Alan Turing: Little People, Big Dreams
Did you know that the man behind the computer you use every day also saved millions of lives and helped to shorten World War II by at least two years? That’s what Winston Churchill said anyway. Open this book and discover – bit by bit – the biography of the founding father of modern computer science. Inspiring and educational, this book is a great resource for use in the classroom, as it touches on many aspects of the curriculum: threads of STEM, history and LGBTQ+ education are all seamlessly woven into the narrative.
The author does well to distil Turing’s multifarious life into such a short and breathable word count. The illustrations are similarly subdued in terms of their colour palette; most spreads are largely monochrome with just a few pops of colour presenting themselves at sporadic intervals. A strong sense of place is established – upon opening the book we are immediately greeted by the London underground, and then later Bletchley Park (the top-secret home of the World War II codebreakers) shines out at us from a double-page spread. This really serves to ground the story in real life and hammers home the fact that these events really did take place. Little People, Big Dreams is a fantastic series to introduce children to engaging non-fiction.It emphasises how you can grow up and mould yourself a life that is just as exciting as those to be had in faraway lands with swords and dragons, and in doing so it reinforces one clear message: dream big, little ones!
