Best teen & young adult reference books according to redditors

The big book of boy stuff, one of my favorite books as a child

A recent good book is End of the Megafauna by Ross MacPhee, which examines the disappearance of most of the great beasts of the Cenozoic.

Two recent picture-heavy books: the Princeton Field Guide to Prehistoric Mammals and National Geographic: Prehistoric Mammals. The second is aimed at a younger audience but still has plenty of meat for adult readers.

Speaking of younger readers, John Rafferty's The Cenozoic Era: Age of Mammals will give you a good grounding in the geological history of the Cenozoic and what was happening around the world. It's aimed at high school and college students but doesn't at all talk down. Definitely worth the read.

Horned Armadillos and Rafting Monkeys is a deep dive on the isolated fauna of Cenozoic South America.

For a better sense of the actual fossil record, see Bruce Stinchcomb's photo-heavy Cenozoic Fossils books for the Paleogene and the Neogene.

Things to do with your imagination (either alone or with friends) and don't be afraid to use whatever is around you as props to help out (Sticks, balls, foam noodles, these all work well as super awesome things) - explore and take on the world; rescue the princesses; defeat dragons; Win a race car race; Stop bad guys; Ride Dinosaurs; Be a sneaky ninja stealing the plans to save the day; (You know... Easy stuff.)

In the 'real' world try to fix something WITHOUT looking up ANYTHING on it. If you don't understand it, take it apart and explore it so you can see how it works. Leave it for a day or two and see if you can put it back together, working; Go camping and learn that you can ONLY count on yourself, as everybody seems to forget 'stuff' and to make due, use the things in nature to get by.

It's all a learn by doing. If you MUST study for this then I'll suggest (2) books as starter reference materials - This one and then this other one.