I've been moving with the bodies that move to a different sound

[sovay]

I just taught my niece a simple substitution cipher and within ten minutes she had correctly deciphered a short message I had written to her. I could watch her make the connections, exclaiming as she recognized individual encrypted letters without having to refer to the key. Then she drew a picture at the bottom of the page to make it clear she had not just copied out but understood. Morse code, Playfair, one-time pads, here we come.

Comments

[sorcyress]

I don't know how you feel about mid-century boy's books, but "Alvin's Secret Code" by Clifford B Hicks is, I feel, the gold standard for "child learns about cryptogruffy" (misspelling intentional)

Some of the adventure story plot is a little unrealistic, but the background cryptography lessons are *fantastic*. You and she could make scytales!!!

~Sor

[sovay]

I don't know how you feel about mid-century boy's books, but "Alvin's Secret Code" by Clifford B Hicks is, I feel, the gold standard for "child learns about cryptogruffy"

I grew up on a lot of mid-century children's books of assorted genders, but I don't think I read that one, so I will check it out! Thank you for the recommendation.

(I don't know where I learned about scytales, though.)