I am looking for a good calculus text as a reference and as a supplement to address the messed up math textbook situation at school. Basically, the electronic math textbooks are worthless and many of the enterprising math teachers are either pulling out ancient textbooks to be shared or uploading selected chapters/sections of tried and true old textbooks to replace the worse portions of these ebooks. Any recommendations?

What is the text that the school is using?

A good combination for general reference for a typical high school AP calculus (AB or BC) course is Larson/Edwards with the Edwards videos (if videos help your student) from the Great Courses.

If you're just looking for a supplement, I recommend Calculus for Dummies and its companion Calculus Workbook for Dummies. Your local bookstore might have them; they're pretty common.

I used the first edition of the Dummies book ten-ish years ago to refresh my knowledge of Calc 1. I went through the whole book and thought it did a good job of explaining stuff. The workbook is good because it has complete solutions, which are important for learners.

I'm not a fan of the Larson series of textbooks. I find them to be outline-books that don't do a good job of explaining ideas.

Not sure what the ebook is but the teacher mentioned putting selected sections of an old Larson text online. I am actually looking for a deeper treatment as DS may potentially go into math and thought that if I have to buy a textbook might as well go for the best.

PM you.

I don't recall what I used back in the Stone Ages. DS' school used to use Larson and the teacher thought it was decent or at least preferable to the current ebook that he ignores. DS is acing (setting the curve) the course so it isn't that he doesn't understand the material but I am concerned that he might not be getting enough deep conceptual background. He mentioned that many of his classmates had already studied calculus somewhere else (physics, outside calculus course, Khan Academy) while everything is new to him (limits, derivatives, integration) so I want to make sure he isn't missing out. The teacher mentioned that 35 out of his 80 students end up with a 5 on the AP with almost all the rest getting a 3 because the AP exam is also on a curve - that is why his grades are on a curve. I am not sure that being able to score a 5 on the AP is that much of a recommendation and I am concerned that he is teaching to the AP exam although I suppose that is the point of these AP curriculum/exam combos.

PM

If that is the case, how about the AoPS calculus book?

I like the AoPS books and DS has most of them through Pre-Calculus. However, I wanted a Calculus book that was aimed at college students. Spivak and Apostol are distinguished college professors and their texts are pretty much consider the gold standard so we ended up buying both. Of course, we will have to buy the AoPS one too if DS decides to take their Calculus course but that won't be until next summer or later.