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My girlfriend's daughter is 12.

She was saying how she wants more books about "history, science, and cats".

I asked "Like...science fiction?"

"No, science." She says.

So....any ideas on what might be appropriate historical, scientific, or feline-oriented books that I could look to get her for her birthday later this year?

Something age level kitchen chemistry experiment? There is a lot more then just baking soda voclanos you can do at home.

Look for a YA-level biography on a historical scientist? This clicks two of the boxes. Someone like Leonardo da Vinci, or back to the Greeks. No idea on specifics, but I’m sure they are out there.

Cats and History have a big overlay in Egypt. Maybe something there?

 TheMeanDM wrote:
My girlfriend's daughter is 12.

She was saying how she wants more books about "history, science, and cats".

I asked "Like...science fiction?"

"No, science." She says.

So....any ideas on what might be appropriate historical, scientific, or feline-oriented books that I could look to get her for her birthday later this year?

A history book about ancient egypt?

How advanced is her reading level? If she’s into science, has she read a lot of (dry) science books?

There’s a book called The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives that goes into the evolution of cats and is very interesting...but while it is readable for an average lay person, it doesn’t shy away from science terms and explanations.

Seems like it might hit all her criteria.

Some of the scientific theories are a little outdated, but I’d still recommend Carl Sagan’s Cosmos if her reading age is up for it; I read it when I was about 14 and it was immensely inspiring in terms of how rich and varied the universe is and humanity’s history with understanding the universe.

Does it need to be a book about all three? Or are those separate requests? Are the cat books fiction or non-fiction?

If fiction is allowed then maybe The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents? It is more heavily tilted to the rodent side but you do get some good cat stuff in there too.

Oh! I have a recommendation for “history”.

There’s this one series of books called Horrible History. Practically grew up with these things. They’re history books with the (cartoonish) grim and gory parts left in. I... believe it’s meant to be black humor? If you don’t mind the blood, these are quite entertaining.

Not sure how you view age-suitable books (there’s a story in the Stone Age book where a scientist kills himself via cliff). I think Rotten Romans and Slimy Stuarts were more tame, but I would strongly recommend taking a look for yourself before going for it.

Horrible Science is a thing too, but I don’t remember it being quite as interesting.

To answer a few questions:

While I don't know her reading test scores and such, she is (to me) super smart and reads above her (going into) 7th grade level

No, the books do not have to hit all three in one book....but the book about cat histoey and evolution sounds really cool!

The chemistry/experiment book sounds like a good idea...she does love making stuff (like slime, for example)

I knew you all would have some great ideas!!

Anything by Isaac Asimov. His science book is solid. I forgot the name of his biology book. Big parts would be outside her comprehension zone, tell her it's OK to skip those parts.

Before I make my suggestion, I am going to start with the fact that I am a secondary school English teacher, I am responsible for all the reading intervention programs run in my school, and devising and implementing strategies for developing a culture of readers across the school, in the hope that it gives it a little more weight...

Don't buy her a book. Take her to a good book store and encourage her to find something she likes for herself. Day in day out I see well meaning parents killing their teenage children's childhood love of reading by trying too hard to encourage them to read what they think they should be reading. Take her out, have a nice time together talking about the kinds of books she is looking at (this will be a nice memory for her too) and, in a supportive and encouraging way, move her away from anything inappropriate. But most of all, let her choose the book. If you get one for yourself too so that you are modelling good reading habits, and showing that it's an 'adult' thing as well, even better.

Former high school English teacher and more importantly, a lifelong reader and book enthusiast here...my specific recommendation is The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl.

a kid encyclopedia why not,
I loved those book in childhood / early early teenage hood

 JamesY wrote:
Before I make my suggestion, I am going to start with the fact that I am a secondary school English teacher, I am responsible for all the reading intervention programs run in my school, and devising and implementing strategies for developing a culture of readers across the school, in the hope that it gives it a little more weight...

Don't buy her a book. Take her to a good book store and encourage her to find something she likes for herself. Day in day out I see well meaning parents killing their teenage children's childhood love of reading by trying too hard to encourage them to read what they think they should be reading. Take her out, have a nice time together talking about the kinds of books she is looking at (this will be a nice memory for her too) and, in a supportive and encouraging way, move her away from anything inappropriate. But most of all, let her choose the book. If you get one for yourself too so that you are modelling good reading habits, and showing that it's an 'adult' thing as well, even better.

