After extensive research, we’ve carefully curated a collection of fiction and non-fiction tech-themed books for our library, aiming to spark curiosity and inspire students to explore the fascinating world of Computer Science. These books have already proven to be a fantastic way to ignite imagination, deepen understanding, and encourage a love for learning.
Whether you’re a teacher looking to enrich your classroom library, a parent searching for an engaging and gift, or a student eager to dive into the exciting world of technology, this collection is the perfect place to start. Explore, discover, and let these books open the door to endless possibilities in tech!
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| Book Title | Author | Summary | Year | Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Day in Code – Python | Eskenas, Shari | An illustrated book that introduces Python programming concepts through a narrative, designed for kids and beginners. | 2021 | 10-14 |
| A Day in Code: An Illustrated Story Written in the C Programming Language | Eskenas, Shari | A unique book that tells a story using the C programming language, helping readers learn coding concepts in an engaging way. | 2020 | 10-14 |
| Accelerando | Charles Stross | A sci-fi novel following generations of a family navigating a rapidly accelerating technological future, including AI, post-human evolution, and economic transformation. | 2010 | 16+ |
| Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions | Christian, Brian | Explores how algorithms used in computer science can be applied to everyday decision-making, from organising tasks to optimising relationships. | 2017 | 15+ |
| Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, 2nd Edition | Sweigart, Al | A beginner-friendly guide that teaches Python programming with a focus on automating repetitive tasks like web scraping, file management, and data processing. | 2019 | 12-18 |
| Beastly robots and drones : military technology inspired by animals | Simons, Lisa M. Bolt | Inspired by animals’ incredible abilities, military forces have created many machines over the years to achieve success on the battlefield. From the first remote-controlled vehicles to the advanced machines of tomorrow, take a look at how military robots and drones often imitate the abilities of animals throughout nature. | 2020 | 8-12 |
| Become an app inventor : the official guide from MIT app inventor | Lang, Karen | Design, build and share your own apps with the official guide from MIT App Inventor. | 2022 | 12+ |
| Beginners Guide To Ethical Hacking and Cyber Security | Abhinav Ojha | A beginner’s guide to ethical hacking and cybersecurity concepts, presented in an engaging way. | 2024 | 14+ |
| Bletchley Park Brain Teasers | Sinclair McKay | A collection of puzzles, riddles, and codes inspired by the codebreakers of Bletchley Park during World War II. | 2017 | 12+ |
| Blood, Sweat, and Pixels | Jason Schreier | A behind-the-scenes look at the video game industry, detailing the challenges developers face in creating blockbuster games. | 2017 | 14+ |
| Brainjack | Falkner, Brian | A cyber-thriller about a teenage hacker who uncovers a dangerous conspiracy while working with an elite cyber-defence group. | 2019 | 12-16 |
| Brown Dogs and Barbers: What’s Computer Science All About? | Karl Beecher | Join Karl on a journey through the story of computing, discover just what makes the machines tick, learn why computers work the way they do and meet the cast of characters responsible for it all. | 2014 | 12-18 |
| Burning Chrome | William Gibson | A collection of cyberpunk short stories, including Johnny Mnemonic and Burning Chrome, which helped define the genre. | 2017 | 16+ |
| Click Here to Start: A Novel | Dennis Markell et al. | A middle-grade adventure about a boy who discovers a real-life escape-room-style mystery hidden in his late uncle’s apartment. | 2017 | 10-13 |
| Code This Game! (Using Python) | Ray, Meg | A hands-on introduction to game programming in Python, guiding readers through the process of creating and modifying their own game. | 2019 | 10-14 |
| Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software | Petzold, Charles | A deep dive into how computers work, explaining everything from binary code to modern computing systems in an accessible way. | 2022 | 15+ |
| Computational Fairy Tales | Jeremy Kubica | A fun and educational book that introduces computer science concepts through fairy-tale-style storytelling. | 2012 | 10-14 |
| Cracking Codes with Python | Sweigart, Al | Teaches readers about cryptography by building Python programs that implement classic encryption techniques. | 2017 | 12-16 |
| Cryptonomicon | Neal Stephenson | A techno-thriller blending historical fiction and cyberpunk, following cryptographers during World War II and their modern-day counterparts. | 16+ | |
