More books of the week!Ruby Goldberg's Bright Ideaby Anna Humphrey, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley NewtonOriginally on a quest to finally win gold at this year's science fair, Ruby discovers that sometimes collaboration is better than working alone, and that friends and family are more important than winning. Definitely emphasizes science/engineering as for the purpose of helping people. Ruby is endearingly imperfect. A highly recommended early-reader chapter book. Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Codeby Laurie Wallmark, illustrated by Katy WuThis picture book provides a fun bio of Grace Hopper's life and achievements and includes a number of her real quotes. The book describes her interest in taking things apart and learning how they worked from a young age, and implies she was pretty smart. However, it also wonderfully describes her struggle with Latin and her determination to do well enough in the subject to attend college (which she does). The story also underlines Grace's desire to be creative. The illustrations are whimsical and colorful. Some words would need to be reviewed with younger readers--scattered, sprinted, arranged, concepts, frilly, equipment, experimentation, blueprint, rattled, deafening, etc--and there's a fair amount of text overall, so the book would be best for readers on the older end of the "picture book" range and up.
