Get a pdf of the book
Neuroscience, Science of the Brain: An Introduction for Young Students. It is 60 pages, and
free.
The book is available at the University of Montana website, but is produced by the British Neuroscience Association and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain.
The ebook is very colorful, and chock-full of nice illustrations. That is really helpful in keeping the interest of "young students," to whom the book is supposedly directed. The illustrations also help comprehension of concepts and the book also appears to be well-written, pluses for people of all ages.
One negative that I see about the book is the fact that the text uses a particular sans serif font that I find to be annoying. But ymmv. (Whatever happened to the accepted thinking that it is better to use a
serif font for extended amounts of text, because it is easier on the eye? It seems that more and more publishers are using sans serif typefaces nowadays. Why? But, I digress.)
You may be wondering why I made this post on the non-fiction thread. Wouldn't have been more appropriate to have posted it on a children's/young people's thread? Well, unless your "young student" is a science prodigy or something, the book probably is going to be much too difficult for him or her. Let me give you an example of a sentence in the book, a sentence admittedly more difficult than most in the book:
Neurotransmitters are stored in tiny spherical bags called synaptic vesicles in the endings of axons. There are vesicles for storage and vesicles closer to nerve endings that are ready to be released. The arrival of an action potential leads to the opening of ion-channels that let in calcium (Ca++). This activates enzymes that act on a range of presynaptic proteins . . . . Huh? However, adults may find it just the thing to get a good, basic knowledge of the subject of neuroscience--I downloaded it for myself for just that reason.
Here's
the direct link to the University of Montana webpage with the downloadable ebook.