Book Review: Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine

When I got asked to teach math, I went to the library and scraped off the shelf all the children's picture-book biographies of Ada, Countess of Lovelace. There are quite a few of them.

The best-written of the lot to which I had access is Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine, by Laurie Wallmark, because the author succeeds in taking the reader into Ada's experience of falling in love with numbers.

I asked my second-grader, who tested all the books with me, and she agreed that this version tells the best story.

Now you know.

It's a pity there aren't lots of shiny math manipulatives with brass bickerjiggers on them. Most rotary calculators, for instance, are plastic.
Abacuses and Montessori beads are two welcome exceptions.

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