Scratch

Bobby500 wrote:

JSO wrote:

The writer of the book is Jr. Jerry Lee Ford. By searching, it seems like this person has an account on Scratch: scratch.mit.edu/users/TheCaptain

How do you know which account he has?

All you need to do is a search because he has his name in the project notes of his one blank project. How can he be writing a book???

chalkmarrow wrote:

Nice. I wouldn't be surprised if it lists actual code from your projects.

Though I'm not sure teens are attracted to books that say "for teens," even if it is in a funky tagger script 

Yeah, I suppose it really doesn't matter if you're 6 or 86, the book would still teach you the same things...I suppose the author was attempting to keep us off of the streets and quitely clicking away in our basements. Looks interesting, though!

Paddle2See wrote:

My wife went and ordered me a copy...I'll let you know what it looks like when it comes in!

That sounded weird at first 'cause I forgot you weren't a kid. And I want to maybe oreder it, so please say if it's good for like beginners or "professionals" (better than beginners and advanced. That doesn't really make sense). Thanks!

Paddle2See wrote:

Bluestribute wrote:

Paddle2See wrote:

My wife went and ordered me a copy...I'll let you know what it looks like when it comes in!

That sounded weird at first 'cause I forgot you weren't a kid. And I want to maybe oreder it, so please say if it's good for like beginners or "professionals" (better than beginners and advanced. That doesn't really make sense). Thanks!

I am just a kid...a very old kid 

I'll post a review when the book comes in...I have no idea when that will be but I'll put it on this thread when I get it done.  Stay tuned!

lol, true.

Can't wait for the review. Make sure to include it's intended skill level (beginner, intermediate, advanced). Thanks!

Hi! I am the author of Scratch Programming for Teens. It is good to see so much interest in the book. Below are a few answers to some of the questions that have been posted:

1. I spent about 6 months working on this book. I created all programs that are covered in the book. However, based on the comments that I have seen posted, the publisher's graphic artist must have pulled images from the Scratch web site and used them in putting together the book's cover.

2. As the author I had a fair amount of control over the layout of what is inside the book. However, the cover design was out of my hands. Still, I think it looks really good and the graphics that were used are great. I offer my complements to their creators.

3. Regarding the naming of the book. The book is part of a series of books called "for Teens".

4. The book consists of 15 chapters, 2 appendices and a glossary. I wrote it for first time programmers and people new to Scratch. I organized it so that it could also be used as a text book. 

Below is a copy of the book's table of contents:

Introduction

Part I    Scratch Basics

Chapter 1 Introducing Scratch
Chapter 2 Getting Comfortable with the Scratch Development Environment
Chapter 3 A Review of the Basic Components of Scratch Projects
Chapter 4 Mr. Wiggly's Dance - A Quick Scratch Project

Part II    Learning How to Write Scratch Programs

Chapter 5 Moving Things Around
Chapter 6 Sensing Sprite Position and Controlling Environmental Settings
Chapter 7 Storing and Retrieving Data
Chapter 8 Doing a Little Math
Chapter 9 Conditional and Repetitive logic
Chapter 10 Changing the Way Sprites Look and Behave
Chapter 11 Spicing things Up with Sounds
Chapter 12 Drawing Lines and Shapes

Part III    Advanced Topics

Chapter 13 Sharing Your Scratch Projects Over the Internet
Chapter 14 Collecting External Input Using a Scratch Sensor Board
Chapter 15 Finding and Fixing Program Errors

Part IV    Appendices

Appendix A What's on the Companion Web Site?
Appendix B What Next?
Glossary   

To learn more visit: http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Programming-Teens-Jerry-Ford/dp/1598635360

If you would like to provide me with feedback on what you think of the book, I would very much appreciate it. My email address is jerry@tech-publishing.com. I receive a lot of email from readers so unfortunately, I cannot respond to every email I receive. Still, I read every email I get and any input received may come in handy down the road when I get the chance to work on a second edition of the book.

I really worked hard on this book and am pleased with the way it turned out. I hope everyone who reads it finds something of value in it.

Keep on Scratching!

Jerry Lee Ford, Jr.

Last edited by jlf04 (2008-07-03 23:24:04)

I'm a middle school Computers teacher in Monterrey, Mexico and are planning to teach Scratch to my 7th graders this coming school year.
I just arrived from the US and feel frustrated because I looked for the book and nobody knew a thing about it.
I just attended the NECC event in San Antonio, Texas.  In the Exhibition Hall there was a booth for Course Technology (publisher of the book), but sadly, they did not know a thing about the book, even though Amazon says the book was to come out on June 25.
I also looked for the book in Barnes and Noble and was told it had to be ordered since they don't have any textbooks in stock.
Can anybody tell me if it actually came out that date? Does anybody have it already? How did you buy it? from Amazon?

Last edited by analuisa (2008-07-03 18:50:14)

I suggested it to our library! Too early, though, I don't think they accept suggestions for media that isn't out yet.