ALA Booklist (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

In this fun and cheerfully illustrated tale, Pearl, a young girl on the last day of her summer beach vacation, is determined to build a sandcastle. Having been thwarted in previous attempts, she enlists the aid of Pascal, her robot. Pascal does not compute when told to build a sandcastle, so Pearl realizes she must break the job into step-by-step tasks, using code. Pascal follows the code literally, producing unintended and embarrassing consequences. Pearl quickly realizes she must be absolutely clear in her directions, and employs coding tricks, such as looping and if-then-else sequences, to finally achieve her perfect sandcastle ly to have it destroyed by the incoming tide. Pearl's tears disappear when she realizes that now that she's developed the code, she can use it again and again, and build a whole kingdom. With an introduction by Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani, a diverse cast of characters, and delightful visual background humor, this painless introduction to coding basics will engage, entertain, and educate audiences.

Horn Book

On the first day of school, Tyrannosaurus rex Penelope does what any nervous dino would do: she eats her human classmates (then spits them out). Then the class goldfish takes a bite of her finger: "Once Penelope found out what it was like to be someone's snack, she lost her appetite for children." Higgins builds his humorous, soft-around-the-edges cast out of dinosaurishly lumpy-craggy art.

Kirkus Reviews

A girl named Pearl programs a (rust-proof) robot to help her build sand castles in this new addition to the Girls Who Code organization's book program. The last day of summer vacation is Pearl's last chance to build a sand castle. All her prior attempts have fallen victim to comic mishaps (such as a "moat" contributed by dog Ada Puglace). For backup, she brings her robot, Pascal, with whom she breaks down the full task—building the sand castle—into small problems: finding a place to build via specific instructions, gathering sand via a sequence (and more efficiently with a loop), and decorating the castle via an IF-THEN-ELSE statement. After she works out the kinks, the oncoming tide throws Pearl for a new loop—literally, as she reuses her previous computer code while adding a moat feature to handle the tide. The cheerful mixed-media illustrations and warm color palette fit both the subject matter and the can-do spirit of the book. The computer science terms are demonstrated in clear, concise ways, allowing them to be mined for humor (such as Pascal's attempts to place the sand castle in unsuitable places until Pearl learns to be very specific), and serve the story without feeling obtrusive or too much like lessons. The backmatter gives fuller explanations of the terms. Pearl has brown skin and textured, black pigtails, and the other beachgoers are racially diverse.An accessible introduction to coding rules that also easily entertains. (Picture book. 4-8)

School Library Journal (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

PreS-Gr 2 Pearl's attempts to build a sandcastle have met with one disaster after another, but she tries again using code and some help from her robot Pascal. Employing loops, if-then-else conditions, and sequences, can the pair succeed? Funk includes tongue-in-cheek computer references including the names of Pearl and Pascal, which also are names of programming languages. Palacios joins in the fun by depicting loops with the words wrapping around a swim float or following the course of a moat around the sand castle. This creative pair have taken a common childhood problem and used it to explain how coding works. They show everything from breaking a problem into smaller pieces to building on existing code. A "Pearl and Pascal's Guide to Coding" section follows the story and explains the programming terms in more detail. Readers will enjoy the narrative even if they have never worked with code before and may find themselves curious about other applications for coding. VERDICT An excellent, age-appropriate introduction to the world of coding. Highly recommended. Suzanne Costner, Fairview Elementary School, Maryville, TN