Let's spark children's interest in coding

The FSFE has created the illustrated book "Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream" as an Open Education Resource under a Creative Commons License, the same one that Wikipedia has. The story is about the inventor Zangemann and the girl Ada, a curious tinkerer. Ada begins to experiment with hardware and software, and in the process realises how crucial technology is for her and others. It is a fascinating story for children from 6 years, motivating them, especially girls, to tinker with hardware and software and encouraging them to shape their own technology.

Readings, discussions, workshops: Inspire children around the world

Our volunteers, staff, and the author of the book have done many readings in different languages throughout the world, spreading Ada's story to over 1700 children. Many of them, especially girls, have told us that the story encourages them to start inventing and programming.

For the events we have collaborated with schools, libraries, municipalities, organisations that introduce children into programming, and organisation working with refugee children.

Make the story accessible for all

We would like to make the materials accessible for everyone. Thanks to donations, the FSFE was able to release Arabic and Ukrainian translations of the book. A French translation and publication was coordinated by the French Ministry of National Education, and a car company commissioned a Spanish translation. Volunteers translated the book into Valencian, Danish, Hindi, Italian, and are working on other languages.

We are also working with organisations and publishers on accessible eBook versions for people who read differently due to conditions such as blindness or low vision.

Reach more children with a movie

To reach more children, we want to create an animated "Ada & Zangemann" movie. The 30-minute film will be produced by an experienced 2D animation studio, and we will also release it as an Open Educational Resource. Anyone will be able to download and share the movie, embed it on websites, use it in schools, display it at events, and integrate it with other educational material, making a difference to the quality of IT education that is so vital for young people in our digital society.

Thanks to our supporters we were able to raise more than €40,000 which enables us to produce the movie by end 2024 in over four languages. We will publish them starting in quarter 3 2024. For 2025 we aim to get €80,000 in donations for organising readings, preparing materials, distributing books to libraries, and creating additional translations of the book and video.

"A brilliantly illustrated journey of discovery and resilience that will inspire any young mind to embrace their curiosity and create with technology" - Zach Latta, Founder of Hack Club

"Encouraging creative, out-of-the-box engineering thinking, problem-solving, and perseverance, as well as endless tinkering..." - A.R. Miller, Purdue Reviewer

"A wonderfully entertaining read with an empowering message for younger generations, one which will shape our world and the way we live in it." - Kaye Fogarty, The English International College, Marbella

"I like how [the book] makes a positive statement that girls can code and use computers." - Child Reviewer, Purdue

"After my son was read the book last night, he told me the whole story this morning... He wants to make something out of old pallets after school today. And then he wants to learn programming." - Ingo Wichmann, CEO Linuxhotel GmbH

"This book is exactly what I want to pass on to my children!" - Canelle A., 18-year-old student translator in a Parisian high school

Read all the reviews we have received.

Illustration from the book by Sandra Brandstätter CC-BY-SA 4.0

Youth Hacking 4 Freedom: the FSFE's coding competition for teenagers

Graphic by Lisa Schmidt, CC-BY-SA 4.0

For teenagers who are already experienced in programming, the FSFE is organising the European wide "Youth hacking for freedom" coding competition.