Teach Your Kids To Code: Transitioning to harder code or Java

[Jesse Otten]

Hello Mr. Payne,

I really love everything I have heard about your book and I am looking to pick it up for my son and I. What I am wondering is if you have plans for another book that will expand upon the knowledge built in "Teach Your Kids To Code".
I like the way you have presented Python to keep kids interested and was also wondering if you have ever thought of bringing this thinking to a Java book.

Thanks,
Jesse

[Bryson Payne]

Jesse,
Thank you for the kind words, and I hope you and your son enjoy Teach Your Kids to Code.
I teach Java I & II at UNG, and you're right, Java is a little harder to code than Python in general. Like Al Sweigart posted last week, Python is clean and simple for beginners, and Java has some overhead due to its object-oriented focus.
I've been talking with my editor about a JavaScript book next, but I could see Java on the horizon - it's just hard to envision Java for younger kids ("Daddy, what's public static void main(String[] args)?") . By middle school, Java is within reach, but my sons are 5 and 7, and Python was the way to go for us.
I do like the idea of approaching Java more visually - Mark Guzdial had a book back in 2006 using media computation to teach Java, but I haven't seen a newer one.
Does anyone have any good books on Java for younger coders they might recommend? (If not, that may be something for me to talk to No Starch about...)
Thanks for your question!
Bryson