Best Raspberry Pi Book for Beginners

November 25, 2016 9:47 AM

My 12 year old nephew has expressed interest in having a Raspberry Pi for Christmas. I have already purchased a starter kit for him, but I'd also like to get him a guide book to help him get started. He has some coding skills, but is a relative beginner. What book would be best for him?
posted by zabuni to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: What about a subscription to MagPi? I'm pretty sure back issues are available free online for subscribers, and they have lots of projects for different skill levels.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:23 PM on November 25, 2016

Best answer: Anything from Make would be great. Here's a Raspberry Pi book. Double-check that it's for the version you purchased.

Point him towards the resources at Make, Adafruit and Instructables. Lots of videos and step-by-step instructions for fun projects.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 12:54 PM on November 25, 2016

All issues of The MagPi are free online, so you can preview them to see if you like them.

There are a ton of Raspberry Pi books, not all of them great. Whatever you buy, make sure it's recent: there have been huge changes in Raspberry Pi's hardware and software over the years, and sage advice from a couple of years ago has been superseded and may even fail to work. If the book mentions the Raspberry Pi 3, it's definitely more likely to be current.
posted by scruss at 8:22 AM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]