Bite-Size Python: An Introduction to Python Programming

One of the most difficult things about teaching kids to code is finding the perfect balance between making the material educational and making it fun and appealing to kids. That’s what’s so special about Bite-Size Python, by April Speight.This book is written to teach kids the basics of coding. It does not require any prior knowledge. A child who picks up this book will be walked through everything they need: from installing Python and related tools, to basic programming concepts, to some engaging activities to exercise what they’ve learned. No adult help or supervision should be required. The lessons are just the right level of detail to stay brief yet informative. The book is perfect for students in the 9-12 year age range.The practice exercises are very high-quality. They involve subjects that should be relevant and engaging for a wide variety of young learners. They’re put into a relatable context: you want to play Mad Libs with your friends; Mariah is trying to randomly pick a green marble out of the bag; kids need to be split randomly into two teams so they can play kickball. These contexts can help kids see the sorts of problems that coding can help them solve, which is important. Not every kid will love coding at first, but every kid will see reasons to use coding to solve these problems. Each lesson simply and clearly demonstrates why the software constructs – arrays, loops, functions, etc. – exist and how they help you achieve your goals.Another important feature of this book is the inclusivity it shows. The internal artwork features kids of different races, genders, and abilities. The book does not talk down to kids or exaggerate how cool and fun coding can be. It’s a straightforward example of why and how you can learn to code.The author, April Speight, is a perfect source of information for this book. She didn’t start out as a software engineer, but found a love for it after college and transitioned into a role as a software evangelist, speaker and teacher. Her path into software is reflected in this book as a plain-spoken approach that teaches what you need to know without being boring. She doesn’t shove coding at the reader, yet shares a love of what coding can help you accomplish. You can learn more about the author at vogueandcode.com.

The book is the first coding publication I LOVE. Being a visual learner, I learn best when the size of the text is large and the critical information is in color. It has been difficult to interpret other publications based on printing black and white text while using single space lines that strain my eyesight and the absence of practice questions at the end of each lesson. This book is PERFECT for all ages. The author keeps it short and straightforward while providing meaningful exercises and review questions according to Bloom's Taxonomy. NEVER have I made a serious commitment to learning Python until now. I purchased many Python books thinking they would motivate me only to toss them on my bookshelf after chapter two. It cannot get any simpler learning Python. The lessons are short and focus on the reader demonstrating (hands-on) the task in return. I enjoy using this publication to learn Python. I have purchased and distributed several copies to a CTE Business Teacher at a middle school, used it as a reference for my engineering academy enrichment camp this past summer, and a female student to encourage her to embrace learning how to code. My goal is to persuade the principal to purchase copies (fifteen minimum) for the learning (media) center while hiring a Computer Science Teacher at my high school.As a CTE Technology Education Teacher seeking to encourage my Engineer students to learn how to code and program, I endorse this publication and challenge the author to publish a sequel that will activate critical thinking skills when using the Python language with a Raspberry Pi or an Arduino kit.

Unlike other python programming books, this one flows nicely from very simple to simple and onward. Since I struggled with other books, I bought a "kids" book. It's great and what I needed. Plain English and easy to follow examples and instructions. I recommend this to anyone, child or adult, who is started to learn programming.

Great book for learning python and easy to follow. A must read!

I paid for a new book and clearly was sent a used copy complete with dirty pages and water damage that makes it hard to separate several pages.

I had an extremely difficult time with programming in college. At that time, only COBAL and FORTRAN existed. JAVA, PYTHON and other languages were not invented yet. I have been going through all the examples in "Bite-Sized Python" and I am of the opinion that this is one of the easiest and best way to learn python for advanced youngsters or oldsters like myself. Every chapter is filled with simple and direct examples that actually work if you type them precisely as you set them in print. Overall, this is an excellent, no nonsense kind of book that gets you to learn without having any fill material to shift your attention elsewhere. It is good that many functions have several examples to explain the function and answer.A minor problem for me was that several functions somehow did not work using Python 3.8 even with all the necessary libraries installed. Tried a different computer and the problem was solved. Otherwise, excellent book that covers most of the major functions you should know without the added fluff. Highly recommended for students and elders like myself. Truly excellent writing and layout and to the point.

This gives kids a great foundation for learning Python and core ideas that they can transfer to other languages. It doesn't provide the in-depths but is a great introduction to programming especially wanting kids to get more into STEM this is a perfect tool.

This is not the book to teach you how to program it with python. This book will introduce the kids to the basics of the python and with the little projects will make them interested in the programming which is really good as it is the future. The book is printed with a bigger font size to make it easy to read and understand. As well there is a wide variety of visual help which I think is very important especially with kids to make them interested in learning something. Overall it is a really good book to introduce kids in phyton programming and hopefully, make them interested enough to learn even more about it.

Very easy to follow and perfect for kids. Does seem to be able to keep them interested in learning a bit of programming.The book gives a general introduction to programming using python but, after understanding the basics, isn't really that hard to apply the same knowledge to other languages.I would recommend it to anyone!

A very well written introduction to Python for children. It teaches at an attainable level without being over-simplistic, or indeed, over-stretching the child. It is clear and well laid out and easy to follow and understand.

This is aimed at kids - in look and the level it's pitched at. It's not going to motivate someone to learn to programme, but it's a great guide for children who are keen to learn and need some help. If they've used scratch (many kids do learn this in school) then this is the next step.I think a child as young as 10 or 11 could use this, but I think when you get to age 13 or 14, this would not really be deemed suitable (as tested by my own 10 and 13 year olds!) as it feels to childish.It starts simple and I think, even though tech moves on, this would still give many of the basic concepts needed to still be useful for a few years.