| Cyborg (Dyslexia-friendly) | Bradford, Chris | The third book. Follow the gang as they use their tech skills to defeat Virtual Kombat. | 2019 | 8-9 |
| Daemon | Suarez, Daniel | A techno-thriller about an AI-driven program that continues executing its creator’s plans even after his death, disrupting the world. | 16+ | |
| Daniel X: Game Over | Patterson, James | Tokyo is the stomping ground of a pair of sadistic shape-shifters at the helm of a massive video-game enterprise. And their next addictive game release is about to control the minds of kids all over the world. | 2011 | 9-11 |
| Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Philip K. Dick | The novel that inspired Blade Runner, exploring themes of identity and artificial intelligence in a dystopian future where bounty hunters “retire” rogue androids. | 16+ | |
| Epic | Kostick, Conor | On New Earth, Epic is not just a computer game, it’s a matter of life and death. If you lose, you lose everything; if you win, the world is yours for the taking. | 2024 | 12-18 |
| Every line of you | Gibson, Naomi | Lydia’s built herself the perfect boyfriend in a hard-drive filled with lines of code. What would possibly go wrong in this thriller of an adventure? | 2021 | 14+ |
| Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits | David Wong | Thriller: Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements. Book 1/3 | 2015 | |
| Game Over Girl: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder meets virtual reality | Gibson, Naomi | An edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller | 2023 | 14-18 |
| Gamer (Dyslexia-friendly) | Bradford, Chris | The first of three books. Follow Scott as he enters the gamer arena and finds out what happened to his friend Kate | 2019 | 9+ |
| Gamer Army | Reedy, Trent | In this timely and thrilling novel, Ender’s Game meets Ready Player One and several terabytes of fast-paced video game action as five gamers are recruited into a tech giant’s secret program. | 2018 | 8-12 |
| Gamish : a graphic history of gaming | Ross, Edward | A thrilling illustrated journey through the history of video games and what they really mean to us | 2020 | 11+ |
| Ghost In The Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker | Kevin Mitnick | The autobiography of one of the world’s most infamous hackers, detailing his exploits and eventual capture by the FBI. | 2012 | 15+ |
| Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World | Reshma Saujani | A fantastic introduction to coding and the power of women in technology. | 2017 | 13-18 |
| Hacking Timbuktu | Davies, Stephen | A fast-paced adventure novel about a teenage hacker who gets involved in a treasure hunt linked to the ancient city of Timbuktu. | 2009 | 12-16 |
| Hello World: How to Be Human in the Age of the Machine | Fry, Hannah | A thought-provoking exploration of the role of algorithms in our daily lives and their impact on society. | 2019 | 15+ |
| Hidden Figures | Shetterly, Margot Lee | The true story of the African American women mathematicians who played a crucial role in NASA’s space programme. | 2021 | 12+ |
| Homeland | Doctorow, Cory | A sequel to Little Brother, following a young activist fighting against government surveillance and corporate corruption. | 2013 | 14+ |
| How to Code: A Step-by-Step Guide to Computer Coding | Max Wainewright | A hands-on guide with fun activities to teach children simple coding skills. | 2016 | 7+ |
| I, Robot | Isaac Asimov | A collection of interlinked stories exploring the ethical and philosophical dilemmas posed by artificial intelligence and robotics. | 2018 | 14+ |
| Jackdaw and the randoms | David, Stuart | Meet fifteen-year-old Jack ‘Jackdaw’ Dawson. Daydreaming in class one day, Jack is hit over the head with an idea so downright fantastic he knows it can’t fail. An app that will stop you from getting into trouble for daydreaming… | 2015 | 13-15 |
| Kiss, date, love, hate | Plaja, Luisa | Lex’s friend George is given a mysterious Sims-like game. Lex and George populate the game with avatars for all their mates, making a few ‘wishful thinking’ adjustments to the settings – and find that the next day these tinkerings have come true! | 2012 | 12-17 |
| Last gamer standing | Zhao, Katie | Reyna is an up-and-coming junior amateur gamer but despite her rising popularity and skills online, no one knows that behind her male avatar is a twelve-year-old Chinese American girl. | 2022 | 8-12 |
| Little Brother | Doctorow, Cory | A dystopian novel about a teenage hacker who fights back against government surveillance after a terrorist attack leads to mass surveillance measures. | 2013 | 14+ |
