When I was ~9, my parents bought me a book called "Wrote your own adventure programs for your microcomputer" [1] (Well, the Spanish version [2]) I remember reading and reading and reading it, and not understanding it... I tried to replicate some of the ideas, but I think it was quite dense (and the translation was not very good). The curious thing is that, when I properly started learning programming in college, I remembered that book, and a lot of things started make sense...

I say all this for two thing:

- I think is brilliant that there are books specifically teaching basic programming to kids, so more of them is great news

- Making a good programming book at that age is challenging, so please let it be good

This is, IMHO, an entry point, to give a taste of what programming is, so kids can try themselves later in front of a computer. Not sure what the best approach is, and I'm not convinced about the "story" approach, as I am not sure if it's interactive enough (as showing exercises). But, hey, there should be some options, and giving Linda's experience, I guess she has a better knowledge about teaching than me. So I'm sure it will be great

So, kudos to Linda... ;-)

[1] http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3384/5718165821_2ce65d26fd_z.j...

[2] http://www.paraquenoseolviden.com/gallery2/v/electronica/pro...