As you can guess from the title, this book is designed to teach the basic concepts of Python to kids. This book uses several mini projects so that kids can learn how to solve problems using Python.
Python has grown to become a very popular language for programming web apps, analyzing data, and teaching people how to write code. Python is known for being a simple language to use because it is read much like natural languages, yet it is able to do data analysis very quickly, making it a great language to create websites that handle a lot of data. Another nice thing about Python that makes it fun to use is that people have been working on game libraries, such as pygame, so that people can create graphics programs with Python. The use of simple graphics to make short games is a fun way to learn programming constructs and is especially good for visual learners.
Chapter 1, Welcome! Let's Get Started, discusses Python and setting up a Python development environment on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.
Chapter 2, Variables, Functions, and Users, covers Python data types and functions, as well as how to program Python to get information from the user, store that information, and use it later.
Chapter 3, Calculate This!, uses Python to make a calculator that has multiple mathematical functions. We also learn about working in our file structure and the proper way to save code files.
Chapter 4, Making Decisions – Python Control Flows, covers the use of if, elif, and else, as well as the use of for and while loops, in order to help create programs that make decisions based on user actions.
Chapter 5, Loops and Logic, builds upon what we have learned in the previous chapters and allows us to build a number guessing game. We will build easy and difficult versions of the game.
Chapter 6, Working with Data – Lists and Dictionaries, explains how to use lists and dictionaries to store data. The differences between lists and dictionaries are explained, and we spend time building small lists and dictionaries as well.
Chapter 7, What's in Your Backpack?, allows us to use functions, loops, logic, lists and dictionaries to build a different kind of guessing game. We will also learn about nesting dictionaries and lists.
Chapter 8, pygame, talks about a popular graphical library that is used in Python to make small games. We will learn the fundamental aspects of this library and experiment with some code.
Chapter 9, Tiny Tennis, this game is a clone of a popular game. We will re-create the game using all of the skills that we have learned throughout the book. This is the major project of the book.
Chapter 10, Keep Coding!, shows you all the opportunities that will arise once you read this book.
Appendix, Quick Task Answers, has the answers to all the quick task questions within the chapters.
This book can be used with Windows 10, Mac OS X, or Ubuntu Linux operating systems. Other versions of these operating systems may work; however, this book has been written specifically to address these systems. Additionally, you will need the Internet to download some tools, such as recommended text editors, for your operating system. All recommended downloads are open source.
This book is for kids who are ready to move from graphically-based programming environments, such as Scratch, and into text-based environments. Kids who are ready to create their own projects will engage with this book, especially those who have played games. No prior programming experience is needed to complete the projects in this book; this book is for kids aged 10 years and above, who are ready to learn about Python programming.
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Why don't you try giving the computer the name variable with your name and then the height variable with your height?"
A block of code is set as follows:
def name():
first_name = input('What is your first name?')
print('So nice to meet you, ' + first_name)
name()Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
python >>>print("Hello, world!")
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