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Book for a 12 yr old


midtown

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My son is not the biggest reader but he loves to learn and is very bright.  I'm trying to get him to read more.   Gets straight A's in a STEM program and in 7th now.  He is in the robotics club and will compete in FIRST.   He was bored on a drive and picked up my book that was in the seat and started reading it.   it was Factfulness so I gave him Freakonomics to read but he said he didn't understand a lot of the content.  So the question is are there good books like Freakonomics, or Gladwells books that a younger kid could read?  I've googled but didn't find much. 

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Of Mice and Men if you want him to understand Texas football.

This also isn't what you are asking for, but the Martian trilogy from Kim Stanley Robinson might interest him, however it's got some sex in it.  Lots and lots of details about the science behind a colony on a Mars, but with the human interest stuff fully covered.

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In 7th grade, I read godfather, the sphere, last of the Mohicans, etc for my Kealing adv English class ... they aren’t stem but I say classics that don’t suck would be good. Maybe 1984? Or any Michael C. Books like andromeda strain or Jurassic park might be more sciency. 

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On 9/20/2018 at 8:29 AM, The University said:

What_If_xkcd.jpg

My son is loving this book. Thank you.  He's always asking me questions that completely stump me and my friends call me "cliff claven" because I'm full of worthless facts.   I'm going to put it on my list when he's done. 

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Mine has been into Roblox and Fortnite, so he's been reading those Diary of a Roblox Noob and Diary of a Fortinte Noob. I read one to him and...they are not great literature. I doesn't read like it had any kind of editor with bad grammar and sentence structure throughout. However he thinks it's funny and he likes that the settings and situations it talks about are familiar to him from playing the games. 

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Little different direction - but has he tried the Harry Potter books? My daughter is 12 and loves them, read em all 4 times. Amazingly complex stories imo.

What about Jurassic Park? Lots of science and philosophy in that book.

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On February 28, 2020 at 8:24 AM, tbone_ said:

Robert Heinlein is great science fiction too.

Sure, give your 12-year-old a copy of Stranger in a Strange Land. Or Friday. 

Tunnel in the Sky would work. The Puppet Masters too. Let him read Starship Troopers so it will ruin the movie for him. 

Edited by WhatTheBuck
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I’m sure this topic is dead after the last couple of years but if anyone is still interested:

All 3 of my kids loved the Encyclopedia Brown books from about 8-12 yo. Not very adult and not much science in them but I thought they did a decent job of helping to develop critical thinking skills. 

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22 minutes ago, Billy Pilgrim said:

I’m sure this topic is dead after the last couple of years but if anyone is still interested:

All 3 of my kids loved the Encyclopedia Brown books from about 8-12 yo. Not very adult and not much science in them but I thought they did a decent job of helping to develop critical thinking skills. 

I vaguely know if these but somehow missed these growing up.  Think the 9 year old might like them. 

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The first Isaac Asimov book I read was Pebble in the Sky. I was probably around 12 when I read it. Maybe a little younger. It’s part of the same universe as the Foundation series. It starts in America in the 1940’s. The Galactic Empire novels, the Robot novels, the Foundation novels, they’re all part of the same story and it stretches over thousands and thousands of years. They’re great books for young people. What they lack in depth they make for in breadth. I can’t say in which order to read them. Maybe chronologically by when they were written? But when I got to the end of Foundation and Earth, the last in the series, it blew my mind. I could see it coming but it was just a joy to behold. It was perfect. (No spoilers.)

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Little different direction - but has he tried the Harry Potter books? My daughter is 12 and loves them, read em all 4 times. Amazingly complex stories imo.

What about Jurassic Park? Lots of science and philosophy in that book.

