Start with The Little Schemer [1] as a prequel to SICP. If you're going to read SICP, look at the beautiful (and unofficial) typeset version [2].

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0...

[2] http://sarabander.github.io/sicp/

I'm currently taking another stab at lispy-languages. I've tried it a few times in the past and I've always had a hard time coming back to it when something else intervenes. Usually self-inflicted because of some complex and unecessary environment setup involved.

I've lately had some success using vanilla emacs, Geiser and Guile (or MIT) Scheme. If you want to work through sicp, the little schemer [1], or my current favorite "Essentials of Programming Languages"[2], then that's the perfect setup. Racket will work too, but if you're using emacs anyway then it's just as easy to get going with Guile or MIT.

I'd recommend getting familiar with largely vanilla emacs[0] rather than a curated kit, but it will require a little bit of additional investment. Additionally, you'll be getting acquainted with emacs-lisp (elisp), so you'll be swimming in lisp languages.

I'm not a fan of VS Code and only use it for work when I have to (and then only when I can't use vim). I'm sure it'd work, vim too, but there are an awful lot of emacs/lisp resources out there and it's helpful to take advantage of what's available.

[0] https://sanemacs.com

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Programming-Languages-Dani...

The Little Schemer by Friedman is a good choice.

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0...

This paper, "Programming by Numbers: A Programming Method for Novices", presents a recipe of how to design recursive functions:

https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/254242/1/p_by_numbers.pdf

And the "The Little Schemer" book has a series of exercises that expose recursive thinking:

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0...

Hope this helps!

I really feel like they should teach LISP in elementary school. It has extremely simple rules to get started and helps people intuitively understand programming concepts. Maybe an updated The Little Schemer style curriculum:

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0...

The Little Schemer [0] doesn't assume any prior knowledge of programming yet teaches programming and thinking in Lisp. Also, it has a lot of cartoons and jokes to keep young folks interested.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0...