Enjoy Dreaming In Code: Ada Byron Lovelace, Computer Pioneer Produced By Emily Arnold McCully Visible In Softcover

Byron Lovelace had an unconventional life in thes was able to imagine the modern computer, This engaging biography examines her controlling mother, Lady Byron, her long friendship with Charles Babbage and her attempts to defy sexism as a woman interested in science and math.
Lady Byron, estranged wife of poet Lord Byron, was a powerful woman in her time, With financial resources of her own she was able to keep Ada away from her moody, philandering father McCully breiefly touches on the scandals that followed Lord Byron and also insisted on an excellent education for her precocious daughter with private tutors.
Ada showed a special proclivity for mathematics, While still required to marry to a man she did not love and bear children who she reportedly called "irksome duties", she was able to continue her work and studies into adulthood and developed a special friendship with inventor Charles Babbage.
She was able to grasp complex mathematical concepts put forth by Babbage and even imagine their uses beyond his own invention, Lovelace is considered a pioneer of computer programming and conceptualized coding concepts such as looping, Ada unfortunately suffered from ill health for much of her life and ended up dying at a young age from uterine cancer, Her mother ignored all her deathbed wishes, including not letting her have opium for her considerable pain and ignoring all her bequests to her friend, Charles Babbage.


While complex in nature, this book is a comprehensive look at a fascinating individual who defied conventions of the time and used her extraordinary mind to imagine the information age.


To whom would you recommend this book Students who like books about women with STEM careers will be fascinated by Ada Byron Lovelace's unconventional life and her wild imagination.
There have been several excellent picture book biographies written about Ada Byron Lovelace recently, however if you have students who want to learn more about this amazing woman who was hundreds of years ahead of her time, this is the book to hand them.


Divided into five parts, this highly readable text unpacks Lovelaces life and includes the good and the bad: her difficult childhood with her overbearing mother learning the identity of her brilliant but unstable father Lord Byron after his death her serious health issues she experienced for years as a result of measles contracted as a teenager her friendships with Charles Babbage and Mary Somerville her marriage to William King Earl of Lovelace balancing being a mother of three children while continuing her studies and experiments and writings about mathematics and what was to be called computer coding in the future her gambling/betting addiction use of drugs to ease her pain her painful death from cancer.
The book includes an introduction by the author, Appendix A Summaries of AdasNotes about Babbages Analytical Engine, Appendix B an excerpt from the thoughts by The British Association for the Advancement of Science on why they declined to build an Analytical Engine, Source Notes used by the author, a glossary of terms, bibliography of sources used, list of image credits, and an index.


The text is broken up with black amp white paintings of people in her life, photos and diagrams of Babbages machines and Lovelaces algorithms.
A strength in the book is the inclusion of samples of Lord Byrons poems written about her,

The perfect biography package about an incredibly amazing woman,

Highly recommended for grades,
It is as shame that Ada Lovelace is not yet a household name, The daughter of Lord Byron, she was a scientist and scientific thinker in her own right during the mids, I loved that this book included images and diagrams alongside the biographic details of Ada's life, I will definitely be adding this book to our library collection! The author failed to make it into a cohesive story for a younger audience.
The facts are presented, but I cannot see a young adult reading this whole book, It was dull. I will share my review soon, Dreaming in Code: Ada Byron Lovelace, Computer Pioneer by Emily Arnold McCully,pages, NON FICTION Candlewick,.

Language: Gswears'f' Mature Content: PGth century moral references Violence: G,


BUYING ADVISORY:, HS OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW

Ada Byron Lovelace was the daughter of Lord Byron, the English poet.
Unfortunately, her mother left Lord Byron taking Ada with her, so she never met her famous father, Ada had a very mathematical mind, and as she grew, tutors fed her education with French, deportment, music, math and culture, As an adult, her social circle included the educated and the elite, including Lady Mary Summerville a mathematician and astronomer and Charles Babbage, inventor of the Difference Engine, a mechanical calculator of sorts.
He also made automatons. She worked extensively with Babbage, refining and collaborating and is now known as one of the pioneers of the computer,

A fascinating read, well written and well researched with photographs of paintings and pictures of places and things, Lots of quotes from journals and letters gave this biography and authentic feel, The narrative, however contained a lot of oldfashioned words, making it a bit difficult even for an adult to read, I'm not sure today's high school students will be encouraged to finish, unless they have a particular interest in the subject,