My nearly 15yo is now reading Game of Thrones. So there’s that.
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Given his age, he could likely enjoy Cosmos by Carl Sagan and the companion 13 episode documentary. I recommend the book most of all because reading text  is good for children in this day of video and smartphone. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space contains the description with which a lot of people are familiar and is one of my favorites.

carl sagan cosmos audio

Crab Juice: Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

 

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Bumping because I "read" this last week in a few days and a 12 yo could do the same. Me and the boy are getting into astronomy and this is a fantastic guide meant as an intro but it also describes pretty complex concepts in easy language. If he is STEM and is curious about whats up there at all or wants a casual side hobby, consider it. $12 or so on Amazon.

The book also makes clear that H.A. Rey, of Curious George fame, was a really smart and funny person.

1335731990_thestars.jpg.79355bac752e177a5d928518b14855c4.jpg

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You may already have this...but I have enjoyed sharing "The Way Things Work" with my son. It's not a typical book, more of a reference / coffee table book, but my son really enjoys reading about these fundamentals (he's a few years younger than yours though). That said, like your son, mine is not much of a reader and as such, he is drawn to more graphic novels. I feel like this book is similar to graphic novels, but more technical vs story.

 

1897235188_ScreenShot2022-01-09at9_46_30AM.thumb.png.bbd6a68c2e4736199f93e7697a900084.png

I was also going to recommend a slightly more advanced book called "Thinking Physics". Apparently it's only available used and it's crazy expensive now...wtf. Anyhow, if you can get your hand on a copy, it's another great resource for realistic explanations of how science drives the products that we use in our daily lives.

Edited by Izhmash
Removed Amazon link, Added pic of book cover
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On 6/8/2021 at 9:03 AM, Billy Pilgrim said:

I’m sure this topic is dead after the last couple of years but if anyone is still interested:

All 3 of my kids loved the Encyclopedia Brown books from about 8-12 yo. Not very adult and not much science in them but I thought they did a decent job of helping to develop critical thinking skills. 

Yeah, liked those as a kid.  Also liked the Mad Scientists Club, and need to read that to my son.  

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When I was around that age I read a good bit of Asimov, Orwell, Bradbury, etc but many of those works have already been mentioned.  

I would like to suggest some history, in particular A Short History of the World, H.G. Wells.  It's not a premier historical read by any means but it reads really well and I gained an appreciation for history and humankind as a progressing and evolving story, interlinked with knowledge and discovery.  It can definitely feed a hunger to be part of what comes next

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On 1/9/2022 at 9:45 AM, Izhmash said:

You may already have this...but I have enjoyed sharing "The Way Things Work" with my son. It's not a typical book, more of a reference / coffee table book, but my son really enjoys reading about these fundamentals (he's a few years younger than yours though). That said, like your son, mine is not much of a reader and as such, he is drawn to more graphic novels. I feel like this book is similar to graphic novels, but more technical vs story.

 

1897235188_ScreenShot2022-01-09at9_46_30AM.thumb.png.bbd6a68c2e4736199f93e7697a900084.png

I was also going to recommend a slightly more advanced book called "Thinking Physics". Apparently it's only available used and it's crazy expensive now...wtf. Anyhow, if you can get your hand on a copy, it's another great resource for realistic explanations of how science drives the products that we use in our daily lives.

My parents got me this for Christmas when I was 12 and they put a nice inscription in it.  It definitely influenced me.  I finished my Aerospace degree, but didn't pursue it as a career.  I gave the updated version to my son at 10 for Christmas, also with a nice inscription.  We have had fun comparing the old vs new technologies, especially in computers.

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Speaking of Isaac Asimov. I can’t recall exactly the order I read his books. The first one I read may have been Pebble in the Sky which I later discovered was in the same universe as the Foundation novels (as well as others). I remember getting a box set of four paperbacks that included The Gods Themselves and a collection of short stories called Nine Tomorrows. I can’t remember what the other two books were. But I remember the first book I read in that set was Nine Tomorrows and the first story in that book was titled Profession. It’s always been a favorite of mine.

You can read it here:

https://www.inf.ufpr.br/renato/profession.html

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