The Friendship Code is a middle-grade novel in the Girls Who Code series, combining a school friendship story with an accessible introduction to coding. Lucy is excited to join her school’s new coding club, hoping it will help her build an app for someone important to her, but she is disappointed when she is placed in a group with girls she does not know well. As mysterious coded messages begin to appear, Lucy and the other girls have to work together, decode clues, and learn that programming is not only about computers, but also about patience, communication and solving problems with other people. The novel is aimed at readers interested in friendship, school life, STEM and first steps in computer science, while leaving Lucy to discover whether code can help repair the distance between people as well as create something new.
Author: Stacia Deutsch
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Publication year: 2017
Number of pages: 144
Target age: 8–12