ALA Booklist (Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

This colorfully illustrated introduction to coding in Scratch provides easy instructions for more than 17 fun projects for elementary-aged kids. The projects include games, animated and musical projects, and guidelines for Makey Makey with Scratch projects. Using clear, understandable language, the author explains what Scratch is and what kinds of drawing, sounds, and backdrop tools it offers are and how to use them in each online project. To aid kids in thinking through the steps needed to create their own original games using Scratch, the book identifies different factors of a game (setting, goals, conditions, mechanics, components, rules) and provides a few quizzes to help envision it. The skills kids learn build upon each other as the projects in the book progress in difficulty level. A link to each completed game is included at the end of each project so kids can check their work. Readers will be excited to try creating these appealing projects on their own.

Kirkus Reviews

A Scratch programming introduction with wide scope.The book opens with an introduction to Scratch programming (with graphics that take good advantage of the program's color-coded visual interface in explanations of each element) and how to access it. Following that, this guide takes young programmers through a variety of games, Scratch's visual tools and animation, and sound incorporation, and it even touches on basic circuitry. Full-color screenshots of exactly how things will appear on a computer screen are shown large size, in line with font sizing and spacing designed with the audience—independent readers—in mind, producing a book that minimizes the need for adult assistance. While this surprisingly packed volume doesn't touch much on troubleshooting and mucking about in code to see what happens as some other Scratch guides for kids do, its approach (emphasizing the purpose of each step it asks readers to take) is clear, thorough, and especially accessible for less-confident learners. The extensive instructions on image creation and animation will enable just about anyone to create something nifty, and they provide tools for those with artistic aspirations to advance with their own embellishments. The final section covers music, note by note, and how to connect and program a Makey Makey controller kit (a basic interface that allows anything that can conduct a small charge to function as a button).A must for any collection of programming books for kids. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 8-14)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

This manual teaches the fundamentals of coding using the Scratch platform. Readers will learn to design games, animations, and musical projects, among other projects. Ziter clearly explains how to use the program, from signing in to using the scripts tab and selecting sounds from the sound library. Readers can compare what they see on their computer screens with what appears on the page and follow along with Ziter-s warm, clear guidance: -To make it look like the gummy bear is being squished, you-ll need to create multiple costumes for your sprite.- Through the range of projects, readers will gain a sense of the versatile applications for Scratch coding. Ages 8-10. (Aug.)