Member Reviews

I received an electronic ARC from Rebel Girls through NetGalley.
Rebel Girl has branched into chapter books based on the lives of famous women who may or may not have been recognized during their lifetimes. Readers meet Ada Lovelace as a child and follow her explorations into mathematics and other sciences. They see the challenges she faced from illness and lack of support. They also see supportive relationships with her husband and her friend, Babbage. Her grasp of math is emphasized as is her awareness that she won't be taken seriously in the field. The author continues the story to share the recognition she received posthumously when scientists rediscovered her work.
Easy to follow text pulls readers in to her world, and the illustrations offer further glimpses into her life. I appreciate the challenges for readers provided at the end. They are a simple and needed introduction to computer programming.

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I absolutely loved this! I knew a bit about Ada Lovelace because I recently read about her to my little cousin from one of the other Rebel Girls books, but it was so much fun and simple to find out more about her life. I don't think reading any Wikipedia article or other scholarly article would have made me think about her. Not only her but also the other scientists. The most striking fact to me was that the term scientist was coined for women. Going to refer to men as make scientists from now on.

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Rating: 4/5

This was such a fantastic read, it followed Ada Lovelace’s life growing into early adulthood accompanied by some beautiful illustrations. All in all a great book and it’s perfect for anyone who bursting with curiosity and those who are interested in pursuing STEM!

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This is the third one of the rebel books that we’ve read in our home. I’m a huge advocate for my daughter having some amazing females to look up to. So it has been great for her to read these books and learn about some woman who helped shape our world that she’d never heard of before. The artwork in this line of book is always gorgeous and this book did not disappoint there. She liked that Ada’s dress color always set her apart from others in the book. My 10 year old daughter has been reading this book this week. She did say that she did not enjoy this book as much a she enjoyed the Madam CJ Walker one. She didn’t like that there were only two big events in the book in her opinion and she thought that it seemed shorter. I love this series personally. History books about strong women written for young girls to see the chances for their potential. I like that the series is diverse and would definitely suggest it for other girls. We would certainly read more books in this line!

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Long live the Rebel Girls! I am in love with the series. Not only does it tell fascinating stories, in completely accessible yet engaging language, but it focuses on phenomenal women that are not usually spotlighted in history.
For all the young women out there, especially (but certainly not limited to) those interested in the STEM disciplines, Ada Lovelace is an inspiration. But, sadly, most classes don't talk about her, nor her contributions to science and the world.
Although most of the Rebel Girls books are too young for my middle and high school students, I will still purchase each and every one and include it on my classroom shelves. (This is in addition to the entire series I will purchase for my infant niece and best friends' kids!)
Keep it up Rebel Girls... you've got a rebel fan base that will just keep growing!
Thank you to NetGalley and Rebel Girls for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

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This was a very well written book for middle school age. It tells the story of Ada with facts, but in an entertaining way. It will keep the reader engaged and interested in her story. There are also fun activities and games in the back of the book. A great read for young girls or people interested in women's history in science and mathematics.

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I adore learning about all these incredible woman showcased in every new installment of Rebel Girls. I am always amazed at how many of these women's stories, I knew nothing about, Ada included! Her familial ties surprised me and her amazing wits and intellect was so awe-inspiring to read about.

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Just because this is rebranded, my thoughts from 2021 won't have changed:-

A heavily fictionalised biography of a woman who was the first of her gender to theorise about computer programming. (That's not to say it features anything that's untrue, but the everyday actions and dialogue are right out the novel genre.) It's a reasonable book, but felt rather long for me – the original Rebel Girls compilations had a lot more brevity, and while this is admittedly for a young audience, the story featured very little in the way of dramatic colour. Yes, sexism and so on raises its ugly head, but even though Babbage's key machines and Engines never got produced, the story is very much set at a permanently rising angle. And in taking us up to the halfway mark before introducing Babbage, surely gunning for the feminist sales too hard.

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I had a wonderful time reading this! It’s such an accessible and empowering way to learn about Ada Lovelace. The games included at the back of the book are also interesting ways to get girls involved in programming. As a software programmer myself, I’m beyond empowered by the story of Lovelace and how she’d held on to her ideas vehemently even when they seemed impossible. A brilliant book!

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This is a lovely little novelisation about the life of Ada Lovelace. Beautiful illustrations add a little extra to the story. Perfect for middle grade readers or anyone who has read other Rebel Girls books.

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Ada grew up near London, England, in the 19th century, when most girls’ educations consisted of reading, painting, dancing, deportment, music, and perhaps a language such as French. Ada prefers more engaging pursuits—reading, learning languages, inventing, and maybe even doing math.

Ada has a famous poet for her father, but she’s never met him. Her mother insists that Ada study math and science—the subjects furthest from poetry. But as Ada grows up, she decides math has its own sense of poetry.

Her mother wants Ada to get married and have children, but Ada can’t envision a world without studying math and thinking of poetical ways to apply the knowledge to the world around her. It would take a rare man to understand Ada’s mind and heart and allow her to pursue both work and motherhood in an era where people measured a woman’s highest achievement as their household and offspring.

Fortunately, she meets and falls in love with a man secure enough to support Ada in her passion for knowledge and her love of motherhood. As she studies and helps an inventor friend, Ada realizes the possibility of using machines to solve mathematical problems. Her designs and calculations form the basis for modern-day coding and computing.

