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Computing, Gaming & Coding

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Children’s books about gaming, computing and coding

We’ve put together a list of books for young readers interested in computers and video games. There is an increasing thirst for books on this topic, which holds such a high interest to many young readers. Level up your reading collection with our selection of the best books about gaming, computers and coding.

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Books about gaming

Ruth Morgan
Chapter book

Designed to appeal to children with a love of gaming, Ant Clancy: Games Detective is a fast-paced adventure story that could be enjoyed by any reader who likes an action-packed mystery story. Ant is the only person in Westford Abbey who can’t get into playing Ray-Chay, the new virtual reality game that everyone else is obsessed with. Soon something goes very wrong with the game, which somehow spills over into real life, and Ant is the person who will get to the bottom of what’s happening and try to put things right. As the story unfolds, the line between the gaming world and reality is blurred even further in the race to uncover the truth.

David Baddiel
 & Jim Field
Chapter book
Fred and Ellie are twins who love video games. One day a Mystery Man sends the twins a mysterious-looking video game controller that gives them control of real-life people. Witty and fast-paced, David Baddiel spins a winner of a story for gaming fans.
Ross Welford
Chapter book

Georgie Santos loves dogs more than anything in the world. Soon, Georgie is no longer allowed to see her beloved pet Mr Mash after he becomes sick with a deadly and highly contagious disease that threatens the life of every dog in the country. The only thing distracting Georgie from the pain of not being able to see Mr Mash is her new friendship with Dr Pretorius, an eccentric old scientist who is developing a curious virtual reality project inside a domed room. As time goes on and the deadly disease becomes even more serious, Georgie begins to wonder whether Dr Pretorius might hold the key to changing the future and, together with her beloved Mr Mash, embarks on a hair-raising virtual adventure to save the world.

Jon Claydon & Tim Lawler
Chapter book

This Top Gear spin-off is a fast-paced action story featuring cars, computer games, an evil billionaire, racing tournaments and of course, The Stig. The appeal will be obvious to some readers, but even readers with no experience of Top Gear can quickly become absorbed in this page-turning adventure full of twists and turns.

Sam Wheeler is new to his town, and nobody else seems to notice the strange goings-on there because adults and children alike are addicted to a mysterious new computer game called Xenon. Together with his new friends Mini Cooper and Ford Harrison, Sam begins to investigate the strange happenings and save his town from disaster.

Chris Bradford
 & Andres Frang
Chapter book
Street kid Scott jumps at the chance to be a Virtual Kombat gamer. If he can battle his way up the ranks, the ultimate prize will be his. But then his friend Kate goes missing in the battle arena, and Scott's dream turns into a nightmare. A sleek new edition of the first book in Bodyguard author Chris Bradford's action-packed dystopian trilogy. Particularly formatted for dyslexic readers in KS2.

Thomas Flintham
Graphic Novel

Press Start! is a series of books aimed at readers who are ready for their first chapter books or those who feel overwhelmed by longer chapter books.

‘Game On, Super Rabbit Boy’ is set in the game of Super Rabbit Boy Land, a platform game that is activated when the boy in the story presses start. For this book, Super Rabbit Boy has to save Singing Dog who has been captured by the game’s main enemy, King Viking. Once he starts the rescue, he is faced with the challenge of successfully completing six levels of increasing difficulty with only limited lives. As the game progresses, failure occurs and Super Rabbit Boy has to learn from his errors as he restarts a level. He has to remember what he has learned, apply his new knowledge, overcome his fears and go for the win. Not only must Super Rabbit Boy not give up, but nor should the boy who is playing the game – the theme of resilience and perseverance is very strong and would suit classroom conversations about not giving up.

Children who love gaming would very likely be attracted to the book – it reflects the visual style of Minecraft of Roblox, but it will appeal to a wide audience because of the level of detail, bright colours and range of illustrations page after page. The speech bubbles, relatively simple sentences, repetition and short paragraphs will make this work well as an independent reader for the more confident, as well as a shared reader.

Tom Nicoll
 & Anjan Sarkar
Chapter book
Videogame-obsessed Flo and her best friend, Max, get more than they bargained for when they find themselves INSIDE their favourite games!Having successfully battled spaceships, Max and Flo are excited to return home. But when they wake up, they’re in Max’s favourite game, Blocktopia. The friends are accepted into a city, where they are protected from the dangerous monsters that attack daily. Max is in his element – creating increasingly elaborate buildings – but Flo just wants to go home. Then she uncovers a secret. A secret which might just be the key to escaping the game…
Helen Harvey
Chapter book
Emmy is brilliant at the computer game, Illusory Isles. Her avatar is a powerful fire elemental with magma claws and flaming breath. When Emmy's gaming video gets a front-page feature, thousands of devoted fans flock to watch her battle the ultimate online baddie, the Mulch Queen herself. Life at school is the exact opposite. Emmy is friendless and bullied by Vanessa AKA the Queen of Mean. To Vanessa and her gang, Emmy is a weirdo with bad handwriting, horrible fashion sense and no dad.But if Emmy can take on the Mulch Queen online, perhaps she can also find a way to take on Vanessa too? Emmy decides to level up and solve this challenge alone. But then Emmy discovers that Mulch Queens and Mean Queens are much easier to face when you have a little help from new friends...

Books about coding

Sophie Deen
 & Anjan Sarkar
Chapter book

Agent Asha is a clever and engaging story that weaves computing knowledge – such as how the internet works and if/then logic – into the story. Asha is from an Indian family in Brent and her family are delighted when she visits the library – supposedly to study. Little do they know that she is actually getting involved in a secret spy mission! She triumphs in this secret mission with wit, intelligence and a little dash of disobedience.

