If you were alive in 1978 you’ll probably remember you couldn’t do much with a computer. The Altair had just hit the scene and BASIC was taking off but there was very little a kid of a certain age and predilection could do with this information. Luckily there were guys like David Ahl.
Ahl wrote what I would call the seminal work relating to BASIC programming and I recall many hours spent keying in his versions of MUGWUP and Lunar LEM Rocket. The book is available in two versions, a $14.95 “basic” version and a $17.50 version with George Beker’s crazy illustrations intact.
While kids these days may not want to mess with coding, this is a great way to wake them up to the possibilities of programming.