Python: Basics (Level 1)

My daughter has recently become interested in coding and teaching herself how to program. This book seems to be helping her. I am afraid I can't review it based on the merits of it's programming teaching because I know very little about Python. However, my programmer husband looked at it and said that it was a great start for someone who knows very little about programming. This is not the type of book you would hand a high school student because it really is written for a younger student. My middle school student has enjoyed using it though. My daughter has been able to use this book to learn some basic skills and start programming. If she continues to learn and enjoy using htis book we will most likely buy book two. Enjoy.

This is a primary programming book written for youngsters: I am over 60 and looking to learn a simple programming language having toyed, since the early 80's with DOS, Visual Basic and, for the briefest while with Java and remembering little or nothing. However, this book, part of a series, is progressive, comprehensible and comprehensive: Python is fairly easy to understand and the terms of reference are explained well in the text of this book. I am making progress and enjoying my excursion into programming, picking it up slowly and becoming capable of working out the problems and tests at this level, at least. Kids, I am sure, will pick this up and fly with it, but anyone, including people like me, will gain a lot from working through the series and using what they learn. I run a training organisation and can see how useful it might be to be able to write some simple programmes that will aid or support various areas of training that we do. Anyway, a well written and easy to understand book: recommended.

I wanted to get my kids and some friends started on programming but I am not a programmer. I identified Python as a good place to start, and chose this series as my "textbooks" for the group. I found the Coding Club books to be visually appealing and well organized. As beginners all around, we were able to get through the projects and teach each other using these materials. The level 2 book was also excellent for teaching in a group. Level 3 is a great book but it's better suited for individual work at their own pace, or needs an instructor who knows more than I do. Recommend.

As a twenty-something who was taught a small amount of HTML at school and has seen how useful coding can be, I decided to learn a programming language. For the life of me I cannot remember how I ended up choosing Python but I bought this book because I wanted something very basic and inexpensive. It is full colour and the content is amazing. It is step by step but not too basic. If you want an age range then I would say 12+. I got through the 'Hello World' section quite quickly but then I found the activities and concepts gradually more challenging, but not annoyingly difficult - a type of I-love-learning challenging. Lots of 'games' to program that result in the most composed of adults grin with excitement. Absolutely love it and I bought level 2 and level 3. The downloads that you get access to with it are very useful. I just found some code flashcards on the site that will be very useful.

This book introduced my 9 year old to his first coding along with a raspberry pi. It is very clearly written. Child friendly in presentation but also covers each aspect fully, I could not be happier with the progress he has made nor the excitement and enthusiasm as he grasps the concepts and adds his own little bits to each challenge. I have bought the whole set I like them so much. I have 20 plus years experience in software dev but any adult with just basic computer use could work through learning with their child without any problem. In my view it is much better to introduce kids to a real programming language over your scratch style block building environments.