Getting some serious programming skills is key to success in the modern business environment. When you have coding chops, you can write your own ticket. You get to work on exciting and lucrative projects and never lack for challenges. It’s never too early to start developing your programming skills. Languages like Scratch can help you or other family members get programming experience with minimal headache.
Scratch is a block-based programming language aimed at young and inexperienced developers. If you’ve wanted to build your developer chops but were intimidated by the complexity of CSS or Python, Scratch is the perfect option for you. We’ve put together this guide to help you get started in Scratch. We’ll look at some of the best books on Scratch so you can get started the right way. With our recommended books under your belt, you’ll be ready to take on more difficult challenges and start your coding career.
Get one of Jon Woodcock’s Scratch Coding Books
You’ll get to know your Scratch book authors very well, especially Jon Woodcock. Woodcock has written and co-written several workbooks for Scratch, and all of them are excellent starters for new programmers. If you’re looking for a book on programming that can introduce you to coding concepts without scaring you off with lots of jargon and heady concepts, his work is right up your alley.
You can get started with Woodcock’s Coding Games in Scratch, which is an excellent introductory text for software development in general, and Scratch in particular.
You can supplement this text with Coding Projects in Scratch for a more in-depth examination at some of programming’s most fundamental concepts, like animation, images, and more. Woodcock aims his books toward children, but anyone who wants to learn to program will get great use from them.
Learn to Code Scratch with Code Your Own Games!
The best way to teach a concept is to make engaging with the subject as fun as possible. It’s the reason you played hangman in Spanish class every week and why every cooking lesson ends with a competitive eating contest. Coding is no different—if you want to teach it quickly, you should show people how to use it to write games. That’s the principle behind Code Your Own Games! by Max Wainewright.
This book lets you build games in Scratch from the ground up. None of the games are challenging to learn, which is fitting for a starter language. However, each game is a little harder to write than the previous one, and as you progress, you’ll build on existing concepts and increase your knowledge. By the time you finish the book, you or your children will be ready to move on to more challenging fare and can start preparing for coding bootcamp.
So, that’s the story, friends and neighbors. Picking up programming skills can seem intimidating, but there are many languages like Scratch that you can learn without breaking your brain.
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