Yang, G. (2016). Secret coders - paths and portals. New York: First Second.

Yang has created a series of books in graphic novel style about coding. This book Path and Portals follow three classmates who discover that the janitor is a master coder and has a secret underground rooms where he has a variety of robots.  He explains to the coders the foundations of coding and details on how to code properly.  The kids build their knowledge with the janitor's help and teamwork.  They work as a team each contributing their strengths to complete coding riddles within the book.  The headmaster of the book acting suspicious and uses the rugby team to capture the robots and the janitor for his own evil purposes. At the back of the book is a website for those that are interested in coding and explanation of angles and how they coded them.

Secret Coders graphic style is a mix of the Jetsons and Cartoon Land characters.  Mike Holmes, the illustrator uses black, white and pale green as palette to produce the fun trio and the background story. Yang creates a graphic novel story that uses STEM concepts as he builds interest in coding. Students without any knowledge of coding would still be interested in this book because of the storyline and likeability of the characters.  The pace is full of action and moves quickly and easily describes coding to the novice. Contemporary issues of science, coding and STEM activities are all prevalent in Secret Codes.  It work nicely as a bridge into coding and its concepts.  Values of team spirit and correcting wrongs at the core of the book.  This book is a distinctive in its manner and topics which is sure to be repeated with other STEM concepts marrying graphic novels with science and new technology. The trend in the classroom is to introduce coding through various computer sites and this book allows student explore coding through reading and a maybe a notebook nearby.