The Pax Ember Library

Books That Grow Up With Your Family.

Interactive workbooks for parents and kids to grow up together. Nine Life Skills books for ages 8 to 12, the three-book AI Generation trilogy, and a new playbook for the parents raising them. Every title lives on the same shelf and builds toward the same shared evenings.

13 Titles in the Library
9 Life Skills Books
3 AI Generation Books
See the Life Skills Series For Parents
The Pax Ember Library: books on a warm wooden shelf in a cozy reading room.

Pick Your Path

Find Your Family's Book

Every Pax Ember series starts with the same simple promise: kids learn faster when a parent is curious alongside. And there is a book for you, the parent, too.

For families curious about
Artificial Intelligence
Ages 8-14 · 3 Books by Steven Makarion · New editions

Start at "what is AI?" and end at "I built something people use." Three books that grow with your kid through the AI years.

  • How AI actually works (no hype)
  • Hands-on creating with AI
  • Building real things, real safety
See the AI Generation books →
For families with kids
Life Skills
Ages 8-12 · 9 Books · On Amazon Now

The skills school skips. Money, feelings, friendship, screens, and doing hard things alone. One book for each age, plus standalones on the topics that need their own.

  • A book for every age, 8 through 12
  • Standalones on money, AI, social skills, and big feelings
  • Real activities kids actually finish
See the Life Skills books →
For families who homeschool
Hands-On Homeschool
Ages 6-18 · 5 Courses · 2 On Amazon Now

Full courses at the kitchen table that you can actually grade. Nutrition, culinary arts, art, and world history, one affordable supply list each.

  • Measured experiments and real projects
  • Answer keys, rubrics, and grading sheets
  • Credit on a transcript, not just the fridge
See the Hands-On Homeschool books →
Raising the AI Generation, a parent's playbook for kids growing up with AI, by Steven Makarion, book cover

For Parents · New edition under Steven Makarion, coming the week of October 25

Raising the AI Generation

A parent's playbook for kids growing up with AI.

The grown-up companion to the kids' books. Calm, practical, and specific about screens, chatbots, school, and the conversations that matter now. Written for the parent who wants to lead, not panic.

Buy the current printing Learn more

The AI Generation series · by Steven Makarion

For the kids who will grow up with this

Three workbooks, one arc, now in new editions under the author's own name. Each book picks up where the last leaves off, and Pixel, Echo, and Algo are right there at the table the whole time. Written by Steven Makarion, the founder of Pax Ember, who started the series when his daughter, then eleven, asked him what AI actually was.

01

Understand

What AI is, how it learns, why it matters for the future.

02

Create

Make art, music, and stories with AI. Stay safe doing it.

03

Build

Design real solutions. Shape the AI future. Make it yours.

Book 1 New edition, available now
AI for Kids, Ages 8 to 12, by Steven Makarion, book cover

AI for Kids, Ages 8–12

Discover How Artificial Intelligence Works, Train Your First AI, and Create With It

What artificial intelligence really is, how it learns, and how a kid can train a first model and make something with it. Start here.

  • Meet Pixel, Echo, and Algo, your AI guides
  • Hands-on activities for the whole family
  • Parent Corner insights in every chapter
  • Safety-first approach to AI exploration
Get Your Copy on Amazon
Book 2 New edition, available now
AI Safety for Kids and Teens, Ages 10 to 14, by Steven Makarion, book cover

AI Safety for Kids and Teens, Ages 10–14

Spot Fake AI Answers, Recognize Voice Scams and Deepfakes, and Know When an AI "Friend" Isn't One

How to tell a confident wrong answer from a right one, how voice scams and deepfakes work, and what a healthy relationship with an AI looks like.

  • Step-by-step creative AI projects
  • Critical thinking about AI-generated content
  • Privacy and safety best practices
  • Earn your AI Safety Champion badge
Get Your Copy on Amazon
Book 3 New edition coming the week of October 25
AI Projects for Kids and Teens, Ages 11 to 14, by Steven Makarion, book cover

AI Projects for Kids and Teens, Ages 11–14

Build a Game That Learns, Code a Roblox Character, and Finish a Real Project People Use

Real projects, start to finish: a game that learns, a Roblox character with code behind it, and a project other people can use.

  • Advanced projects and challenges
  • AI career exploration for kids
  • Real-world problem solving with AI
  • Earn your AI World-Changer badge
Coming soon

The current printing is sold as Build Your AI Future by Pax Ember. See it on Amazon.

The Life Skills Line

Life Skills for Kids

The skills that make a kid feel capable. Confidence, independence, money, feelings, friendship, and safety, one small win at a time. A book for each age from 8 to 12, plus standalones on the topics that deserve their own.

