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Children's Books for Geek Parents?

Posted by Cliff on from the a-niche-looking-for-an-author dept.

Lithium_Golem asks: "My wonderful daughter will be nine months old next month and I figure that it's time to buy her some new bedtime story material. My problem is that I can't find any children's books that describe fathers as white collar workers, let alone computer geeks. For example, many of the stories I find portray the ideal father as a fireman, carpenter or truck driver. I'm not looking for anything specific like 'I love my dad because he's a programmer,' I'm just looking for a story that will help her understand what I do for a living when she's older. So, readers of Slashdot, does anyone know of a children's book written by or for geeks, or should I write my own?"

15 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Easy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just try any old technical manual off your shelf. They'll know just what you go through every day, and it'll put 'em right to sleep, too.

    Next?

  2. Everybody Poops by nuxx · · Score: 4, Funny

    I *must* recommend Everybody Poops or any of it's companion books such as The Gas We Pass.

    1. Re:Everybody Poops by 0racle · · Score: 3, Funny

      There is also the less popular, "Nobody poops but you."

      --
      "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
    2. Re:Everybody Poops by Bullet-Dodger · · Score: 3, Funny
      Peter: Well, you see, we're catholic...

      Salesman: Ah, then you'll want "You're A Naughty, Naughty Boy And That's Concentrated Evil Coming Out The Back Of You".

  3. Guilt Angle by pipingguy · · Score: 3, Funny


    Just spend lots of time with her at that age. They are really neat when they are so small.

    Change her diapers, feed her, burp her, carry her around, etc. She may never remember you doing these things for her, but you will.

    It also helps later on when your inevitable foot comes down. It's much easier to do so when you can cite "all the things I did for you, and here's the video evidence".

    I'm assuming you have a video camera.

  4. Recommendations by Ridgelift · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd recommend printing off Microsoft product descriptions from their website. They have a huge collection of fairy tales.

    --
    Ruby on Rails Screencast
  5. Al Franken's latest. by Noodlenose · · Score: 2, Funny
    "Lies and the lying liars who tell them" is not only funny and gives your daughter a solid political foundation, but also portrays the author as a pretty geeky dad, caring well for his children but also up for silly pranks.

    It also teaches her a solid mistrust of all things Fox, which should always be encouraged.

    ...and don't forget to vote.

  6. Don't set your kid up for failure by gmhowell · · Score: 3, Funny

    For example, many of the stories I find portray the ideal father as a fireman, carpenter or truck driver

    Those jobs can't (yet) be outsourced. Your fluffy computer job can. A healthy respect for those lowly blue/grey collar jobs is a good thing. With any luck, my son will be a plumber when he grows up. Lord knows one thing we'll never have down pat is how to pump shit out of our houses.

    --
    Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  7. Write your own ... by Breakerofthings · · Score: 4, Funny
    Be sure to write it in perl, basic, or maybe logo ... at least pseudocode :)

    #!/usr/bin/perl

    my $jane = Girl->new(age => 7);
    my $spot = Doggie::JackRusselTerrier->new();

    $jane->see($s pot);
    $jane->see($spot->run);

    Wow. I can't believe I just wrote that ... must get out more...

    The possible titles amuse me ...
    Junie B. Jones Determines that Cleaning Her Room is NP-Complete
    The Little Finite State Automaton That Could
    Goldilocks and the Three SysAdmins
    The Monsters in My Code

    OK, it's late. My apologies for subjecting you all to my incoherent rambling ... mods, please mod me '-1 lame'

    BTW, I tell my daughter that I write video games (I am a developer, but not a game developer) because, at 8, that is the only software that she can relate to.
    1. Re:Write your own ... by Breakerofthings · · Score: 1, Funny

      OMG. I need to get out more;
      You REALLY need to get out more! :)

  8. Ping! by ibbey · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, not so much about Geek parents, but there's always this classic childrens book.

  9. Re:I told my daughter... by Clueless+Moron · · Score: 2, Funny
    ... that Daddy tells computers what to do.

    You're going to have a lot to answer for the first time she stumbles into a porn site or gets some viagra spam.

  10. SuperProgrammer by Glonoinha · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yea - creating a hero from a software or hardware guy is as easy as unplugging the router before you leave the house to go to work. By 9am you are getting calls from home because the kids can't surf the net and wife can't 'do email'. By the time you get home the natives are restless, or perhaps on the verge of panic.

    You get home, put a bath towel on your back like a cape and ~fly~ around the house from computer to computer using your ~x-ray~ vision to ~diagnose the problem~. Then you plug in the router, fix the Internet, and you are a hero.

    Works for me about once a month.

    --
    Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
  11. Re:Buy Dr. Suess books... by james11111 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes, I believe that these books contain many pictures of a Red Hat.

  12. Re:Just amaze her by anakin357 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Otherwise, if you're really interested in having her see a geek as a role model, one piece of advice -- why not at least wait until you can get her to successfully add 1 + 1?
    Just don't teach her binary at a young age, because I would imagine that teachers do not like their pupils argueing that 1 + 1 = 10.

    --
    http://www.fsckin.com/