Ada and the Number-Crunching Machine

This is Ada. Although she might look like an ordinary little girl, she’s about to change the world.

Augusta Ada Byron, better known as Ada Lovelace, is an inquisitive child. Like her clever mother, she loves solving problems—big problems, little problems, and tricky, complicated problems. Ada invents crazy contraptions and reads all the books in the library of her father, the poet Lord Byron; but most of all she loves to solve mathematical problems. Together with her teacher, the mathematician Charles Babbage, Ada invents the world’s first computer program. Her achievements made her a pioneer for women in the sciences.

Zoë Tucker’s words capture the adventurous life of Ada succinctly, and debut picture book illustrator Rachel Katstaller’s art infuses Victorian London with humor.