Children's Fiction Time Travel
Asha and Baz Meet Hedy Lamarr
Asha and Baz (Book 2)
- Publisher
- Common Deer Press
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2023
- Category
- Time Travel, Inventions, Girls & Women, Film, United States, General, General, Chapter Books
- Recommended Age
- 6 to 8
- Recommended Grade
- 1 to 3
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781988761794
- Publish Date
- Mar 2023
- List Price
- $6.99
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
★ Starred review in The Canadian Children's Book Centre's Best Books For Kids and Teens 2023 Fall edition!
In the second book of Caroline Fernandez’s Asha and Baz series, readers once more dive into the past—this time to learn about famous actor and inventor Hedy Lamarr! Computer class is off to a rocky start for Asha and Baz! They’ve been given a Coding Challenge and must correctly code instructions to send a digital frog across a computer screen. But they can’t seem to figure it out. With their reputation as the smartest kids in their class at stake, the pair turn to their magic stick for answers. They use it to draw their coding problem in the sand and are transported back in time to 1941 Hollywood to meet Hedy Lamarr, leaving them even more confused: How can an actor help them solve the Coding Challenge? But when they learn there’s a war happening and that Hedy Lamar has been hard at work inventing a device to help with war efforts, the kids realize her problem-solving skills may be just what they need. Coding, frequency hopping, and more await in Asha and Baz Meet Hedy Lamarr!
About the authors
Caroline Fernandez is a kidlit author, parenting blogger, and social media enthusiast. She is the author of two bestselling books, Boredom Busters: Over 50 Awesome Activities for Children Aged 7 years + (Cico Books, 2014 2016 Silver Birch Non-Fiction Honour Book) and More Boredom Busters: Over 50 Awesome Activities for Children Aged 7 years + (Cico Books, 2015). She is the creator of www.parentclub.ca, a popular blog which shares information to make life easier for busy families. Caroline has been listed as one of Toronto's Top Mom Bloggers. Caroline lives, writes, and bakes in Toronto, Ontario.
Caroline Fernandez's profile page
From a very young age in Mumbai, India, Dharmali Patel knew that she would be drawing, painting, or animating for her entire life. By age 6, her parents understood that drawing, crafting and all things creative was going to light her path, and ultimately lead her to her career as a visual artist. After mastering crayons, pastels, and finger paints… Dharmali made her way to Mumbai-Rachna Sansad School of Applied Arts, majoring in Illustration. She studied further at Vancouver Film School, where she earned her Bachelors in 2D Classical animation. In the past 20 years, she has worn the hats of Animation Director, Art Director, Visual Development Artist, Designer, and Illustrator. Every day, she loves to make art that is visually pleasing and engaging for people of all ages. Dharmali is honored that authors trust her with their beautiful words, and allow her to visually conceive the world and characters that ultimately become their books. She hopes that her imagery will inspire young minds with beautiful design, provocative lighting, and emotive characterizations that encourage a love of reading and beautiful art. Currently, Dharmali lives and works in Toronto. She is represented by Illustration Online LLC.
Excerpt: Asha and Baz Meet Hedy Lamarr: Asha and Baz (Book 2) (by (author) Caroline Fernandez; illustrated by Dharmali Patel)
CHAPTER 1 THE CODE CHALLENGE
Almost every student group in the computer class was frustrated. Yet there was a strong feeling of competition. They all wanted to be the first to solve the Code Challenge, but no one could crack it. Not even Asha and Baz could figure it out. And they were the most creative and smartest pair in the class. THE CODE CHALLENGE:
Create a computer code that tells a virtual frog how to get from the start point to the finish point. The only way the frog can cross the water is by jumping on different-sized logs. But be careful! Each row of logs floats in different directions. If the frog misses a log, SPLASH! It falls in the water and it’s game over. Project partners took turns dragging and dropping code blocks from the coding menu into the code box. The code blocks: • Hop Forward • Hop Backward • Hop Right • Hop Left There were sounds of frustrated kids and game over sounds buzzing throughout the classroom. GAME OVER. “NO!” said a boy. GAME OVER. “What are we doing wrong?” asked a girl. GAME OVER.
