Page 2 April 12 , 2018
Girls Who Code Coaxes Computer
Cleverness from Young Craniums
Reviewed by Tommy Vinh Bui,
MLIS, Associate Librarian,
Inglewood Public Library
This is a stellar teen-themed book that
inspires and cajoles young women to
confound expectations and jump with both
feet into the world of coding and computer
science. Writer Reshma Saujani makes a
compelling case to pursue a passion for
computer coding and combine it with other
interests to create a synergy of creative
potential. It’s all about empowerment and
building confidence while unabashedly flying
that nerd flag high.
The book is seemingly quixotic in ambition
as it offers a succinct little primer
and introduction to the world of coding.
Saujani manages this Herculean task masterfully.
She takes our hand and walks us
Girls Who Code by Reshma Saujani.
through the history of the field and the
innovations and advancements that women
have contributed over the years to the
study of computer science. The book is
equal parts Hidden Figures and Lean In. The
writer provides us with several historical
figures and a multitude of case studies of the
unsung female heroes blazing a trail in the
world of tech. She also sows the notion that
inspiring young girls to explore the world of
coding is the future and how imperative it
is today to close the gender gap in the tech
industries.
Saujani additionally gives us a pretty comprehensive
play by play into the basics of
coding. She goes over the terminology and
cobbles a sturdy scaffolding in which to frame
a better understanding of the computational
intricacies of the field. She manages to take
a sometimes abstruse subject and make it
relatable and palatable to digest. She uses
an assortment of real-world scenarios and
always endeavors to make the topic engaging
and approachable. Though the work is
largely skewed toward a female audience of
a certain age, the information conveyed about
rudimentary coding skills can be useful for a
wide demographic of people just interested
in the course of study.
The writer is an ardent advocate of
eschewing stereotypes and impels young
audiences to augment their thinking of
what’s expected and what’s possible.
She reminds us that encouraging STEM
education and useful computer fundamentals
will serve young girls for years to come
and that the field is ready and receptive to
a whole generation of groundbreaking tech
pioneers. The possibilities are nigh boundless.
Put the right string of code in the
right girl’s hands and she could make a
sizeable impact from social justice champion
to canny entrepreneur.
This Young Adult genre book earns a
wholehearted recommendation. The content
is delivered in an enthused and infectiously
effusive manner. The range of topics covered
is impressive from beginning to end and the
overall message of empowerment gets delivered
with precision. The Inglewood Public
Library also has an audiobook version of this
tome that includes a bonus disc with PDFs of
images, computer history timelines, flowcharts,
lines of code, and a handy-dandy glossary.
All fine fodder for any coding connoisseur.
So get coding, kids. Plain and simple. And
find yourself being programmed to dare to
dream prodigiously posthaste. •
Infamous Ted Kennedy Scandal Is
Explored in Film Chappaquiddick
By Ashley DeFrancesco
for www.cinemacy.com
Friday, July 18, 1969. Not a date that
many young movie viewers may find
significant, but director John Curran’s
Chappaquiddick teaches us about that
deadly night that included a tragic cover-up
and criminal negligence.
Chappaquiddick is the story of how high
political power makes a man indestructible.
Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy (Jason
Clarke) and aspiring political strategist Mary
Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara) get into a vehicular
accident when Kennedy steers off Dike
Bridge in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts
around 12:30 a.m. While Ted survives the
crash, Mary Jo does not. She is found 10
hours later inside the flipped car at the bottom
of Poucha Pond. Ten hours… so what
was Kennedy doing all that time? Why
didn’t he call the police right away? What
kind of legal troubles did he get into? Most
importantly, why I haven’t heard of this?
All these questions swirled in my head as I
watched this heartbreaking docudrama and
was reminded that the trend of protecting
our political heads of state over serving
justice has long plagued our nation.
Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan wrote
a screenplay showing the ugly underbelly
of politics and power in America. Due to a
majority of the nation’s unrest with our current
administration, I was deeply distressed
to see that almost everyone in Ted’s life was
spinning the tragedy so that he could still
run for president in the future.
The singular voice of reason during the
days after the accident is Ted’s cousin Joe
Gargan (Ed Helms), who continues to urge
the senator to follow his compass and stay
with the truth rather than fabricate a story. He
tries to be the Jiminy Cricket to Ted’s lost and
broken Pinocchio, but has little success as the
manipulative and tightly gripped hand of Joe
Kennedy continues to pull the strings. Back
at the Kennedy compound, while the team
is working to change the negative headlines,
Gargan bitingly says, “A girl dies and Ted
is a martyr?” His frustration and disgust at
the easily crafted deception of Ted Kennedy
as the victim highlights the theme of justice
coming second to maintaining political power.
Nothing will stop the Kennedy machine from
destroying everything in its path in the name
of that power.
The cast is exceptional in their portrayals
of these real and flawed people. Clarke’s Ted
Kennedy shows us a man who is struggling
with the constant pressure of living in his
brother’s shadow while wanting to create a
name and legacy for himself. Helms masters
the complicated and conflicted relationship
that Gargan had with Kennedy during this
time. Kate Mara’s Mary Jo perfectly paints
the struggle between moving forward after
the devastation of Robert Kennedy’s assassination,
and remaining part of the family
because of the connection she had during
Bobby’s election campaign. Although not
given much screen time, she illustrates how
history chooses who is remembered, whose
story will be told, and who becomes an
afterthought.
In today’s world, we continue to see this
struggle between political power and justice.
Like the men portrayed in Chappaquiddick,
we see so many lie, deny and create the
narrative given to the public to survive and
gain -- or maintain -- the ultimate power that
politics can represent. This movie serves as a
reminder that we cannot let those who are given
this power run wildly with it. It asks us
to take a hard look at those who we have
elected and evaluate if they are working for
opportunity or with integrity, as Gargan says
to Kennedy. Lawyer Ted Sorensen perfectly
sums it up when he says, “History usually
has the final word on those things.” Chappaquiddick
gives us the opportunity to look
at this historically tragic event once again
and decide how we want to remember it,
giving us permission to use this refined critical
lens as we write the history that future
generations will learn.
101 minutes. Chappaquiddick is rated
PG-13. Now playing at Arclight Hollywood,
The Landmark, AMC Marina, and AMC
Century City. •
Entertainment
Film Review
Ashley DeFrancesco.
Check It Out
Chappaquidick, Courtesy of Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures
Tommy Vinh Bui.
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