The Official ScratchJr Book

A great companion read for the app. I would say this is a great program for younger kids, or kids who have never coded. The book breaks the steps down so that they are immediately making something, which is fantastic in keeping interest. As you progress, you add more detail. If you are not a coder and are trying to help your children, this may be a wise investment as it will help you guide them. But I let my daughter read the book and do the steps herself. We have fun just sending each other our little movies and trying to outdo each other in how fancy we can make them. Because this is just an introductory program, the difficulty and frustration levels should be low. But it's still a good program to teach them how to back up and figure out where did they make a mistake. I would recommend this to all beginner coders using the Scratch Jr. App. My guess is the target audience is about kindergarten-2nd grade (depending on their computer literacy).

Easy to follow directions

I was so excited to get this book and spend some time with my son working through Scratch Jr. We went through the first couple of chapters together and had a blast making things and showing each other our creations. It was nice to spend quality time together on electronic devices that didn't involve watching meme videos! It became quickly apparent to me though that he was already familiar with Scratch Jr and didn't find the projects all that challenging. He was showing me how to do the things covered in the final chapter of the book and so I decided to return it. I should have paid more attention to the suggested age range. I think if your child is 7 or younger and has not used Scratch Jr at school before, then you will find this to be a lot of fun! For a kid who is 9, I think transitioning to Scratch is the better way to go.

Good starting point for kids. This may bore autistic kids tho.

This is a great book to introduce young ones to Scratch Jr. My 5 year old asks to do the next project everyday. He has fun completing the projects, but I know that he is learning a valuable skill at the same time.

I bought this for a friend for his 4-year-old. She took to it immediately and started making videos. It was inexpensive and made a great gift.

I used this book to facilitate a class for young coders at a homeschooling co-op and they loved it. They had so much fun and learned a lot. Now they are ready to move on to the Scratch app for more game coding fun.

This book is done really well if you need very precise step by step instructions. I downloaded the app for my son a few days before we got the book and he figured out how to do 90% of what's in the book by himself just playing. So this book wasn't a good value for us. We did it all in 1 day. It would have benefited us more if it had more suggestions on what to make without showing the code on how to do it. More activities for them to try and make after learning about all the buttons. More ideas and inspiration for them. After each activity there is a literacy connection and a math connection which is nice for homeschoolers. My suggestion is download the app and let them play. If they are having difficulty, then order the book.