Secret Coders

The author of the Secret Coders series, Gene Luen Yang, is uniquely well-suited to create this novel because of his personal interests, educational background, and career trajectory.

As a child, Yang wanted to be an animator like Walt Disney and to study art in school, but at the insistence of his parents, he majored in computer science and minored in creative writing at UC Berkeley. His love of drawing, computer programming, and writing have all contributed to the success of his graphic novels.

Yang spent several years teaching computer science at a high school in California. As a teacher, he developed strategies for conveying abstract concepts in visual and accessible ways. When he was absent from school, he left substitute work for his students in the form of comics so that it would be more interesting to follow. He believes in the power of comics and graphic novels to form a stronger connection between readers and a subject. His use of the graphic novel format to teach young readers about coding makes abstract concepts more tangible, accessible, and visually appealing to young students. As part of his final project for his master’s degree, Yang wrote a comic called Factoring with Mr. Yang and Mosley the Alien as an example of how one could teach mathematical concepts using comics.