As the world is changing day by day, so is the way in which the people residing in it act and react to various situations. In the earlier times, children used to stay glued to the so-called ‘idiot box’ whole of the afternoons in holidays and in the evening used to go out and play. Reading books and developing logical and analytical skills was something confined only to the kids who came to be called nerds and who had a deep urge to learn as much as possible. Skills like coding and animation were then just a matter of choice and not necessity. Since then, times have changed and so have the needs. Today, these skills have become mandatory to be developed as they play a key role in the growth of one’s mind and prepares them to apply logic to day-to-day situations.
With the advancements in technology and in accordance with the fact that the brain cells develop at full pace during the early years of education, coding has become an essential part of the learning process. The kids thereby get a chance to create the cartoons they had grown up watching and develop interesting video games which had kept them busy and stuck to the computer or mobile screen all the time. Scratch coding is exactly all that learners need to kick start their journey as a developer. Gone are the days when coding used to be introduced at the secondary level. Today young ones are keen towards getting innovative ideas and implementing them suitably which leaves them with fruitful outcomes and an experience to cherish forever.
No matter that video tutorials are proving to be of great help to the aspirers but there is a certain point after which ample knowledge can be attained only through sufficient perusal of the books that have been written by the experts in that particular field. There is no doubt about the fact that books are a storehouse of knowledge and when it comes to the books on Scratch coding, the authors have done extensive research and then moulded it into words so that whosoever puts hands on it, ends up with a deep insight into the area. We have handpicked some must read books on Scratch coding which are as follows.
- Learn to Code with Scratch by The MagPi Team
Scratch is the world’s leading programming language and ‘Learn to Code with Scratch’ is a book tailored for learning it. The book is a step-by-step guide and aims to enable children as well as adults to start programming within a short period of time. It will help one get started and also embark on the process of creating a variety of projects including games, animations, quizzes, electronic circuits and much more.
Reading this book will ensure that coding with Scratch is not just about learning but about having fun as well. The book can be downloaded as a PDF or can be bought as an in-app purchase. It has thirteen chapters that are built from some praiseworthy articles published in the magazine ‘Raspberry Pi.’
- Scratch Programming Playground: Learn to Program by Making Cool Games by Al Sweigart
The book ‘Scratch Learning Playground’ is a strong recommendation for the first-time learners of Scratch, the colourful drag-and-drop programming language. It is written by AI Sweigart who is a software developer and also teaches programming to kids and adults.
The main focus of this book is on teaching how to develop exciting games, especially the games they already love playing. Each game has a series of instructions which can be followed easily. Additionally, there are review questions and creative coding challenges that help one develop his or her game. The various games, for example, that can be created are: Brick Breaker, Platformer, Maze Runner, etc.
- An Introduction to Computing Science: Starting from Scratch – (updated 2016 using Scratch 2)
The book marks an introduction to computing science via the Scratch 2.0 programming environment. It has chapters covering a wide range of topics such as story time, scratching the surface, getting the picture, maze game and many more.
It is overall a complete package that includes a tutor pack and a learner pack together with screen casts and media files like audio, visuals, etc. Quite a part of the material included in this book has been referenced from the official website of ScratchEd and has been reproduced and adapted under the Creative Commons license.
- {code club} Book of Scratch by Rik Cross, Tracy Gardner
Written by Rik Cross and Tracy A. Gardner, this book is made solely for beginners as it gives the kids a chance to explore the versatility of programming with Scratch. It is suitable for everyone who wants to begin to learn coding. It presents Scratch as a block-programming tool in which the blocks contains instructions and tells the computer what to do. These blocks can then be put together in a series to make the complete program.
Like most of the other books, it has been divided into chapters which contain step-by-step instructions to create interactive stories, games and animations. It can be thought of as a robot guide that aids one through various projects and keeps important tips handy during the course of the entire book.
- Learn CS Concepts and Advanced Scratch by Abhay B. Joshi
Two of the best books written by Indian author. Both these books take the learner from absolute beginner to advanced, not just in Scratch programming but also geared towards learning the Computer science concepts.
The skills of the programmers using Scratch also range from creating just an image to building entire games and films. These two book have been written in such a way that the learning of Computer Science can be encouraged. No doubt, the basic ideas of creating games and films are covered, the aim of these books is to open a door to taking Scratch to the next level by using it for getting an insight into the methods in which learning Scratch can help one go deeper into the understanding of Computer Science.
So, these are the books that if read by someone will surely boost up his knowledge about the ways in which Scratch can be used and applied.