Instructions Not Included
How a Team of Women Coded the Future
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Click. Whir. Buzz.
Not so long ago, math problems had to be solved with pencil and paper, mail delivered by postman, and files were stored in paper folders and metal cabinets. But three women, Betty Snyder, Jean Jennings, and Kay McNulty knew there could be a better way. During World War II, people hoped ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), one of the earliest computers, could help with the war effort. With little guidance, no instructions, and barely any access to the machine itself, Betty, Jean, and Kay used mathematics, electrical engineering, logic, and common sense to command a computer as large as a room and create the modern world. The machine was like Betty, requiring outside-the-box thinking, like Jean, persistent and consistent, and like Kay, no mistakes, every answer perfect. Today computers are all around us, performing every conceivable task, thanks, in large part, to Betty, Jean, and Kay's pioneering work. Instructions Not Included is their story.
This fascinating chapter in history is brought to life with vivid prose by Tami Lewis Brown and Debbie Loren Dunn and with striking illustrations by Chelsea Beck. Detailed back matter including historical photos provides a closer look.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The history of three women Jean Jennings, Kay McNulty, and Betty Snyder who created the code for an experimental WWII computer and made fundamental contributions to computer science, anchor this book. Though the story is framed as "some people thought there was a better way... to solve routine problems by using machines," the problem these women focused on was anything but routine: programming EINAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) for a missile launch, shown in Beck's stylized cartoon illustrations. Moreover, the text reduces these trailblazers to one-dimensional characters: "Jean, persistent and consistent"; "A+ Kay, never misses a day"; "left-handed Betty... plays her own way." The larger story of how the women came to be involved with the program is not covered, though the text explains their later contributions to the field, which an authors' note further discusses. Ages 6 8.
