Codes: How to Make Them and Break Them!

This book is perfect for late elementary and middle school kids who are in that stage of their life where they are dying to communicate secretly. It is full of very practical ideas - and no, not at all about math, no siree, no math here - fun, and mind-stretching. I'm only sad that I didn't find it hidden in my school library as a child.You can just read through it and have a nice experience. But, to fully experience it, you'll have to put some effort in to wrap your mind around all the coded messages.It also works in some computer technology, like AND/OR/NAND/NOR/XOR gates, and how an XOR gate is able to add two binary numbers and gives you the beginnings of computer based-cryptography systems and why you can safely send a credit card over the internet to boot.The mix of narratives, cartoons, and explanatory sections is ideal for a young (or young at heart) self-directed learner. The text does a great job of introducing each idea at multiple levels of rigor: there's enough information to really get a handle on the basic mathematics, but it's breezy enough that you can pass over the rigor and still get the flavor of codes and cryptography.I enjoyed it as an adult and it would be an excellent choice for someone of any age.

Our kid is very interested in cryptography. Has read many books, done a bit of on-line lesson stuff. But he has really been enthusiastic about this book - keeps going back to it. So, especially at the price, give it a try.Makes a good gift, or good for trips.

My son loves this book and the whole Horrible series! He hopes more new versions are on the way!

fun!

I bought this book to use with the children I work with in a local Primary school. They were fascinated with the history of encipherment and de-cryption and really enjoyed cracking codes and creating their own. This book was especially useful when we were studying the Second World War as our topic.

A great book for kids, and big kids,(Adults) who wants to learn how code works, and how and why it is used in computers.

Codes... my son already loves this one.

My 8 years old love the book. very educating too

Poskitt tries to give in his books a funny twist to Maths concepts. To understand the humour you need first to be familiar with the concepts. This book is mildly funny if you have first read and digested Simon Singh's excellent "The Code Book" from which most of Poskitt's ideas seem to derive.