Thanks! Asimov I am trying right now. I find the robot stories quite naive nowadays, but it seems that it may be just the right level of complexity not to overwhelm the kid and make him abandon the book on the one hand and yet keep him interested on the other. Foundation series I am going to try next. I recall reading it at 15, so maybe 11 is a bit early, but yes, its mechanistic view of society can make you interested in social sciences even if you are naturally a STEM type. Ender’s game—great! I forgot about that one. As for The Martian not sure, it feels a bit too complex, but maybe it’s worth a try.
You mention in another comment that your kid reads the encyclopaedia for fun, in which case I don’t think The Martian would be too complex, no?
I’m also reminded of how I started perusing the encyclopaedia for fun at age 7. At first I understood basically nothing (English isn’t my native language), but I really liked certain pictures and diagrams and keep going back to them wanting to learn more, realising that I’d comprehend say 20% more each time, which taught me to chase exponential growth in comprehension. Might be worth teaching that habit.
That brings back memories. We used to have an english Encyclopaedia as well. Similar story. I still recall how gloomy an impression it made on me. It felt like the world might be a weird, dark and dangerous place, at least compared to the rosy picture that the local communist propaganda was trying to paint.
Thinking about the encyclopedia point, what about collections of short stories? Something like Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories is great for browsing through, and over time the year-by-year format gives a kind of historiography of the future and a sense of what people in each decade were concerned and thinking about.
Also since no one has mentioned Asimov’s own short stories, I’d suggest The Last Question. Technically ends with a bit of blasphemy from a certain POV, but it doesn’t sound like that’s a problem here.
Besides abstractapplic’s excellent answer,
A Brief History of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
The Martian by Andy Weir
Paleontology: A Brief History of Life by Ian Tattersall
Richard Feynmann’s books
Thanks! Asimov I am trying right now. I find the robot stories quite naive nowadays, but it seems that it may be just the right level of complexity not to overwhelm the kid and make him abandon the book on the one hand and yet keep him interested on the other. Foundation series I am going to try next. I recall reading it at 15, so maybe 11 is a bit early, but yes, its mechanistic view of society can make you interested in social sciences even if you are naturally a STEM type. Ender’s game—great! I forgot about that one. As for The Martian not sure, it feels a bit too complex, but maybe it’s worth a try.
You mention in another comment that your kid reads the encyclopaedia for fun, in which case I don’t think The Martian would be too complex, no?
I’m also reminded of how I started perusing the encyclopaedia for fun at age 7. At first I understood basically nothing (English isn’t my native language), but I really liked certain pictures and diagrams and keep going back to them wanting to learn more, realising that I’d comprehend say 20% more each time, which taught me to chase exponential growth in comprehension. Might be worth teaching that habit.
That brings back memories. We used to have an english Encyclopaedia as well. Similar story. I still recall how gloomy an impression it made on me. It felt like the world might be a weird, dark and dangerous place, at least compared to the rosy picture that the local communist propaganda was trying to paint.
Thinking about the encyclopedia point, what about collections of short stories? Something like Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories is great for browsing through, and over time the year-by-year format gives a kind of historiography of the future and a sense of what people in each decade were concerned and thinking about.
Also since no one has mentioned Asimov’s own short stories, I’d suggest The Last Question. Technically ends with a bit of blasphemy from a certain POV, but it doesn’t sound like that’s a problem here.
If the kid is enjoying the robot stories then that’s definitely the place to start. Foundation goes well after robots.