I am assuming you’re trying not to overly bias the responses, but there’s obviously a lot of facts about this particular 11 year old that could very much change the recommendations. Without that context, I’m trying to think back to what I was reading at that age (in the late 90s, so not much new on my list, there may be better out there now), or what I wish I’d known to read at that age. I think at that age the thing I most enjoyed and most grew from were books that taught me how to play with concepts and ideas in a principled way in order to think about them in new contexts, as well as some history of science and math.
Any of the popular math books by Robert and Ellen Kaplan or Ian Stewart, including Ian Stewart’s fiction. Things like The Art of the Infinite, or Flatterland.
Carl Sagan’s Cosmos or The Dragons of Eden
Basically anything by Asimov. Also Terry Pratchett if the kid is more fantasy- than sci-fi- oriented (less science, but plenty of philosophy and reasoning about the implications of new and old ideas)
Alice in Wonderland if you include context about what Lewis Caroll was really talking about. Also The Phantom Tollbooth if they haven’t read it yet. Even older classics like things by Jules Verne and HG Wells can be interesting choices. If the kid has only ever read more modern sci-fi and fantasy, it can be interesting to learn how people used to think about the future or other worlds. I personally really liked Last and First Men and Starmaker; I think I read those around the end of high school, but nothing in them was particularly advanced IIRC.
It might be a little early for Godel Escher Bach unless they’re particularly into formal mathematics, but probably in another 2-3 years that’s one to put on the list.
Plato and Aristotle. At this age the kid has technically been taught all the math and science needed to understand anything they wrote.
This one is more dependent on specific interests, but growing up I loved to cook, and lived in a house of people who loved to cook. For me, books like On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee (and later, The Food Lab by Kenji Lopez-Alt and Cooking for Geeks by Jeff Potter) were basically my introduction to organic chemistry. In my sister’s words, for me, the kitchen is just another lab. They also helped build some very useful life skills.
Not sure if there’s a specific reason for limiting to just books, but there’s also some excellent youtube channels I’d recommend to such a kid. Veritasium, eigenchris, Vsauce, numberphile, Isaac Arthur, and even things like TierZoo can be great. Some of the videos may be a bit advanced for now, but just skip around and explore.
Similarly, if they don’t mind video games that look old and dated, I learned more from playing Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri than I did from almost any dozen books at that age. Apparently there is now an open source remake in progress?
This is also an “11 is probably too young for most” recommendation, there are some parts that are somewhat disturbing, but Ra by qntm (also available as a free online serial) is excellent but very weird. It has the hardest of hard magic systems. Like, literally, the word “mage” in story is “MagE” because they’re a kind of engineer. There’s even a whole appendix on why “make something invisible” is actually really complicated.
If they like literature and wordplay as well as more mathy technical stuff, Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books are a lot of fun. Surprising density of math, philosophy, and sci-fi concepts for a series about jumping into classic novels. Good for sparking “Hey, what are they referencing here?” conversations.
The context is: The kid reads encyclopaedia for fun, really interested in the history of technology, likes Randall Munroe books, but I was looking for fiction to provide a more complex and nuanced view of world, going beyond the bare technicalities.
Ok, then sounds like they enjoy a mix of hard science and absurd humor. If they’re anything like I was, then one way to get someone like that to pay attention to stories and people involves choosing ones that have a good amount of worldbuilding with well-designed, comprehensible systems and technologies you can think about as you read, and that reward paying close attention with details that turn out to matter way later.
Ian Stewart’s fiction has a similar vibe as Randall Munroe’s books, but using the math and humor to tell stories instead of teach science.
The Robert and Ellen Kaplan books are not fiction, but they’re half trying to teach math through creative play with concepts (they were also the founders of The Math Circle) half history of math. If you want them to start applying what they’re learning in real life, this is a good bit of nonfiction to suggest.
And I’d definitely try Asimov, especially the Foundation books as others have mentioned, for a hard sci-fi story that’s really about the people and civilization and the forces that move and shape them.
The stuff I put in #4 pushes more towards being story-forward, but again with a mix of hard sci-fi and playful absurdity.
#10 has that too, but really appreciating those relies a lot on being at least familiar with the general tropes and plots of classic literature and famous authors. Then again, it’s a great book for someone who likes to randomly stop reading and look things up when there’s a reference they don’t know. Lots of potential for pointing towards other interests and gaining cultural literacy.
I’d recommend Terry Pratchett to anyone. You don’t have to read Discworld in order, you can focus on the arcs that you like. The witch-focused books are really centered on individual responsibility and critical thinking. The wizard-focused books have a recurring theme of the limitations of academic research and high technology. The Death-focused books have a theme of unpacking myth and culture. And the Moist von Lipwig books are about how new technologies reshape society. They’re the kind of books you can just read for fun and then, months and years later, you think back on and have a-ha! moments. And if you’re at all worried about this kid needing to understand that other people aren’t always open and honest about their intentions (good or not), petty much every storyline has characters acting for complex reasons you have to read between the lines at first to see.
I’d hold off on Godel Escher Bach for a couple of years, but when they’re ready for it, it basically alternates between math and comp sci, philosophy of math and comp sci, and absurdist humor.
Doesn’t sound like Ra would be a good fit. Maybe in another 5-7 years.
And if you don’t mind pushing a video game, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri is basically a fictional encyclopedia of the future. I haven’t tried that remake, but if it’s far enough along to run well, someone like you described would probably really enjoy it and learn a lot from it. Take a look at this list of quotes from the game and you’ll see what I mean. The Civ games have nations as the factions, but in SMAC each faction has a core philosophy, and you have freedom to create your own units by mixing and matching technologies.
