I've been through about a hundred books on the subject over the years. They are all pretty crappy to be honest so far. There is a great opening here.

The problem with electronics is that bar the simplest things, it's pretty maths heavy and is very abstract.

About the closest thing to something decent is the student guide for The Art of Electronics as that defers math until necessary. That and the NEETS modules: http://www.phy.davidson.edu/instrumentation/NEETS.htm

http://www.dspguide.com is pretty good if you want some signal processing knowledge. It's written in plain English.

I went through Make: Electronics [0] several months ago. It takes a hands on learning approach and favors experimentation over theory. Any parent could get through it. Give it a shot. :)

[0]: http://www.makershed.com/Make_Electronics_book_by_Charles_Pl...