36 pages • 1-hour read
Secret Coders
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Themes
Finding Your Place in a New Environment
One major theme is how challenging it can be to find one’s place when you are thrust into a new environment. Sometimes, a person will find their niche in surprising ways if they stay curious and open-minded. At first, Hopper does not adjust well to her new school. She is angry at her mom for moving them there. She misses her father and doesn’t have any friends. The adults at her school are creepy at best and openly hostile at worst—including her own mother, the principal, and the custodian, Mr. Bee.
Hopper feels a glimmer of hope when she sees Eni holding a basketball and tries to start a conversation with him. Josh is with Eni, though, and he rejects Hopper while Eni unfortunately accidentally flings pudding on her. Hopper feels that her one chance at making a friend is gone. She tried to connect over an obvious common interest, and it didn’t work, so she gave up.
She ends up finding her real place within the school and as Eni’s friend in a completely unexpected way. When she is sitting alone at lunch, Eni comes to talk to her and that is when they discover the secret about the birds’ binary code eyes. Hopper discovers that she is interested in learning about coding and programming from Eni, and they connect over their interest in solving the mysteries about their creepy school. In doing so, she not only finds friendship but also gains a sense of purpose in a school that initially felt unfamiliar and unwelcoming. This highlights the idea that belonging is often forged through shared goals and mutual discovery rather than through surface-level similarities.
The interest in coding was not as visible to Hopper as the basketball in Eni’s hands, but it turned out to be a much more powerful connection between the two of them. The novel communicates the idea that when you are looking for a place to fit in, you need to keep an open mind and allow yourself to connect with people and interests that you never expected to find. Hopper’s journey demonstrates that true belonging is about more than just fitting in—it’s about finding people who share your passions and make you feel valued. By the end of the novel, even Josh seems interested in learning about coding and is not as mean to Hopper as he was at the beginning.
Computer Coding as a Fun and Accessible Discipline
It is clear that through The Secret Coders novels, Gene Luen Yang wants to communicate the message that computer coding can be fun and accessible even to young readers. This is a subject that is very important to Yang, and he travels to schools around the country to demonstrate how coding can be taught and used in schools. Through his novels, he communicates this message by creating diverse and ordinary characters to learn alongside readers and using simple and fun visual aids to illustrate difficult concepts.
Hopper and her classmates are seventh graders and have not taken any formal computer programming classes, but they still learn basic concepts like binary code and programming commands. Mr. Bee is the school custodian, not a high-ranking teacher or administrator, and still possesses this unique knowledge. Showing a diverse set of characters learning and using computer programming dispels the idea that it is too complicated or abstract for many people to learn. By positioning characters from different backgrounds and levels of expertise as successful learners, Yang reinforces the idea that coding is not an exclusive skill—it is a language anyone can master with practice and curiosity.
Yang uses visual aids such as the birds with four eyes, the columns of boxes and pennies, and the robotic turtle to illustrate concepts like binary code, programming, and commands in a fun and simple way. The idea is that anyone can learn concepts about coding and programming, and a computer isn’t even required. This approach demystifies coding, making it feel less like a rigid discipline and more like a creative and interactive experience, akin to solving puzzles or uncovering hidden secrets.
The epigraph that Yang chose to introduce the novel connects with the idea that coding can be fun and sometimes even feel like magic. The co-founder of the programming language Logo said that the early years of programming felt like they existed in a space “between magic and so-called rationality” (i), a time when the possibilities seemed endless. Hopper and Eni bring this same fascination and excitement to their learning about programming; their new knowledge is helping them solve mysteries at their school and makes them feel powerful and smart in a way they haven’t felt before. Yang’s portrayal of coding as an adventure, rather than just an academic subject, aims to encourage young readers to see it as a tool for creativity and problem-solving rather than just lines of text on a screen.
Curiosity as a Positive Trait in a Child
Another message that Yang communicates through this graphic novel is that it is important to encourage curiosity in children, even if the result is irritating for adults.
Eni and Hopper share traits of being observant and curious. They notice the strange four-eyed birds around school when no one else seems to. Rather than shrug and mind their own business, they want to get to the bottom of every strange thing about their school. This sets them apart from their peers; Josh and Eni’s other friends do not seem to notice or care that mysterious things are happening at their school.
Throughout the novel, the adults in the story discourage curiosity because it irritates them, challenges them, or threatens them. Mr. Bee threatens Hopper and Eni when they get close to breaking into his shed. Principal Dean and Ms. Hu are not interested in hearing what Hopper and Eni have to say and dole out punishments for their explorative behavior.
Though the adults send the message that their curiosity is irritating and inconvenient, the overall message is that Hopper and Eni are right to question authority and continue exploring. Ironically, by the end of the novel, Mr. Bee encourages them to keep learning to code and to keep seeking answers even when he was their most vocal antagonist at the beginning. This shift underscores an important lesson: Curiosity is not just about uncovering answers but also about changing perspectives. Even those who initially resist new ideas can eventually come to embrace them when confronted with undeniable discoveries. For Hopper and Eni, curiosity leads to learning to code, uncovering secrets, and pursuing adventure. Their ability to persist despite resistance demonstrates that curiosity, when paired with determination, can be a transformative force—not just for individuals but for entire communities.
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