This is a fun little picture book biography I read about Ada Lovelace. She was the estranged daughter of Lord Byron. Her mother, Lady Wentworth, left Lord Byron soon after Ada was born, and raised her daughter to be well educated so she wouldn't end up like her flighty father. Ana was good at math, and as a young person was introduced to Charles Babbage. There was a great deal of mutual respect between the two, and when Babbage created his mechanical general purpose computer, he asked Ada to create the algorithm for it. As a result, some consider her to be the first "computer programmer" even though she lived more than a century before modern computers were created.It is always good to get new biographies of women in the sciences. One thing I like about Ada is that she made her contribution and raised a family as a proper English lady. The book has engaging illustrations and would work as a read aloud or as something for a child to read on their own. It is not really a "report" type biography, but it is a good introduction to an interesting person. (2016)
No comments:
Post a Comment