Ask HN: Critical Thinking Books for Kids

[aetilley]

I'd like to get my 8 y.o. nephew an introduction to critical thinking.

My coworker just pointed out this (which, despite its appearance, might actually be geared towards adults).

https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Book-Bad-Arguments/dp/1615192255

Would love to hear any other suggestions folks have. Books geared towards kids are best, but I'd also be interested in those aimed at preteens or young teens.

[tmaly]

I would recommend Big Ideas for Curious Minds: An Introduction to Philosophy

I would read one of the sections to my 7 year old daughter before bed and we would talk about it. She loved it.

This is geared for kids, but the questions are something we as adults think about all the time.

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Ideas-Curious-Minds-Introduction/...

I have some other books on critical and logical thinking for kids, but they are geared towards the 12 year old age. I could not quite get her into them.

My current approach has been to teach her how to think about problems using a set of lessons I created in Scratch. I essentially start her with a plan of what we want to do. Then I use a series of questions while we are building the project. The platform gives you a fast visual feedback so it is perfect. 8 years of age is probably the youngest age a kid can be to do this without adult supervision. This has been my experience teaching this to several elementary school classes grades 1-5

[breck]

How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler is one of my faves and teaches you how to read at higher levels of thought.

Also, it's a kids book but current book with the 2yo that I really enjoy is "My favorite book in the whole wide world" by Malcom Mitchell.

Thanks for the tip to Illustrated Book Bad Arguments. Looks interesting, just ordered.

[ElectricMind]

I suggest this book

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1038863.Smart_Thinking

I am strong believer is if you can write well then you can think well. Both are interelated. Also you must play interactive role with nephew to make progress on critical thinking. Reading a books or 100 even is not useful if there is no dialogue, questions , challenges , debate or even summary. Critical mind don't accept anything without breaking it apart and tasting through fire. I hope this helps :)

[Jtsummers]

I'm not sure about critical thinking, overall, but a major component of critical thinking is logical thinking. You could look into books like Smullyan's which teach logical reasoning through puzzles and stories.

[lucasgonze]

Great question. If something good comes up here I'll jump on it.

I agree that "An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments" isn't a fit for kids. The pictures are good but the language wouldn't make sense.

[zzedd]

not just targeted at 'critical thinking' (so includes maths and Logo programming) is Barry Newell's book Turtle Confusion. long ago i used this book with kids aged 12. you can read about it here: http://constructingmodernknowledge.com/?p=1451

[eimrine]

Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average

[logicslave]

chess

[kleer001 → logicslave]

Please be more specific.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_(disambiguation)

You obviously don't mean the board game chess. That's not a book.