Suggestions for a BASIC book to teach about computers?

Shoe Box

One of my very distant relatives has a son who is somewhat interested in computers after seeing me fix his virus-laden laptop, and keeping the household systems running. He has been learning a bit over the last year or so, to include things like installing a printer or reconnecting Ethernet cables and things like that.

I was thinking of getting him some sort of book that teaches basic info about computers and hardware. Like "this is a router, and a router does these things". "this is a switch", "this is an Ethernet cable, wireless access point, etc".

The thing is, he is 12 years old, so it can't be anything too technical. Just something he might like to read and learn from.

Anyone got any ideas for a book like that?

paul78

Does he like Minecraft like a lot of kids? One way to keep his interest is through gaming - http://www.learntomod.com/

Shoe Box

I don't really care if he takes up computers or not, but his Dad is into real estate business that I would like to get into some day as well, so any little favors I do now can pay off later. He is a Minecraft player, and downloads all sorts of free crap, so every few months I have to wipe and reload his laptop to get all the junk off of it.

I thought of one of those "for dummies" books, but don't know if it would teach the right things briefly enough.

Mike-Mike

i would be interested in something like this

Jasiono

He's going to have to dive in somewhere.
Why not dive into the dummy book for A+?
I know he's 12, but I think that some sort of A+ book will teach him the basics, the lingo involved, the hardware components of systems and ports, securing your computer, software. I think this would give him an overall knowledge which is a great foundation for him to build off of and move into the right direction.

The challenge is finding something that he can read easily.