Secret Coders

Gene Luen Yang’s Secret Coders series contains six graphic novels that teach readers about logic and computer programming while telling the story of seventh-grader Hopper and her new friends Josh and Eni as they uncover secrets about their school, Stately Academy. The first book, Secret Coders, was published in 2015, followed by five additional installments: Paths & Portals (2016), Secrets & Consequences (2017), Robots & Repeats (2017), Potions & Parameters (2018), and Monsters & Modules (2018).   

Gene Luen Yang has published several other graphic novels for upper elementary, middle grade, and young adult readers, such as American Born Chinese (2006), Boxers and Saints (2013), and Dragon Hoops (2020). His most recent graphic novel, Lunar New Year Love Story, came out in January 2024. In 2023, Disney+ released a television adaptation of American Born Chinese.

This guide utilizes the 2015 First Second paperback edition of the graphic novel.

Plot Summary

Hopper is a seventh-grade girl living in a new town with her mom. She is unhappy about starting school at Stately Academy, where she has trouble making friends. She thinks the school, which looks like a haunted house, is creepy.

When she sees several boys talking and holding a basketball, Hopper approaches them, hoping to connect over basketball. They are unfriendly, and one boy accidentally flings chocolate pudding on her face. She spits back at him and feels as if she’s made enemies instead of friends.

Hopper is eating lunch alone when one of the strange birds that hangs out around the school comes up to her. She is startled when she realizes that it has four eyes. Eni, the boy who threw the pudding on her, approaches her and asks why she has earrings shaped like the number seven. She explains that seven was her number on her old school’s basketball team. Eni realizes that the bird is making the number seven in binary code with its four eyes, and he shows Hopper what binary code is with a series of columns of boxes and pennies. They realize that the number nine is painted all over the school building so that the birds will display the binary code for nine. This means their two outer eyes stay open while their two middle eyes close, making them look like normal birds with only two eyes. This design hides the fact that the birds are actually robotic and programmed to display different numbers using binary code.

Eni and Hopper start to uncover more secrets when they break into the janitor Mr. Bee’s shed. The birds display the code for the padlock with their eyes, and when Hopper and Eni open the door, they find a small robotic turtle that Mr. Bee programmed to perform tasks, like clearing the sidewalk. Hopper and Emi experiment by programming the turtle to walk in different patterns around the schoolyard. When Mr. Bee discovers that they have broken into his shed, he sends the birds after them by shining the number 15 with a flashlight, which causes all four of their eyes to open, cueing them to attack. Hopper disables the command by holding up Eni’s basketball jersey, which has the number zero on it.

The next day, Eni shows Hopper that he “borrowed” the turtle robot from Mr. Bee’s shed to figure out how it works. He shows Hopper that the turtle can respond to verbal commands and written programs. At lunch, Josh teases Eni and Hopper for spending so much time together, so Hopper commands the turtle to walk over to Josh and turn on its leaf blower, which blows his sandwich into the face of Ms. Hu, the teacher on lunch duty.

Ms. Hu takes Hopper to the principal’s office. As they wait for the principal to finish a meeting, Hopper tells Ms. Hu that she never wanted to come to Stately Academy. It is revealed that Ms. Hu is Hopper’s mother. Hopper references her father leaving them, and her mother leaves her to await the principal and accept her punishment. Eni comes to the office to provide moral support, and while they’re waiting, a creepy man walks out of the principal’s office. They wonder who he is and why he is meeting with Principal Dean. The principal gives them both trash pickup duty with Mr. Bee.

Meanwhile, Hopper and Eni both attend basketball practices for the boys’ and girls’ teams. Everyone is surprised when Hopper does not play very well at practice, as she has spoken about how much she loves basketball. She admits to Eni that she only recently started playing because her father loved basketball, and she hoped that if she played, he would come watch her games.

After basketball practice, Hopper notices that there is a brick hexagon on the ground of the courtyard—the same dimensions as one of the robot turtle’s programs. Eni takes out the turtle and has it walk around the perimeter of the hexagon. When it finishes, the hexagon opens up to reveal a secret underground portal. Josh approaches them, wondering what they are doing. The three children go down the stairs to explore, with Josh asking questions. Mr. Bee is down there, angry that they’ve invaded his secret space. He threatens to get them expelled, but then he notices Hopper’s basketball jersey and asks if her father is Albert Gracie. For some reason, this knowledge makes him change his mind. He gives them a programming challenge and makes a deal with them: If they figure it out, he will teach them more about the secrets of Stately Academy, but, if they fail, they must leave the school and never return. This proposition sets the stage for the next graphic novel in the series, Paths & Portals.