Lisa Librarian
sitelink blogspot. com/ Featured in sitelink"History Books for Young Readers" on sitelinkIntellectual Recreation,

Ada Lovelace, the daughter of the celebrated and notorious poet Lord Byron, was one of the world's first computer programmers, Ada had a very unusual upbringing, Her mother left Lord Byron when Ada was just a baby and took a very strict approach to her daughter's education, Ada's education far exceeded that of most girls of her time, She had a succession of tutors and proved to be very gifted at mathematics, After meeting Charles Babbage at the age of, she and the inventor collaborated and exchanged ideas, His knowledge of inventing and machinery married with her knowledge of mathematics far outstripped the technology of the day,

I really enjoyed this brief biography of Ada Byron Lovelace, It's a very fast and engaging read, Ada Lovelace is a fascinating person, and her life was so usual and in many ways very tragic, All of that was conveyed very well in sitelink Emily Arnold McCully's book,

copy from NetGalley, Ada Byron Lovelace was a computer scientist and mathmetician ahead of her time, The daughter of the famous poet, Lord Byron, Ada helped translate and refine the difficult mathematical concepts behind early designs of computational devices and was the first to express the idea that computers may not develop artificial intelligence because they work only with the data programmed into them.
This book tells the story of her brief but extraordinary life,

Unlike Maria Merian, whose biography by Joyce Sidman I recently finished, I was familiar with Ada Byron Lovelace when I picked up this book.
I wish I had read this one first because I liked Sidmans work so much better and felt this one suffered by comparison! I think this was mainly because the biography of Merian presented so much excellent and engaging and colorful supporting material throughout the text.
I understand some about computers and math, but I wished for some more explanatory sidebars in the text to bring what Lovelace was working on to life.
That said, I did enjoy this biography and found it wellwritten, and I could see students with a particular interest in computers finding the biography well worth the read.
I did not realize that Lovelace died quite as young as she did, and I was interested to learn specifics about her work and relationship with Charles Babbage.
The book made me want to read a more extensive biography, and I hope that it would similarly make young people want to learn more about Ada Byron Lovelace.


McCullys biography of Ada Byron Lovelace provides an ageappropriate introduction to her life and work, With the emphasis on technology that pervades

childrens lives today, children will connect with Adas work making such technology possible, While Lovelace is presented in an objective manner, her shortcomings, including possible drug and alcohol abuse are presented in a manner that is honest but ageappropriate and within the context of treatment options of her time.
The book is adequately illustrated with blackandwhite photographs throughout and includes helpful endnotes, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index,
My predominant feeling after having read this book is sadness, This emotional response is a proof of how wellwritten and engaging this book is,
Ada was a creative, imaginative, happy and cheerful child who was born into a very dysfunctional family, Her mother left Adas father when she was a tiny baby, so Ada never knew him, Lady Byron herself might have been fiercely intelligent and dedicated to good works, but how little love and affection she gave her daughter! Ada had a gruelling study schedule, designed to develop her mind and stifle her overactive imagination and mercurial disposition.

The book covers well Adas most important relationships in life, including that with Mary Somerville, a brilliant mathematician, and Charles Babbage, the inventor of the Analytical machine a rudimentary prototype of a computer.
Adas collaboration with Babbage resulted in Ada coming up with her famous ideas and concepts, Alan Turing called one of these Lady Lovelaces objection the idea that artificial intelligence is limited to what the machine is told to do by the human.

The book does not shy away from difficult moments in Adas life: drug addiction, gambling, living up and down, after all, everybody expected scandal from the daughter of the notorious troublemaker poet, her awful death.
It renders perfectly Adas feeling restless and limited in what she can achieve by life and by her being a woman, I was shocked at the little detail of Ada and Mary Somerville not being able to use the scientific library, despite the fact that there was a bust of Mary Somerville, prominent mathematician, inside the building.

So much potential, so much craving for knowledge!
I would strongly recommend this wellresearched book to any school library, It would make an excellent springboard for discussion in class on a number of points: artificial intelligence, inventions, progress, education, womens rights,

Thank you to NetGalley and Candlewick Press for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest review,
.stars.