My niece asked me for one, because she's starting to get really interested in History. I'm having trouble thinking of a book that wouldn't be too 'dry', 'boring' academic for her and I really don't want to let her down. (Although on the other hand, I don't want her to read something that's interesting but totally false or outdated history). She didn't really specify what parts of history she's interested in, so just chime in with what you think could be both informative AND entertaining. Although, if you know of a good source that talks about the history of Malaysia or Polynesian history, please do recommend them. Thanks for all your help!
Greetings! The first place I would highly recommend you look is actually the AH Booklist, which does contain "beginner"-tagged works under specific time periods, countries, and also contains documentaries as well. Obviously I'd immediately direct you to the "Southeast Asia" sub-heading for books that deal with Malaysia, and more qualified AH travelers/mods/flairs can certainly point you in the right direction for middle-school entry-level books on Polynesia as well.
For my part, I would highly recommend Ernst Gombrich's A Little History of the World. It is a fairly old book (Gombrich wrote the first edition in 1935), but it has been updated in recent years with other authors adding sections to cover the Second World War and Cold War since the first publication. This book reads like a bedtime story, and all the positive connotations which come with that phrase. It's engaging, entertaining, and doesn't expect you to have any prior knowledge at all of any period of history. Granted, it certainly isn't a comprehensive overview of history by any means, but as a starting point for youngsters (being one myself), it is a grand work. The AH Booklist also has this book as a recommendation under "General [Histories]", so the following praise of it from the booklist is certainly further evidence to its quality:
"It is essentially a summary of human history to around the 1930s. I read this when I was younger - it's aimed perfectly at interested children, and manages to be accessible and entertaining without being condescending. "
As another, slightly more detailed work, Everything You Need to Ace World History in One Big Fat Notebook is another good bit of general history reading. It's definitely on the more visual side, with plenty of diagrams, textboxes, and pictures to engage middle-schoolers (plus the added bonus of it being written for middle-schoolers). Along with Gombrich's work, this one provides a more general (if somewhat simplified) overview of historical periods, events, and civilisations.
Hope these recommendations help, and feel free to pm me with any questions (or just ask them in a follow-up here!).
Hi there anyone interested in recommending things to OP! While you might have a title to share, this is still a thread on /r/AskHistorians, and we still want the replies here to be to an /r/AskHistorians standard - presumably OP would have asked at /r/history or /r/askreddit if they wanted non-specialist opinion. So give us some indication why the thing you're recommending is valuable, trustworthy, or applicable! Posts that provide no context for why you're recommending a particular podcast/book/novel/documentary/etc, and which aren't backed up by a historian-level knowledge on the accuracy and stance of the piece, will be removed.