<p>Mysonsdad, here are a few suggestions of authors your son might like: Isaac Asimov (both science fiction and non-fiction), Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Frederick Pohl, Vernor Vinge, Paul Preuss, David Brin, Greg Benford, Greg Bear, and C. J. Cherryh; also Mark Twain and Umberto Eco. In the “good old days,” books did not have reading levels. I think it was better. If your son reads widely without worrying about level, that will be great. Also, look around for magazines he would like–maybe Discover or Popular Mechanics? At his current age, reading the editorial page of the daily newspaper would be fine–later (definitely later) he can move to the New York Times and the Economist.</p>
<p>Re: cereal boxes. At one time, Wheat Chex used to have a “newspaper” of sorts on the back of the cereal box, creating a breakfast’s work of reading material.</p>
<p>It’s hard to know what to say about participating in a prep program regularly for 2-3 hours after school and scoring 1800 on the SAT. If the students were recent immigrants still acclimating to the English language, that could make sense (although it’s hard to know how they would have 4.3 GPAs). </p>
<p>Other skills to develop are problem solving, and the ability to look at ideas from new points of view. Sudoku puzzles (avoiding addiction) and cross-word puzzles of various types are good for a start. The “Sideways School” arithmetic books by Louis Sachar are entertaining–probably below 6th grade reading level, but well worth looking at. Ian Stewart’s books on mathematics would be excellent.</p>