David Karp: The Mastermind Behind Tumblr: Gateway Biographies

By: Karen Latchana Kenney
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
Publication Date: January 2013
ISBN: 978-1467712859
Reviewed by: Deb Fowler
Review Date: April 2013

David Karp attended the Calhoun School in Manhattan where his mother taught. Like many boys his age, he didn’t “excel in any particular subject,” but there was one thing that he loved and that was technology. David was destined to be a techie and by the time he was ten, he was coding. He enjoyed connecting with others online, including his classmates. Eager to learn more about coding, he read “HTML for Dummies” and was soon building small websites. That was when he was eleven, but when David turned fourteen, he “landed an internship that would change his life.” He began working at Frederator studios.

David was shy, but he flourished in an environment where he garnered respect from coders and engineers. They understood what he was talking about. Another change came when his mother “asked how he felt about going back to school that fall.” Naturally school was something he could do without and she offered to homeschool him. David was tutored at home and was able to continue working on his internship. When he was sixteen, he was offered a part-time job with UrbanBaby. Little did they know that their “chief technology officer” was so young because they never met him.

An unexpected crisis in his personal life led to a move that would lead him to Tokyo, Japan. David continued to work for UrbanBaby, but finally the gig was up. They learned about his age and the fact that he was working from “home” half way across the world. Finally he returned to New York and “started his own consultant firm,” Davidville. It was definitely a launching point for his own career. In this book you’ll read about his job as a Web consultant, the sites he built, his employees, how Tumblr was launched, how they developed and improved the site, its explosive development, and you’ll learn many other interesting things about David Karp, “the mastermind behind Tumblr.

This is a fascinating mini-biography of David Karp, a techie who created Tumblr. A lot of young people have dreams, but David is one of those rare individuals who made his come true. He had a passion for coding and with a little bit of luck and a lot of talent he was able to envision Tumblr, his microblogging site. One of the more interesting things is how he tried to fool people into thinking he was much older than he was, something that will intrigue the reader. The layout of the book is simple with numerous full-color photographs. In the back of the book is an index, a list of important dates (1986 to 2012), source notes, a select bibliography, and additional book and website resources to explore.

Quill says: Any young person who has dreams of becoming a programmer, will love reading about David Karp!