Secret Coders - by Gene Luen Yang (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Gene Luen Yang is the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and is a MacArthur Fellow, a recipient of what's popularly known as the MacArthur "Genius" Grant.

Welcome to Stately Academy, a school which is just crawling with mysteries to be solved! The founder of the school left many clues and puzzles to challenge his enterprising students. Using their wits and their growing prowess with coding, Hopper and her friend Eni are going to solve the mystery of Stately Academy no matter what it takes!

From graphic novel superstar (and high school computer programming teacher) Gene Luen Yang comes a wildly entertaining new series that combines logic puzzles and basic programming instruction with a page-turning mystery plot!

This title has Common Core connections.

Review Quotes

"Gene Luen Yang's talent is prodigious, his enthusiasm contagious....Even this confirmed technophobe was ready to learn coding." --Katherine Applegate, author of Crenshaw and The One and Only Ivan

"Gene Yang brings computer coding to life." --Entertainment Weekly

"Secret Coders not only uses Logo but also touches on computer fundamentals like binary code and the three major ways that code is organized: sequence, iteration, and selection. By the end of Secret Coders, readers will learn them all, right alongside Hopper and Eni, not as something dry or rote, but something transformative." --Wired

"Gene Luen Yang's talent is prodigious, his enthusiasm contagious....Even this confirmed technophobe was ready to learn coding." --Katherine Applegate, author of Crenshaw and The One and Only Ivan

"Yang and Holmes do such a great job explaining the concepts that even programming newbies will be likely to catch on. A cliff-hanger ending hints at deepening mysteries to come." --Booklist

"Holmes's bold cartoony illustrations are a natural fit for Yang's geeky enthusiasm, and their combined effort offers an enticing first taste of coding that may very well yield some converts." --Publishers Weekly

"An excellent first purchase that introduces readers to the power of computer programming through an engaging graphic mystery." --School Library Journal

"Convincing kids that coding "truly is magic" is Yang's and Holmes's agenda here, and their series opener certainly does the trick." --The Horn Book

About the Author

Gene Luen Yang writes, and sometimes draws, comic books and graphic novels. As the Library of Congress's fifth National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, he advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely. His graphic novel American Born Chinese, a National Book Award finalist and Printz Award winner, has been adapted into a streaming series on Disney+. His two-volume graphic novel Boxers & Saints won the LA Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award finalist. His nonfiction graphic novel Dragon Hoops received an Eisner Award and a Printz honor. His other comics works include Secret Coders (with Mike Holmes), The Shadow Hero (with Sonny Liew), as well as Superman Smashes the Klan and the Avatar: The Last Airbender series (both with Gurihiru). In 2016, he was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.

Mike Holmes has drawn for the comics series Bravest Warriors, Adventure Time, Secret Coders, and the viral art project Mikenesses. His books include the True Story collection (2011), This American Drive (2009), and Shenanigans. He lives with a cat named Ella, who is his best buddy.