Why I Loved This Book

While classified as historical fiction, Rebel Girls does a wonderful job of inviting young readers into the life and times of a little-known pioneer in computing. The Rebel Girls Chapter Book Series reminds me of the ‘biographies’ (today, we’d classify them as historical fiction) of famous Americans I read back in the 70s. Only the books have colorful artwork and highlight little-known but incredibly important women from history.

Parents, teachers, librarians, grandparents, and students will love this book and the others in the series.

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Ada Lovelace was the Countess of Lovelace born in 1815. Her contributions to computer science have since been widely recognised! Her pioneering vision paved the way for making a space for women in computer science before computer scientists even existed. I never knew about Ada Lovelace growing up – or indeed any women in computing! Now I know her story, it’s exciting to see it shared and to reiterate that women have been involved in computing all along! I loved her because her life was so interesting and unusual, and she had such a great character. Passionate and determined, but also an imaginative rebel and a spirited rule-breaker!

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This was cute! I didn't know that Ada Lovelace was an actual person and I thought this book really taught me a lot about her, even though it was fictional. This was a short but cute read.

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This story was unexpected to me, but I truly loved it. The chapters were just the right length and the story flowed so well. I learned a lot about Ada Lovelace by reading this. The author and illustrator did a wonderful job and I will be recommending this far and wide!

The illustrations themselves were simple, but beautiful. The color schemes were well chosen and each chapter image perfectly matched up to the coming chapters content. The full page illustrations, in particular, were beautiful.

The only critiques I would give would be that sometimes the timeline was hard to follow throughout the book and it was difficult to determine where and when Ada was. The only other thing is that while I loved the games at the end of the book, it may be more enjoyable to have them interspaced between the chapters in the books to align with what is happening with the story.

Overall, I loved this!

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Review to come in February on my blog/goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I really love Ada Lovelace, all she did and her life was interesting. So I was excited for this book which promised a peek in the life of Ada Lovelace. Fictionalized but still with enough facts. 

We start at Ada's early childhood, we see that she has her own will and wants to do all sorts of things. Well, OK, everything except maths (which I fully agree on). She wants to play, wants to dream, wants to read. But you can guess that in the time she lives and with a mom like that, she hasn't got all the freedom. She is still a girl and still has to follow societal rules. I just felt for Ada at times because I recognised many things in her. I did love that she went on and kept following her dreams especially when she met someone who she could trust, who taught her many important things (I loved that chess battle in the beginning), and more. It was great to read about that moment when Ada found her dream. Found something she wanted to do. Something that she was curious and excited about.

My heart broke for her when she got ill and when all her dreams seemed to just fade away. But I was so proud and delighted that she decided not to let things get in the way and she fought. She went for it. Found something that she loved. Found a husband who supported her and helped her out and with whom she could talk. Went for exciting ideas and inventions. Helped out a friend. It was really amazing to see her step up and go for it. 

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, I so so love the style of them! And the colours!

All in all, you still can't convince me math is useful or fun, but I did have tons of fun reading about Ada and her life!

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I love to read about Ada Lovelace, who was one of the first computer programmers (yet it's been predominately a male dominated career since! hmph!) so I was pretty excited to stumble upon Ada Lovelace Cracks the Code from Rebel Girls.  The Rebel Girls book series is probably exactly what I needed growing up - a series of books about extraordinary women in history - all written and illustrated by females.  In this book, Ada realizes that her father was special and figures that if he was extraordinary, well then she must be too!  She seems to be a rambunctious and curious young girl.  She gets a new governess, Miss Stamp, who seems to be up to the challenge of teaching young Ada.   As she grows older, she knows she will have to marry but is concerned about finding a husband that will understand her.  She ends up working with Charles Babbage (another well known name in the programming world) and insisted her name be left absent on the work they did together because men would never take a scientific article seriously if a woman's name was on the cover (how little has changed!)

I liked how at the end of this book it broke down simply how a computer program works and had little exercises for the reader to try out as a basic intro to programming! There's even some binary code included.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

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I really enjoyed reading this book as I think Ada Lovelace deserves more credit than she does! Not only this is a non-fiction, this is for children so I truly believe this will inspire love and passion for STEM and also give them a role model.

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Wonderful.
Ada is so smart and funny. We follow her from childhood to adulthood. Her cleverness is obvious from the beginning, she develops her math knowledge through her youth and ends up understanding how it works the Analytical Engine of Mr Babbage. And she's the only one.
Ada is the precursor of our well known computers. It moved me to tears to read how computer scientists gave her name to a code: her role has been recognized after all. <3

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I've always loved Rebel Girls books because, aside from being inspirational, the illustrations are beautiful, and it broadens my knowledge of world inspirational figures like Ada, who I didn't know about until I read this book; I believe Ada's story should be told repeatedly, especially to children and adults, so that her story remains timeless ♡

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Ada Lovelace is one of the first people every child should learn about in mathematics and computing. A person who struggled but kept on her path to ensure she was heard and not seem as an obedient and dullwoman, of which most women were proud to be at the time. This story is told in a novel way as it is not told as normal biography is but in a similar format of a fictional story. This will definitely allow it to be an easier and more interesting read for younger readers. However, it still covers many important and interesting parts of Lovelace's life that may shock and interest more mature readers. As an adult this was definitely a refreshing version of nonfiction. I look forward to other books written in a similar style.

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