Ruby Wizardry

An Introduction to Programming for Kids

by Eric Weinstein

December 2014, 352 pp.

ISBN-13:

9781593275662

2-Color

"An enjoyable book that can turn any kid (or adult!) into a programming wizard."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Vibrant and visually engaging, with chuckle-worthy asides...instructive and kid-friendly."
—School Library Journal

"This is the programming book I've been waiting for!"
—Gail Carmichael, Carleton University faculty and Board Advisor for the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (Read more)

Look Inside!

The Ruby programming language is perfect for beginners: easy to learn, powerful, and fun to use! But wouldn't it be more fun if you were learning with the help of some wizards and dragons?

Ruby Wizardry is a playful, illustrated tale that will teach you how to program in Ruby by taking you on a fantastical journey. As you follow the adventures of young heroes Ruben and Scarlet, you’ll learn real programming skills, like how to:

Use fundamental concepts like variables, symbols, arrays, and strings
Work with Ruby hashes to create a programmable breakfast menu
Control program flow with loops and conditionals to help the Royal Plumber
Test your wild and crazy ideas in IRB and save your programs as scripts
Create a class of mini-wizards, each with their own superpower!
Organize and reuse your code with methods and lists
Write your own amazing interactive stories using Ruby

Along the way, you’ll meet colorful characters from around the kingdom, like the hacker Queen, the Off-White Knight, and Wherefore the minstrel. Ruby Wizardry will have you (or your little wizard) hooked on programming in no time.

For ages 10+ (and their parents!)

Author Bio

Eric Weinstein has helped millions of people learn to program through Codecademy, where he designed and authored the Ruby curriculum and contributed courses on Python, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and PHP. He has also taught creative writing to undergraduates and veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at NYU, where he was a Veterans Writing Workshop Fellow. He writes Ruby for a living in New York City.

Table of contents

Foreword by Steve Klabnik
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: What This Book’s About
Chapter 2: The King and His String
Chapter 3: Pipe Dreams
Chapter 4: Staying in the Loop
Chapter 5: Array of Sunshine and Hash on the Range
Chapter 6: The (Chunky) Bacon to Ruby’s Hash
Chapter 7: The Magic of Methods and Blocks
Chapter 8: Everything Is an Object (Almost)
Chapter 9: Inheriting the Magic of Ruby
Chapter 10: A Horse of a Different Color
Chapter 11: Second Time’s the Charm
Chapter 12: Reading, Writing, and Ruby Magic
Chapter 13: Follow the WEBrick Road
Chapter 14: Where to Go Next

Appendix A: Installing Ruby on Mac and Linux
Appendix B: Troubleshooting
Index

View the Index (PDF)
View the detailed Table of Contents (PDF)

Reviews

Check out an interview with Eric in Communications of the ACM!

"Speaking of Ruby, for real, if there's a kid in your life, get them a copy of Ruby Wizardry. It's so great."
—Steve Klabnik, author of Rust for Rubyists, web celebrity

"By the best & most wonderful Eric Weinstein: Ruby Wizardry, a new programming book for kids."
—Linda Liukas, author of Hello Ruby, Co-founder of Rails Girls

"Really psyched about Ruby Wizardry. Looks like the book I've been waiting for (and wanted to write) for years."
—Jeremy McAnally, author of Mr. Neighborly's Humble Little Ruby Book

"One of a new breed of titles that seeks to help children and young adults to not only get introduced to programming but actually get good at it...highly recommended."
—Becky Walton, MLIS, Ingram Collection Development (Read more)

"I can see this book mentioned years to come as this generation reminisces about how they learned to program."
—Ruby Learning (Read more)

"An extremely valuable tool...entertaining and informative."
—Digital Mayhem Radio (Read more)

"The fun book is designed to make coding concepts and procedures easy to grasp for children."
—Gamenguide (Read more)