Just So Stories

Harper Collins Australia

June 2024

• ISBN: 9781460764879
• ISBN 10: 1460764870
• Imprint: HarperCollins AU
• RRP: $16.99

What a pleasure it was to read the fourth in this wonderful series early this year, and to, once again, be privileged to create the teaching notes to support Jackie’s work. With her customary diligence, she has dug deep into research to deliver to readers a more personal and engaging look at an extraordinary female scientist.

Ada Lovelace, as she is most commonly known, has regularly been featured in my libraries for Women in Science, Outstanding Women, and IWD type events and displays. She is an inspiration to our girls and young women of today, as a person who rose above challenges to achieve something quite literally unexpected and out-of-the-ordinary for her time.

When Herstory re-appears and takes Ming back in time for this new adventure, the girl is initially quite confused about who her ‘target’ is. When she is delivered to a wealthy home in the guise of a maid, she makes friends with another young girl even lower in status, Hepzibah who clearly has the ability and the ambition to achieve great things.

But, in fact, the object of Ming’s latest time travel, is the sickly girl confined to bed, with her eyes bandaged and with a physical fraility that implies she may not survive her long illness.

Ada Byron/Ada, Countess of Lovelace is considered now as one of the pioneers of computational thinking/computers and known for her focused work with Charles Babbage. Daughter of the dissolute poet, Lord Byron, with a ferocious mother, the girl had a strange childhood and even stranger adolescence, marred by severe illness (measles which could be a death sentence in Georgian times), followed by an adulthood that was both troubled and, often, scandalous.

That aside, there is no doubt that she had a fine mind and a greater grasp of mathematics and science than most of her contemporaries, women or men. Her work with Babbage was of the utmost importance to the foundation of computing as we know it today.

Ming’s experience in the home where Ada was recuperating is a rich insight into life in Georgian England, thanks to Jackie’s always indefatigable and meticulous research. This slice of life would add much to any HASS unit of inquiry into the social structure, economic climate, politics and daily living of this period.

It was complete joy for a history nerd such as myself to dive again into Ming’s time-travels to put together some comprehensive notes. [NB, at this stage the notes in their final format have not yet appeared on the HC site but hopefully they will be available via Teachers’ Hub soon), not to mention seeing a character with my name 😉.

I have been looking forward to the next in this outstanding series since I finished this one, and can promise you that the new one will be equally as enthralling as the others in this series. I feel confident that most will have already picked up on this series, and hopefully be promoting it but also employing it in your units of inquiry. Jackie never fails to deliver extraordinary historical fiction and I know I am not alone with my passion for them.

My highest recommendation for this title and this series, in fact 5 💻💻💻💻💻. Where would be today without the work of Ada and the other early pioneers of our modern technology.