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.

Zoë Tucker is passionate about picture books and spends (almost) every day in the world of children’s publishing. Working as an art director and designer, she has the opportunity to work with authors, artists, and publishers from all over the world. Zoë lives and works on the south coast of England, with her husband, Adam, and her cat, Murray, and she uses a computer (almost) every day! Ada and the Number-Crunching Machine is her debut as a picture book author.

Rachel Katstaller is an illustrator from tiny tropical El Salvador. After attending the Summer Residency in Illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2014, Rachel decided to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a children’s book illustrator. Since then, Rachel has relocated to the Austrian Alps along with her cat, Hemingway.