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I am thinking about getting 3 copies of the following book for each of my kids and their kids to see if I can stir up some interest in Science :

100 Billion Suns:
The Birth, Life, and Death of the Stars

Rudolf Kippenhahn
Translated by Jean Steinberg

Paper | 1993 | $22.95 / £14.95 | ISBN: 0-691-08781-4
280 pp. | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 6 color plates, 91 figures

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How are the nuclear power plants we call "stars" formed? Where do they get their energy and how do they die--and what does this suggest about the future of the universe? One of the most popular books written on astrophysics, 100 Billion Suns provides an exhilarating and authoritative life history of the stars.

Reviews:

"Writing with Asimov-like clarity, [Rudolf Kippenhahn] makes exciting reading of the advances modern technology has brought to our knowledge of what is really happening out there in the Milky Way and far beyond."--Publishers Weekly

"Kippenhahn has produced an excellent and most readable book. . . . Come on all you amateurs or armchair enthusiasts out there, read it and enjoy astrophysics as it really is!"--New Scientist

"A thoroughly delightful and informative book."--The New York Times Book Review

"An admirable introduction to the difficult subject of stellar evolution accurately aimed at the general reader."--Nature

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Princeton Science Library

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Here's an older (much older) title they may also enjoy. I got it off the $1 rack at Argos (a local used bookstore that's been there for years, various owners) a couple of years ago, on the strength of Shipman's discussion of Halton Arp. It's well-written, not obtuse at all, and covers Arp because of his then-recently proffered dissident view regarding quasars. Shipman thought Arp's view would become significant; it is, but Arp himself wound up in de facto exile in Europe, unable to find work or even telescope time in the US.

Black Holes, Quasars, and the Universe
by Harry L Shipman
paperback
first edition