Girls who code

Josh Funk

Pearl has been working all summer to build the perfect sandcastle, but every attempt is derailed by chaos—frisbees that won’t behave and puppies with their own plans. With her trusty robot friend Pascal, she discovers that the solution isn’t just more effort, but smarter thinking: using code to plan, control, and coordinate the steps needed to succeed. This playful story blends early coding concepts with problem-solving, persistence, and the joy of experimentation. Written in Josh Funk’s lively, kid-friendly style, it turns a beachside challenge into an accessible introduction to computational thinking—where creativity meets logic, one command at a time.