| Machines that Think: Everything you need to know about the coming age of artificial intelligence | New Scientist | So are we on the edge of an AI-pocalypse, with superintelligent devices superseding humanity, as predicted by Stephen Hawking? Or will this herald a kind of Utopia, with machines doing a far better job at complex tasks than us? | 2022 | |
| Monday Starts on Saturday | Arkady and Boris Strugatsky | When young programmer Alexander Ivanovich Privalov picks up two hitchhikers while driving in Karelia, he is drawn into the mysterious world of the National Institute for the Technology of Witchcraft and Thaumaturgy, where research into magic is serious business. | 2016 | |
| Neuromancer | William Gibson | A foundational cyberpunk novel about a washed-up hacker hired for a mysterious cyber-heist, blending AI, cybernetics, and corporate espionage. | 2017 | 16+ |
| Nexus (Angry Robot) | Naam, Ramez | In the near future, the nano-drug Nexus can link mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And others who want to exploit it. | 2013 | |
| Off to Be the Wizard | Meyer, Scott | A humorous novel about a modern-day hacker who discovers a program that allows him to manipulate reality, leading to adventures in a medieval setting. | 2014 | 14+ |
| Once Upon an Algorithm | Martin Erwig | Uses classic stories and fairy tales to illustrate key computer science and algorithmic thinking concepts. | 2022 | 14+ |
| Otherworld | Segel, Jason | Welcome to real life 2.0. Are you ready to play? | 2018 | |
| Player Piano | Kurt Vonnegut | A dystopian novel about a society where machines have replaced most human workers, leading to class division and rebellion. | 2022 | 16+ |
| Python basics Level 1 | Roffey, Chris | Learn how to code | 2012 | |
| Rebel Code: Linux And The Open Source Revolution | Moody, Glyn | A history of open-source software and its impact on the tech industry. | 2002 | 15+ |
| Rise of the raid mob | Sullivan, M. J. | Hailstorm Games is under a cyberattack and Jack Delaney’s mind has been invaded by a nefarious hacker; it threatens to take his memories forever. This faceless hacker first targets Jack and then it becomes a global threat. | 2024 | 12+ |
| Robotics engineering : learn it, try it! | Sobey, Ed | Do you want to know how to build a robot yourself? Learn the basics from a real-life expert and get some hands-on experience. | 2018 | 9-14 |
| Saga: 2 (The Avatar Chronicles) | Kostick, Conor | In the virtual world of Saga, Ghost is a fifteen-year-old airboarding anarcho-punk, with no past, no memories, only a growing realisation of her own strange abilities. | 2006 | 12-18 |
| Scary Smart | Mo Gawdat | The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World | 2022 | |
| Secret Coders | Gene Luen Yang | A graphic novel series that combines mystery, adventure, and coding puzzles to make programming exciting. | 2019 | 8-11 |
| Show us who you are | McNicoll, Elle | When Cora’s brother drags her along to his boss’s house, she doesn’t expect to strike up a friendship with Adrien, son of the intimidating CEO of Pomegranate Technologies. Pomegranate is using AI to recreate real people in hologram form. | 2021 | |
| SkyWake Battlefield | Russell, Jamie | Caught up in an alien war on a distant galaxy, Casey and her team are fighting for their lives – but which side should they be on? The second in an exciting and original debut sci-fi adventure trilogy for the gaming generation. | 2022 | 9-12 |
| SkyWake: Endgame | Russell, Jamie | The Red Eyes have taken over the Earth. Can Casey use her new powers to lead the resistance? | 2023 | 9-12 |
| SkyWake: Invasion | Russell, Jamie | An exciting and original debut sci-fi adventure trilogy for the gaming generation, from a screenwriter, film critic and gamer. | 2021 | 9-12 |
| Small town hero | Neate, Patrick | Gabe has no clue what is going on. But the answers may lie with his mysterious uncle Jesse, an online game called Small Town Hero which seems to mirror Gabe’s own life, a long-lost grandmother, and the very fabric of time and the universe. | 2010 | 11-15 |
| Snow Crash | Neal Stephenson | A cyberpunk novel blending virtual reality, ancient linguistics, and corporate intrigue, following a hacker named Hiro Protagonist. | 2011 | 16+ |
| Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies | Nick Bostrom | A thought-provoking exploration of artificial intelligence and its potential future impact. | 2016 | 16+ |
| The basics of game design | Schwartz, Heather E. | Find out how you can get started to make successful game design. | 2019 | 11+ |
| The bug | Ullman, Ellen | The Bug offers a look into the internal lives of people in the technical world. What happens when a baffling software flaw threatens the survival of the humans beings who created it. | 2014 | |
| The Circle | Dave Eggers | A dystopian novel about a tech company that pushes for total transparency and mass surveillance, raising questions about privacy and freedom. | 2014 | 15+ |
