Ada & Zangemann - A tale of software, skateboards, and raspberry ice cream
Here you find additional information and resources about the book "Ada & Zangemann - A tale of software, skateboards, and raspberry ice cream" by Matthias Kirschner and Sandra Brandstätter.
About the book
The famous inventor Zangemann lives in a huge villa high above the city. Adults and children alike love his inventions and are desperate to have them. But then something happens: when Zangemann wants to take another close-up look at his inventions during a walk through the city, a child hits him in the shin with the skateboard. That hurts! Enraged, the inventor makes a momentous decision... The clever girl Ada sees through what is going on. Together with her friends, she forges a plan.
This illustrated children's book tells the story of the famous inventor Zangemann and the girl Ada, a curious tinkerer. Ada begins to experiment with hardware and software, and in the process realises how crucial it is for her and others to control technology.
A book that arouses children's interest in tinkering and encourages shaping technology.
The book is currently available in German by the publisher O'Reilly Germany / Dpunkt Verlag (affiliate link - the FSFE gets 12%) and can be ordered from your preferred book store with the ISBN 978-3-96009-190-5.
We are working on an English version. As soon as the English version is done, we would be interested in more translations. If you want to help us with enabling professional published translations, reach out to us.
How to learn coding?
There are many resources out which help young people to learn programming. Our community is gathering more information about that topic on our wiki page, and we invite you to help us with amending and keeping this up-to-date.
Download drawing templates
We provide some drawing templates for children. You can download the PDF file and print out the pages you like.
Gallery of Ada & Zangemann by children
We would love to publish pictures of paintings or other things that children created about the book. In case your child painted an own version of Ada or Zangemann, a modified skateboard, how they imagine software, or how computer who print ice cream could look like in future. Please e-mail them to us including the permission for us to publish them under either CC-0 or CC-BY-SA.
Ada stickers and postcards
We provide some "Ada & Zangemann" stickers and plan to provide postcards, and other material which you can order gratis on our information material page.
Additional information about software freedom
You would like to receive news about "Ada & Zangemann", for example about new stickers or other materials, new translations, or other information about the book? You can subscribe to the FSFE's mailings and not miss this information as well as also receiving general information about software freedom and the FSFE's work.
Already a teenager?
Graphic by Lisa Schmidt, CC-BY-SA 4.0
For teenagers who are already experienced in programming, the FSFE is organising the "Youth hacking for freedom" coding competition. Please help us to promote this activity and encourage teenagers to start programming.