“Not fair,” moaned another boy. “This frog is broken,” said the boy sitting at the computer next to Asha and Baz. “You aren’t doing it right!” growled his project partner. The boys elbowed each other in anger. Asha and Baz felt discouraged too. They could not figure out the right code to guide their frog across the logs. “What if we make all the code blocks Hop Forward blocks?” Asha suggested. “OK. Let’s try,” said Baz. He felt a bit sad. Usually he and his best friend did really well on projects. He dragged and dropped Hop Forward blocks into the code box. Baz pressed the Try button at the bottom of the screen. They both crossed their fingers and held their breath. Their frog moved forward from the bottom of the screen onto a log. Good! Then it hopped onto another log. Very Good! And then another. Excellent! Baz and Asha started to feel hopeful. On the next Hop Forward block, there was no log in front of their frog. SPLASH! GAME OVER. “Come on!” Baz hit the desk with his fist. “Ha ha,” mocked the boy sitting beside them. “Have Baz the Brain and Asha the Amazing failed?” “Be quiet!” snapped Asha. The boy’s teasing made her jaw go tight and her heart pound. At that moment, Ms. Wilson, their teacher, walked by their computer. “No name calling,” Ms. Wilson said looking straight at the boy. He shrunk down in his chair. “What if we fail?” Baz asked Ms. Wilson. “What if you succeed?” replied Ms. Wilson. She patted him on his shoulder. The encouraging touch made Baz feel a little better. “Ms. Wilson, can you give us a hint on how to code the frog?” asked Asha. She hoped their teacher would take pity on them. “Here’s a good hint,” Ms. Wilson said loudly. Asha and Baz sat up in their chairs to hear. The boy next to them straightened up as well. “Don’t give up!” said Ms. Wilson. The class groaned. They had hoped their teacher was going to give them a real hint on how to code the frog. “You got this!” she cheered the class on as she continued walking from group to group. Baz looked at the screen. The computer code was like a puzzle, and he and Asha needed to fit the pieces together. He was usually so good at puzzles. “What if we waited for all the logs to line up?” Baz suggested. “Then, there would be one straight path from start to finish.” They both leaned in and watched the screen for all the logs to line up. They waited one minute. Two minutes. Three minutes. The logs were different sizes and floated in different directions. Therefore, they never all lined up at the same time. “I give up!” Asha slapped her forehead and shook her head. “We are going to fail.” She felt gloomy. Just then, the recess bell rang. “OK, everyone out for fresh air,” Ms. Wilson called to the class. “You can come back to the Code Challenge after recess.” “Noooo,” groaned the class. Everyone was fed up with the Code Challenge. “Grab the magic stick,” Baz whispered to Asha. “It won’t be any help,” Asha grumbled. She felt defeated. But she went to her backpack and took out the magic stick anyway. It had been a helpful tool when brainstorming solutions to tough class projects before. They walked out the computer lab door, down the hallway, and out the back door to the schoolyard. Once outside, they broke into a run and raced to the other end of the play- ground where the grass met the sand. Asha got there first because she was the faster runner, but Baz was just behind her. “I don’t want to do coding anymore. I give up. It’s too hard,” she said. “I can’t believe we haven’t figured it out,” said Baz. It was really bugging him that they couldn’t get the frog to the finish point. “Maybe we just aren’t smart enough,” whispered Asha. Baz pointed to the magic stick in Asha’s hand. “You remember what that does, right?” he asked. They had found the stick in the schoolyard. But it wasn’t the sort of stick that just fell off a tree. This stick was polished and beautiful. And it had a strange wavy shape. It was a dark chocolate color at the bottom that flowed into a honey color at the top. This was no ordinary schoolyard stick. This stick was magic. The last time they drew in the sand with it, they had been transported to 1957. There they met Mary Sherman Morgan and learned about rocket power. Baz hoped it would do something similar this time. “Draw the code blocks in the sand, Asha,” he instructed. “Maybe the magic stick will help us solve the code.” Asha bent down to the sand and drew a big rectangle. Inside of it, she drew the blocks of code. “Let’s step inside,” Baz said to Asha. “But stay close,” he added with a bit of worry in his voice. Asha and Baz stepped inside the code drawing. Asha crouched down and touched the magic stick to the sand. “Code,” she said. In that exact moment, the south wind blew in and swept the sand up into a gentle mini-tornado. The tornado swirled around them, and in an instant, they traveled through space and time. “Magic,” said Baz. “Look,” Asha said pointing down to the sand. “The drawing is gone.” The code drawing had disappeared. Written in its place was a name and a year: HEDY LAMARR. 1941.
Editorial Reviews
★ Starred review in The Canadian Children's Book Centre's Best Books For Kids and Teens 2023 Fall edition.
Asha and Baz Meet Hedy Lamarr is an enjoyable new addition to the Asha and Baz series with high appeal to readers who love STEM topics such as computer science. ...readers are sure to be inspired by how they support each other in overcoming uncertainty and self-doubt. At the same time, through Hedy's story, the book encourages readers to recognize the previously overlooked contributions of strong women throughout history to STEM progress, empowering female readers, in particular, to believe in their power to succeed in
STEM spaces. —The Children's Book Review
A gripping, must-read ... about courage, determination, will, and resilience…Endearing characters, intriguing storyline, and adventure make for a winning read. —The Prairies Book Review
I am 100% recommending this one to the students in our coding club! This book is a hit- it is short enough to appeal to a wide-range of readers, it has an appealing cover & pictures throughout, and it is FILLED with coding, STEM, history, inventions, strong women, and MORE. I learned so much about Hedy Lamarr- and quickly spent time doing more research about this fascinating woman! I loved learning about how her brilliant mind was often "swept to the side", and her beauty and fame were the only thing people noticed. Her strength, determination and intelligence were often underestimated. It's amazing to think that she created "frequency hopping technology", which is really the basis for our modern day WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth. --Mrs.MakesReadingFun via GoodReads
Fernandez keeps the focus on Hedy’s admirable perseverance despite the many obstacles standing in her way: even the fear that the U.S. patent office will ignore her application because “an actress inventing a communication system might be funny to some people” doesn’t stop her from submitting for a patent, and that lesson to never give up is a valuable one for Asha and Baz. In a unique stylistic touch, Patel evokes the glimmer and gusto of the 1940s in the book’s fitting black and white illustrations. This inspires as much as it teaches. Takeaway: Time travel takes two friends to the 1940s for valuable lessons on problem-solving and perseverance. Great for fans of: Linda Buckley-Archer’s The Time Travelers, Dan Gutman’s Flashback Four series. --BookLife
Asha and Baz Meet Hedy Lamarr is an entertaining, educational chapter book with lessons on teamwork and problem-solving.
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