The books

A young girl called Lily meets Colin and his friends. Together they help her make a colourful picture, and along the way each friend explains the job they do.

“Every member of the computer team has a different job, but they need to work together to make things happen.”

Written by Matthew Allen. Simple words, big pictures and one idea per story, perfect for reading together at bedtime or in the classroom. Colin the Computer is published by Small Endian Press, a small independent publisher of picture books about how technology works.

• What children will learn
• What each part of a computer actually does
• Why a team works better than one clever friend
• The difference between remembering now and keeping forever
• How a picture goes from an idea to the screen

Colin knows he uses ones and zeros all day long — but he doesn't know how they work. Then a cheerful striped robot called Berty Binary bounces onto the desk and shows him that binary is everywhere: on or off, open or closed, yes or no.

With hands up for one and hands down for zero, Colin and Lily crack Berty's secret code — and hear a mysterious blinking light behind the wall…

“Two little bits and an agreed code — that's all friends need to talk. That's teamwork!”

Written by Matthew Allen. Simple words, big pictures and one idea per story, perfect for reading together at bedtime or in the classroom. Colin the Computer is published by Small Endian Press, a small independent publisher of picture books about how technology works.

• What children will learn
• Computers understand everything as ON or OFF — 1 or 0
• A single 1 or 0 is called a bit
• Two bits make four patterns, and more bits say more
• Friends need an agreed code to send secret messages

A mysterious blinking light behind the desk leads to a brand new friend scampering out into the room. Ronnie the Router blinks his little lights, spins proudly on the rug and explains how the Internet really works.

Ronnie breaks information into tiny packets, sends them whizzing through cables and through the air as Wi-Fi, and the computer at the other end puts them back together again, like a jigsaw puzzle.

“The Internet isn't one thing at all. It's millions of computers all connected together, working like one giant team.”

Written by Matthew Allen. Simple words, big pictures and one idea per story, perfect for reading together at bedtime or in the classroom. Colin the Computer is published by Small Endian Press, a small independent publisher of picture books about how technology works.

• What children will learn
• A router connects you to the great big Internet
• The Internet is millions of computers all around the world, all connected
• Information is broken into tiny pieces called packets
• Packets travel through cables and Wi-Fi, then fit back together

A stripey gentleman called Barry Barcode strolls onto the desk beside the shopping, and a spinning square called Quincy zips in after him. Together they show Colin and Lily how shops read codes in the blink of an eye.

Barry's stripes are a number in disguise, and Quincy's three corner squares let a scanner read him sideways or upside down.

“Barcodes hold a little and QR codes hold a lot — Barry and Quincy are a team, each with their own job to do.”

Written by Matthew Allen. Simple words, big pictures and one idea per story, perfect for reading together at bedtime or in the classroom. Colin the Computer is published by Small Endian Press, a small independent publisher of picture books about how technology works.

• What children will learn
• A barcode is a row of black lines that stands for a number
• The shop's computer looks up the price — the stripes don't hold it
• QR is short for Quick Response, and QR codes hold much more
• Quincy's three corner squares let a scanner read him from any angle

Email and digital communication.

Quiz coming soon

Quiz coming soon

Cloud storage and syncing.

Quiz coming soon

Passwords, scams and online safety.

Quiz coming soon

Social media, sharing images and privacy.

Quiz coming soon

What AI is (and isn't).

Quiz coming soon