As I pointed out in my notes on the Educational Writers Awards, I’ve had only the briefest of time with this book. Nevertheless, even two or three minutes is usually enough to enable one to decide whether a book is worth further exploration, or if it should be cast into the nearest bin. I’m happy to say that the former proposition is true here — as should be evident from the fact that the book made the shortlist!

Jim Christian’s How to think like a coder (subtitle: Without even trying) covers a range of topics in an easy-to-read but well-explained way. It’s claimed to be “A back-to-basics guide on coding for absolute beginners, whether adults or children”, although from the short time I had looking at it I thought it seemed written and designed for primary school children.

Mind you, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s not so child-friendly to be positively off-putting to an adult, and it looks a lot less daunting than the usual tomes in this area.

I have a slight objection to the word “coder” in the title: I think “programmer” would have been preferable. Still, given that many (lay) people talk about “coding” it’s probably a good marketing move.

If I am able to see a review copy of the book I’ll be able to say more about it. In the meantime, I suggest checking it out for yourself on Amazon, where you can see extracts from it, or on the publishers’ website, where you can read more about it.