About the Reviewer

David Whale is a software developer who lives in Essex, UK. He started coding as a schoolboy aged 11, inspired by his school's science technician to build his own computer from a kit. These early experiments lead to some of his code being used in a saleable educational word game when he was only 13.

David has been developing software professionally ever since, mainly writing embedded software that provides intelligence inside electronic products, including automated machinery, electric cars, mobile phones, energy meters, and wireless doorbells.

These days, David runs his own software consultancy called Thinking Binaries, and he spends about half of his time helping customers design software for new electronic products, many of which use Python. The rest of the time, he volunteers for The Institution of Engineering and Technology, running training courses for teachers, designing and running workshops and clubs for school children, running workshops and talks at meet-up events all round the UK, and generally being busy with his Raspberry Pi, BBC micro:bit, and Arduino.

David was the technical editor of Adventures in Raspberry Pi, John Wiley & Sons, the coauthor of Adventures in Minecraft, and he is a regular reviewer and editor of technical books for a number of book publishers.

I was really pleased to be asked to review this exciting new coding book for children. Python is an excellent language for children to learn from a young age, and Jessica has done a great job at helping readers take their first few steps in coding with Python. I hope you will be inspired by the code and ideas in this book and come up with your own ideas to enhance and develop all of the programs further—this is just the start of your exciting new creative journey into coding with Python!