in the "Baby Loves" series, I feel like the information is much more instructional to me than to my 14-month-old, but he appreciates the bright and cheery illustrations.

[D Miller · Rating 1 out of 5]

The concept is a good one, but author is failing to understand child development. If these books are for "babies", the vocabulary is not aligned to development and neither are the concepts.
If it is for toddlers or up to 5, then change the title and take the "baby" out of it. This holds true for all of the books in this series.

[Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of my best friends is a coder and he found this book as abstract as I did. I know that future jobs will be in demand for coders, but I don't understand the parents' obession with making kids "code" from birth. In classrooms they play "coding games" (connect the orange block to the green block to get to the blue block) and it's BS to make schools look like they're teaching something valuable.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, which is part of a series of books to make STEM careers seem more appealing to children who are very young. Coding is something that I think a young brain get get wrapped around, and also for girls, gives them the message they can do it before everything else around them tells them they cannot.

[Marti (Letstalkaboutbooksbaybee) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great little library find! Perfect for my husband to read to my toddler at bed time. Love that its an easy breakdown of abstract concepts for little learners. Also love that it’s a brown baby on the cover/in the story!

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute book. It starts of easy enough for baby to understand...taking a set of steps each time, the but then higher level vocabulary words are introduced (programmer, algorithm, language, computer) that are not defined very well.

[Andrés · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love this series, but not this book. The baby steps as an algorithm doesn't make a lot of sense, and it's not a common "real world" occurrence, which this series is known for. From there, the book leaps to a mechanical train and an unseen programmer and "code," which feels very abstract.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good start. Maybe even more helpful for parents, who understand code even less. I read this without my son. I anticipate teaching him by example about the code I create. All in time, though.

[Saoirse M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book! I read it a lot with Mummy and Daddy!

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Original concept; iffy execution. It’s just a bit of a stretch. Using the path to the train as a comparison for an algorithm? It is a nice way to introduce terms, though.

[Fay Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent way to describe algorithms. I really enjoyed this.

[Ad Astra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for learning coding concepts AND colors. Win win

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Huh? What did I just read. Given the targeted audience, this is way too hard of a topic for understanding. There are much simpler topics of science for this age group.

[Kelsie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute book about coding for young minds!

[Margo Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the train but it loses me a bit when talking about algorithms. Maybe some day it’ll make sense. I want to code like my mom.

[Addie · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I like the idea, maybe not the art? Or the execution was a bit off? Either way, 13 month old wasn't into this summer reading pick from library.

[Rachel N. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one doesn't land as well as the others in the series do, but it's still fine.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this little book! The illustrations were adorable. The topics touched on were very well integrated into the story. I thought it was a fabulous little book. I was about to engage my two-year-old while taking the topics a little further with my five-year-old.