How To Code a Sandcastle

PreS-Gr 2—Pearl's attempts to build a sandcastle have met with one disaster after another, but she tries again using code and some help from her robot Pascal. Employing loops, if-then-else conditions, and sequences, can the pair succeed? Funk includes tongue-in-cheek computer references including the names of Pearl and Pascal, which also are names of programming languages. Palacios joins in the fun by depicting loops with the words wrapping around a swim float or following the course of a moat around the sand castle. This creative pair have taken a common childhood problem and used it to explain how coding works. They show everything from breaking a problem into smaller pieces to building on existing code. A "Pearl and Pascal's Guide to Coding" section follows the story and explains the programming terms in more detail. Readers will enjoy the narrative even if they have never worked with code before and may find themselves curious about other applications for coding.