Malorie Blackman
Chapter book

A cyber-crime thriller from the former Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman. Vicky’s father is sent to jail for stealing a large sum of money from the bank and she sets about to prove that he is innocent. Using her brilliant computer skills, Vicky decides to hack into the bank computer files to find evidence of the truth about the real thief.

Aimee Lucido
Chapter book

Suitable for Upper KS2/Lower KS3, this is a verse novel about an American girl called Emmy who tries to figure out the ups and downs of life while balancing her two separate passions; coding and music. As the book progresses, Emmy’s two worlds begin to interweave, showing how notes, beats and rhythms overlap with code, language and algorithms.

Books about the internet

Jo Simmons
 & Nathan Reed
Chapter book

A laugh-out-loud chapter book that will appeal to anyone who has ever wished they could upgrade their sibling for a better model. Johnny is fed up of being picked on by older brother Ted, so when he stumbles across a website called SiblingSwap.com, he turns to the internet to solve his problems. What follows is a hilarious series of not-quite-perfect alternative siblings. There is also an accompanying activity pack available to go with this book.

Tom McLaughlin
Chapter book

A laugh-a-minute story about overnight internet success. Ollie and Hector dream of being rock stars, but unfortunately they have very little musical talent. One day, as they are making their own music video in Ollie’s room, a twist of fate shoots them to overnight success online. Before they know it, they become the biggest stars in the world – even though it was actually Ollie’s pet cat Nigel who is responsible for their music going viral.

Jeanne Willis
 & Tony Ross
Picturebook

This is a great choice of book for exploring the topic of e-safety and cyberbullying with young children. Billy the Goat and his friend Cyril are playing with a phone when they decide to send mean messages to the troll living under the bridge. Soon the two friends discover that their online actions have had a big impact on troll’s feelings and that their messages were not such a fun idea after all. For more on online safety, you may also like Chicken Clicking and #Goldilocks by the same authors.

Clive Gifford
Non-fiction
Uncover the mysteries of the Internet in this funny technology seriesWhat was the first thing ever sent on the Internet? Can winds blow WIFI away? And is the web REALLY full of spiders? Find out the answers to these questions and much more in this book!With an engaging question and answer format, this series draws young readers into the fascinating world of technology. Each spread opens with a simple, quirky question, opening up an exploration of technology and busting some popular myths along the way!
Anne-Marie Conway
Chapter book

Lily loves animals and has a stammer.

Themes of family and friendship are explored throughout the story, which is told from Lily’s point of view. Lily is in Year 6 and her new teacher sets a project about ‘One World’, where the children work together to research an issue and present it to the class – a task that feels challenging for Lily when she has a stammer. This thought-provoking and beautiful story reels the reader in to Lily’s journey from being the victim of cyberbullying to standing up for herself and ‘becoming more hedgehog.’

From friendship changes, cyberbullying and new family additions, this unique story leads to lots of discussion for KS2 classes. The story is inter-woven with animal facts and at the beginning of each chapter is a fact about hedgehogs, as well as an illustration. This book is captivating from the first page and is a must-read for celebrating differences, overcoming adversity, and having hope and courage.

I really enjoyed this story and read it in one day, as I couldn’t put it down. It would make a good class read for children in Year 5 or 6 or for children who love animals and celebrating who we are.


Non-fiction books about computing

Various
Non-fiction
Shortlisted for the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize 2019, this is a bright and colourful non-fiction text about computers and coding. 100 fascinating facts are appealingly presented via infographic-style illustrations, short text boxes and diagrams. This is the kind of non-fiction text that children like to choose to read and read again.
Diane Stanley
 & Jessie Hartland
Non-fiction Picturebook
From nonfiction stars Diane Stanley and Jessie Hartland comes a beautifully illustrated biography of Ada Lovelace, who is known as the first computer programmer. Two hundred years ago, a daughter was born to the famous poet, Lord Byron, and his mathematical wife, Annabella. Like her father, Ada had a vivid imagination and a creative gift for connecting ideas in original ways. Like her mother, she had a passion for science, math, and machines. It was a very good combination. Ada hoped that one day she could do something important with her creative and nimble mind. A hundred years before the dawn of the digital age, Ada Lovelace envisioned the computer-driven world we know today. And in demonstrating how the machine would be coded, she wrote the first computer program. She would go down in history as Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer. Diane Stanley's lyrical writing and Jessie Hartland's vibrant illustrations capture the spirit of Ada Lovelace and bring her fascinating story vividly to life.
Rachel Ignotofsky
Non-fiction

This book is full of intertwining facts and illustrations and is a dip-in book that will keep readers entertained for hours. The author summarises the long and complex history of computing, not starting with the obvious first machines of the twentieth century, but with ancient civilisations when maths and symbols were developed to enable people to calculate. Important inventions and influential people on the journey to modern computers are explained – the impact of WW2 and the race to develop technology, such as the radar or Turing’s code-breaking machine, brings us to computing in its more modern guise. The internet, social media, gaming, retailing and AI are all described and then predictions for the future are explored. The book is divided into clear chapters, each with timelines, inventions, people and computing stories but for those who are not sure of the basic terms and functions, the introduction covers that also. Overall, this will keep older children and adults busy while thinking, ‘I didn’t know that!’ or, ‘I remember that!’ as they flick through an extremely well-researched and appealing book.

Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
 & Aura Lewis
Non-fiction
In this book from the critically acclaimed, multimillion-copy bestselling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the life of Steve Jobs, the visionary whose ideas still shape the world.Steve Jobs grew up surrounded by inventors, in sunny Silicon Valley, California. He and his friend Stephen Wozniak channelled their love of computers into their own inventions, building a successful company from Steve’s garage. Steve thought that computers were the future, and his big ideas would transform the world and the way people use technology. This inspiring book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the brilliant businessman’s life.

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