I am assuming you’re trying not to overly bias the responses, but there’s obviously a lot of facts about this particular 11 year old that could very much change the recommendations. Without that context, I’m trying to think back to what I was reading at that age (in the late 90s, so not much new on my list, there may be better out there now), or what I wish I’d known to read at that age. I think at that age the thing I most enjoyed and most grew from were books that taught me how to play with concepts and ideas in a principled way in order to think about them in new contexts, as well as some history of science and math.
Any of the popular math books by Robert and Ellen Kaplan or Ian Stewart, including Ian Stewart’s fiction. Things like The Art of the Infinite, or Flatterland.
Carl Sagan’s Cosmos or The Dragons of Eden
Basically anything by Asimov. Also Terry Pratchett if the kid is more fantasy- than sci-fi- oriented (less science, but plenty of philosophy and reasoning about the implications of new and old ideas)
Alice in Wonderland if you include context about what Lewis Caroll was really talking about. Also The Phantom Tollbooth if they haven’t read it yet. Even older classics like things by Jules Verne and HG Wells can be interesting choices. If the kid has only ever read more modern sci-fi and fantasy, it can be interesting to learn how people used to think about the future or other worlds. I personally really liked Last and First Men and Starmaker; I think I read those around the end of high school, but nothing in them was particularly advanced IIRC.
It might be a little early for Godel Escher Bach unless they’re particularly into formal mathematics, but probably in another 2-3 years that’s one to put on the list.
Plato and Aristotle. At this age the kid has technically been taught all the math and science needed to understand anything they wrote.
This one is more dependent on specific interests, but growing up I loved to cook, and lived in a house of people who loved to cook. For me, books like On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee (and later, The Food Lab by Kenji Lopez-Alt and Cooking for Geeks by Jeff Potter) were basically my introduction to organic chemistry. In my sister’s words, for me, the kitchen is just another lab. They also helped build some very useful life skills.
Not sure if there’s a specific reason for limiting to just books, but there’s also some excellent youtube channels I’d recommend to such a kid. Veritasium, eigenchris, Vsauce, numberphile, Isaac Arthur, and even things like TierZoo can be great. Some of the videos may be a bit advanced for now, but just skip around and explore.
Similarly, if they don’t mind video games that look old and dated, I learned more from playing Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri than I did from almost any dozen books at that age. Apparently there is now an open source remake in progress?
This is also an “11 is probably too young for most” recommendation, there are some parts that are somewhat disturbing, but Ra by qntm (also available as a free online serial) is excellent but very weird. It has the hardest of hard magic systems. Like, literally, the word “mage” in story is “MagE” because they’re a kind of engineer. There’s even a whole appendix on why “make something invisible” is actually really complicated.
If they like literature and wordplay as well as more mathy technical stuff, Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books are a lot of fun. Surprising density of math, philosophy, and sci-fi concepts for a series about jumping into classic novels. Good for sparking “Hey, what are they referencing here?” conversations.
Thanks! A lot of stuff to check here.
The context is: The kid reads encyclopaedia for fun, really interested in the history of technology, likes Randall Munroe books, but I was looking for fiction to provide a more complex and nuanced view of world, going beyond the bare technicalities.
Ok, then sounds like they enjoy a mix of hard science and absurd humor. If they’re anything like I was, then one way to get someone like that to pay attention to stories and people involves choosing ones that have a good amount of worldbuilding with well-designed, comprehensible systems and technologies you can think about as you read, and that reward paying close attention with details that turn out to matter way later.
Ian Stewart’s fiction has a similar vibe as Randall Munroe’s books, but using the math and humor to tell stories instead of teach science.
The Robert and Ellen Kaplan books are not fiction, but they’re half trying to teach math through creative play with concepts (they were also the founders of The Math Circle) half history of math. If you want them to start applying what they’re learning in real life, this is a good bit of nonfiction to suggest.
And I’d definitely try Asimov, especially the Foundation books as others have mentioned, for a hard sci-fi story that’s really about the people and civilization and the forces that move and shape them.
The stuff I put in #4 pushes more towards being story-forward, but again with a mix of hard sci-fi and playful absurdity.
#10 has that too, but really appreciating those relies a lot on being at least familiar with the general tropes and plots of classic literature and famous authors. Then again, it’s a great book for someone who likes to randomly stop reading and look things up when there’s a reference they don’t know. Lots of potential for pointing towards other interests and gaining cultural literacy.
I’d recommend Terry Pratchett to anyone. You don’t have to read Discworld in order, you can focus on the arcs that you like. The witch-focused books are really centered on individual responsibility and critical thinking. The wizard-focused books have a recurring theme of the limitations of academic research and high technology. The Death-focused books have a theme of unpacking myth and culture. And the Moist von Lipwig books are about how new technologies reshape society. They’re the kind of books you can just read for fun and then, months and years later, you think back on and have a-ha! moments. And if you’re at all worried about this kid needing to understand that other people aren’t always open and honest about their intentions (good or not), petty much every storyline has characters acting for complex reasons you have to read between the lines at first to see.
I’d hold off on Godel Escher Bach for a couple of years, but when they’re ready for it, it basically alternates between math and comp sci, philosophy of math and comp sci, and absurdist humor.
Doesn’t sound like Ra would be a good fit. Maybe in another 5-7 years.
And if you don’t mind pushing a video game, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri is basically a fictional encyclopedia of the future. I haven’t tried that remake, but if it’s far enough along to run well, someone like you described would probably really enjoy it and learn a lot from it. Take a look at this list of quotes from the game and you’ll see what I mean. The Civ games have nations as the factions, but in SMAC each faction has a core philosophy, and you have freedom to create your own units by mixing and matching technologies.