I agree with this 100%. I love reading and have received many good books as gifts as well as several dreadful ones. Let her choose.

Big fan of the 'take her to a book shop' idea, but also as mentioned above: if she's not read any Roald Dahl, sort it out...

Wouldn’t she be way too old for Ronald Dahl?

Isaac Asimov (As Paul French) wrote a series of young adult SF novels about David "lucky" starr. I read them and they were, as one expects with Asimov, very good even for young adult novels. The books followed science as well as it was know in the 50's when Asimove wrote them

The later editions contained scientific updates to the science of the day the books were written under, with Asimov explaining how modern science had changed some of the beliefs he's based his works on, especially in the case of venus and mars.

If she's interested in science these might be good for her.

There's plenty of other science based books asimov wrote too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Starr_series

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Wouldn’t she be way too old for Ronald Dahl?

How can you be too old to read a book?

 JamesY wrote:
Before I make my suggestion, I am going to start with the fact that I am a secondary school English teacher, I am responsible for all the reading intervention programs run in my school, and devising and implementing strategies for developing a culture of readers across the school, in the hope that it gives it a little more weight...

Don't buy her a book. Take her to a good book store and encourage her to find something she likes for herself. Day in day out I see well meaning parents killing their teenage children's childhood love of reading by trying too hard to encourage them to read what they think they should be reading. Take her out, have a nice time together talking about the kinds of books she is looking at (this will be a nice memory for her too) and, in a supportive and encouraging way, move her away from anything inappropriate. But most of all, let her choose the book. If you get one for yourself too so that you are modelling good reading habits, and showing that it's an 'adult' thing as well, even better.

YES!!!!!!
And i add, give her a gift card to the book store before hand then take. I find that kids love it when, even with a gift card, they getting to buy their own stuff makes them feel so good.

 trexmeyer wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Wouldn’t she be way too old for Ronald Dahl?

How can you be too old to read a book?

Read? Or enjoy? She could easily be too old to enjoy Ronald Dahl the same way she could be too old to enjoy Louis Sachar or Judy Blume or Shel Silverstein. Children, especially, prefer to feel like they aren’t involved in something “too childish” for them.

Yes, yes, CS Lewis’ famous quote and all that. But we’re talking about a 12 year old who is an avid reader. She probably read Roald Dahl in grade school, or should have.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
By “book store”, you all mean an online book store, right? With current restrictions in place, we aren’t supposed to browse retail stores at our leisure anymore.

Most Dahl books might be a little young for her, yeah. The 'Henry Sugar' book mentioned above is pitched a little older and is excellent, as are his autobiographies - Boy and Going Solo. Reading them to my youngest at the moment and enjoying them all over again.

Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy is excellent. I'd also recommend Garth Nix's 'Old Kingdom' series - Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen.

Oh, and going back to the original brief - Terry Pratchett 'The Unadulterated Cat'.

Well, if we’re going for genre for preteens I’ll throw in Diane Duane’s So You Want To Be A Wizard. A bit darker than Harry Potter, yet nerdy and goofy like Doctor Who, the series follows two young wizards around the world and across the stars in their battle against evil. I’m reading the series to my son right now and he really enjoys these books, but he is younger than the girl in question.

If she wants real science try "the science of battlestar galactica", which has quyite a bit of real science in it.

Aha!
There are some cookbooks that use science to cook. Make a mix of cooking and science, and she can eat the things she creates and show them off.
Kitchen-Science-Lab-for-Kids-EDIBLE-EDITION-52-Mouth-Watering-Recipes-and-the-Everyday-Science-That-Makes-Them-Taste-Amazing is an example on the walmart site.

https://www.amazon.com/Science-Chef-Food-Experiments-Recipes/dp/047131045X is an example off the amazon site.

You might could let her know that once a week, she gets to direct in the kitchen as a chef and that you will be her helper to prepare a meal. Let her come up with a stocking list (that's like a shopping list but if you got it you don't go buy another) a few days in advance and you will also have a chance to stop her from doing "fresh candy canes" as a meal or something else a little too whimsical.
I suspect someone else may find this particular idea nice, as well!

Might I suggest this? I used to love this book.