| The Code Book | Simon Singh | A history of cryptography, from ancient ciphers to modern encryption techniques, told through engaging narratives. | 2022 | 14+ |
| The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography | Simon Singh | A gripping history of codes and cryptography. | 2000 | 16+ |
| The computer’s voice : from Star Trek to Siri | Faber, Liz W. | A deconstruction of gender through the voices of Siri, HAL 9000, and other computers that talk | 2022 | |
| The Difference Engine | William Gibson | Great Britain, with her calculating-cannons, steam dreadnoughts, machine-guns and information technology, prepares to better the world | 2011 | 16+ |
| The extraordinary life of Alan Turing | Richardson, Michael Lee | Discover his life story in this beautifully illustrated book: A mathematician. A scientist. An inspiration. Alan Turing was a mathematician, scientist and codebreaker who helped defeat the Nazis in the Second World War with his incredible decoding of secret messages from enemy soldiers. | 2020 | 10+ |
| The eye of minds | Dashner, James | Edge-of-your seat adventure. The Eye of Minds is the first book in The Mortality Doctrine, a series set in a world of hyperadvanced technology, cyberterrorists, and gaming beyond your wildest dreams . . . and your worst nightmares. | 2014 | 12-17 |
| The game of lives | Dashner, James | The games Michael is playing have become all too real. Only weeks ago, sinking into the Sleep was fun. The VirtNet combined the most cutting-edge technology and the most sophisticated gaming for a full mind-body experience. And it was Michael’s passion. But now every time Michael sinks, he risks his life. | 2015 | 12-17 |
| The Good War | Strasser, Todd | Ms. Peterson is starting a video game club where the students will playing The Good War, a new game based on World War II. They are divided into two teams and they will be simulating a war they know nothing about yet. Only one team will win. But what starts out as friendly competition, takes an unexpected turn for the worst when an one player takes the game too far. | 2021 | 10-13 |
| The history of the computer | Ignotofsky, Rachel | Explore the fascinating history of the computer, and the people who made them, in this beautifully illustrated guide. | 2022 | 9-11 |
| The Innovators | Walter Isaacson | Chronicles the history of computing and the internet, highlighting key figures like Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, and Steve Jobs. | 2015 | 15+ |
| The Manga Guide to Databases | Mana Takahashi | A unique and entertaining way to learn about databases through a manga-style story. | 2009 | 13-18 |
| The Phoenix Project | Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford | A novel that illustrates IT principles through an engaging workplace drama. | 2018 | 16+ |
| The rule of thoughts | Dashner, James | But the truth is more terrifying than he could ever have imagined. Kaine is in fact a Tangent, a computer program that has come alive. And Kaine’s master plan is to populate the earth entirely with human bodies harbouring Tangent minds. | 2014 | 12-17 |
| The Three-Body Problem | Cixin Liu | A hard sci-fi novel exploring first contact with an alien civilisation and the implications of advanced physics and technology. | 2023 | 16+ |
| The Wild Robot | Peter Brown | A novel about when robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is – but she knows she needs to survive. | 2018 | 7-10 |
| Video Game Revolution: E-sports Revolution | Mauleon, Daniel Montgomery Cole | Find out what makes Esports such a success. | 2020 | 8-14 |
| Video Game Revolution: The History of Gaming | Schwartz, Heather E. | In the 1970s, Atari became the world leader in home video gaming with the Atari 2600. But were Atari the first? And how did video games evolve into the revolutionary, cutting-edge products of today? Find out the answers to these questions and more in this fascinating history of gaming. | 2020 | 8-14 |
| Video games are good for you! | Mauleon, Daniel Montgomery Cole | In the past video games have gotten a bad rep for having a negative effect on players. But many studies have proven the opposite! | 2019 | 7-10 |
| Virus (Dyslexia-friendly) | Bradford, Chris | The second book. Follow the gang as they use their tech skills to avoid being trapped inside a game forever. | 2018 | 9+ |
| Warcross | Marie Lu | A sci-fi thriller set in a future where an immersive virtual reality game dominates society, following a teenage hacker who uncovers a conspiracy. | 2018 | 12-17 |
| Willful Machines | Floreen, Tim | The closeted son of an ultra-conservative president must keep a budding romance secret from his father while protecting himself from a sentient computer program that’s terrorizing the United States | 2015 | 14+ |
