Florence the Data Scientist and Her Magical Bookmobile

The planet's first-ever digital children's book about... data science.

Meet Florence the Data Scientist and Her Magical Bookmobile.

This magical little book centers around a curious kiddo named Beatrice. She's a girl who loves reading, science, dragons, and swings.

However, when a mysterious bookmobile drives down her street, Beatrice is intrigued by the individual behind the wheel... the driver, Florence, is a librarian-of-sorts who knows exactly what books will delight each kid in the neighborhood. Beatrice is then forced to decide whether there is such a thing as "magic" or if this "librarian" knows something the rest of the world doesn't….

Beatrice spends the day recording and analyzing each of her friends' responses to Florence's questions, and discovering and falling in love with the magical predictive power of recording and analyzing trends in data.

Hi. My name is Ryan Kelly.

By day, I work as a marketing executive. By night, I write children's books about puppy dogs, fire-breathing dragons, patterns, and predictions.

Kidding. Kind of.

I dreamed up this idea of writing the world's first-ever children's book about data science at something we call a "hack-a-thon" while at Domino Data Lab, a week long event where employees break up into dynamic and nimble teams and think up big ideas to solve tough problems.

But, to tell you the truth, I didn't write this children's book to just encourage the next generation to get passionate future careers in data science. No. I wrote it because I wanted to encourage the next generation to get passionate about problem-solving. Because, well, let's face it, our world is full of them and the future of humanity will rely heavily on those with the willingness (and passion) to solve them. Mernie Gallagher-Cole has illustrated for children for over 30 years! Her whimsical and charming style can be found in children's books, games, puzzles, party good, e-books, and gaming apps. Mernie lives in West Chester, PA with her husband, kids and cats.