I just bought some e-readers for my niece and nephew, and I'd like to get them started by loading them with some high quality books. Anyone have recommendations for engaging books for teens/preteens?
Nephew is 14 and he's really into tech. I think he mostly wants the e-reader because it's an e-ink screen that he can hack on, so that archetype should be easy for the kind of crowd that follows me. He was also asking a lot of questions about physics when I was there, so high quality explainers for stuff like relativity and quantum mechanics aimed at a young teen level would probably be good.
Niece is 12 and insists that she will not use the e-reader. My wife thinks that she will like anything that says boys are stupid (this makes her sound vapid, but she is quite sharp). Tougher nut to crack, obviously.
Fiction and non-fiction recommendations are fine.
@pganssle Sure, from a simple perspective, Reepicheep is a crazy mouse with a sword. Through the color of the world and its events, you fully realize the depth of his beauty. We can do the same for ourselves.
@pganssle Here are fiction recommendations based on what I enjoyed when I was in that age range. Both are starts to longer series in case they're well received.
Relativistic effects are used in Ender's Game to allow characters to age at different rates, and it was my assigned summer reading for freshman year at my all-boys high school, so that's my recommendation for your nephew.
Sabriel has a competent female protagonist, but her enemies are so powerful that she has to outthink them more than outfight them. I read it in sixth grade, so that's my recommendation for your niece.
For nonfiction you could consider Randall Munroe's books (Thing Explainer, What If?, and How To) for your nephew. I don't have much idea here for your niece, so I'll offer the Golden Compass as a second fiction choice for her.
There's a PDF version of #2600magazine
@pganssle, I grew up with the Children of the Red King and used to marathon through them every summer. Really charming series, I think it's the only fiction I know (to be fair I don't read much) that I'd recommend to all demographics.
TBH I didn't read much non-fiction either, and most exact science stuff I did would require high-school-level math, so here are some more suitable suggestions:
@pganssle i read joy of physics when i was around that age and i found it fun to read, touching most of major stuff in physics
as for fiction, secrets of immortal nicholas flamel is a YA series i don’t find a lot of people talking about. it’s low fantasy with historical and mythical figures as characters, if he’s into that.
@pganssle your niece might enjoy "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman. I know my daughter loved it (and I did as well).
@pganssle Diane Duane’s Young Wizard books.
@pganssle If either of them are into fantasy, there is *so much* good kids’ fantasy these days. I recently read “Elatsoe” by Darcie Little Badger and really enjoyed it. Also enjoyed “To Shape a Dragon’s Breath” by Moniquill Blackgoose, though I’m more cautious about that recommendation because it’s the first of a series that’s not finished, which can be frustrating. Classics: Diana Wynne Jones’s Chrestomanci series, Diane Duane “So You Want to Be a Wizard” (the latter more for the 14YO)
@pganssle If they are somehow not into fantasy per se: E.L. Konigsburg “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler” and Ellen Raskin “The Westing Game” are ones that I returned to repeatedly at approximately age 10-12 (which is funny because they both have mystery plots, so you’d think they’re not super re-readable. And yet.)
Oh hey, next time we chat I hope we can talk about the Blackgoose, because reading that caused me to see not only Temeraire but also the modern Murderbot-Ancillaryverse-Wayfarer-Ursula Vernon subgenre in a different light
@brainwane Oh, looking forward to it!
@pganssle The Little Brother series by Cory Doctorow is excellent. They are young-adult sci-fi novels set in the near-future.
@pganssle Oh, and Cory always makes his eBooks and audiobooks DRM-free. He's a mensch.
@pganssle I think the classics like anything by Jules Verne should be noted here. Also Chronicles of Narnia was very important to me, as they were beautiful but not impossibly challenging when it comes to vocabulary. I think the fantasy and science fiction combination gives a lot of room to encapsulate the unique interests of the reader, yet equally paint the landscape of human context, challenges, and meaning.