Homewood High School 16 year old Angelina Grace Chicnes Pizarro has published her first book called Breaking Codes, a basic introduction to computer science for all ages. Yet the title has a double entendre meant to also encourage her readers to break boundaries and be limitless.
“I wrote “Breaking Codes” in order to motivate younger audiences to pursue knowledge without fear of stereotypes,” Grace wrote. “Frequently, as a Hispanic woman, I’ve been warned against pursuing a male-dominated or specific ethnicity-dominated career.”
Although there are many books on computer science through Python or specific machine language publications, this book is written from the perspective of a high school teenager who thought coding was out of her reach “until I made it my best friend,” Grace offers. Her inspiration came from seeing “Code of the Queen” or “Queen’s Code” which refers primarily to the recently deciphered secret letters of Mary, Queen of Scots, revealing her plots for freedom and challenges to Elizabeth I, as detailed in the PBS series Secrets of the Dead: Cracking the Queen’s Code.
The book itself is not a narration; rather, facts about code that everyone should know. According to the author, “If you are a millennial or a Gen Z this book is filled with funny stories and brain-twisting metaphors for you.” The book is available on Amazon.com