Life Skills Every 8-Year-Old Should Know book cover
Age 8

Life Skills Every 8-Year-Old Should Know

Confidence, independence, and everyday skills, sized for eight.

Get on Amazon Full details
Life Skills Every 9-Year-Old Should Know book cover
Age 9

Life Skills Every 9-Year-Old Should Know

The real-life skills that fit a nine-year-old's world, one small win at a time.

Get on Amazon Full details
Life Skills Every 10-Year-Old Should Know book cover
Age 10

Life Skills Every 10-Year-Old Should Know

Money, feelings, friendship, and doing hard things, built for ten.

Get on Amazon Full details
Life Skills Every 11-Year-Old Should Know book cover
Age 11

Life Skills Every 11-Year-Old Should Know

The skills that carry a kid toward more independence at eleven.

Get on Amazon Full details
Life Skills Every 12-Year-Old Should Know book cover
Age 12

Life Skills Every 12-Year-Old Should Know

Getting ready for the teen years, with the skills that matter at twelve.

Get on Amazon Full details
Money Skills for Kids book cover
Money

Money Skills for Kids

How money works, and how to save, spend, and give it with a clear head.

Get on Amazon Full details
AI Skills for Kids book cover
AI Skills

AI Skills for Kids

What AI is, how to use it well, and how to think for yourself while you do.

Get on Amazon Full details
Social Skills for Boys book cover
Social Skills

Social Skills for Boys

Making friends, reading a room, and repairing things when they go sideways.

Get on Amazon Full details
Big Feelings, Real Tools book cover
Big Feelings

Big Feelings, Real Tools

Real tools for anger, worry, and the big emotions, so feelings stop running the show.

Get on Amazon Full details

Also from Pax Ember: Welcome to Real Life, Age 10 Edition, our earlier standalone workbook, is still available on Amazon.

The Homeschool Line

Hands-On Homeschool

Real courses your kid can do at the kitchen table and you can actually grade. Each book is a full course on one affordable supply list, with measured experiments or real projects, answer keys, and grading sheets, so the work counts on a transcript. By Emily H. Holt.

Nutrition for Kids, the hands-on food science workbook for ages 8 to 12, book cover
Ages 8 to 12 · Food science

Nutrition for Kids

Read any label, build your own plate, and run 30 kitchen experiments with results you measure.

Get on Amazon Full details
Culinary Arts Workbook for Teens, a complete home cooking course for ages 12 to 18, book cover
Ages 12 to 18 · Culinary arts

Culinary Arts Workbook for Teens

A full-year home cooking course: 36 skill lessons, 48 recipes, and the grading sheets for a one-credit elective.

Get on Amazon Full details
Asian History for Kids, book cover, coming soon
Ages 8 to 12 · World history

Asian History for Kids

5,000 years of China, Japan, Korea, India, and Southeast Asia on one timeline, with maps to draw on and 25 hands-on projects.

Coming soon
European History Workbook for Kids
Ages 9 to 13 · World history

European History Workbook for Kids

From ancient Greece to the fall of the Berlin Wall, with timelines, maps, and activities.

Coming soon
Art Curriculum for Homeschool
Ages 6 to 12 · Art

Art Curriculum for Homeschool

A full year of art: one masterwork and one project every week, with a rubric, a project log, and a gallery page.

Coming soon
See the whole Hands-On Homeschool series

What's Inside Every Pax Ember Book

More Than a Book to Read.

A workbook to do. Together. Real activities, real conversations, real pages your kid will write on. Here's what shows up in every chapter:

🎯

Hands-On Missions

Every chapter ends with a real activity. Not a worksheet. Something your kid actually does, alone or with you.

💬

Parent Corner

Adult-to-adult sections in every chapter. Research, what to watch for, conversation starters that actually work at the table.

📖

Character Guides

Pixel, Echo, Algo, Kit, Tashi, Ren. Recurring guides who appear across every chapter, growing with your kid through the books.

✏️

Try This Challenges

Printable, hands-on, low-stakes. Kids fill in real answers. The book becomes their book, not a workbook returned to the shelf.

A Pax Ember family doing the workbook together at the kitchen table

The Pax Ember Promise

Built for tables, not tablets.

Every book is designed for a parent and a kid to do together at a table. No phone needed. No app to download. No "have your kid figure this out alone" workbook.

Just real pages. Real questions. Real conversations. The stuff that turns a workbook into the kind of thing your kid will remember doing with you.

That's the whole idea. Two series. One family. Same table.

Start with What Fits Your Family

Thirteen books are live on Amazon right now, with more on the way. Free toolkits and parent guides are right here on the site, waiting for you.

See the Life Skills Series Meet the AI Generation Trilogy