My 9yo son has been begging me for a long time to have a pocket knife, for reasons I'm still not quite sure of, other than he thinks it would be cool. When it comes time to entrust him with something like that, I'll likely be going with the Victorinox “Tinker” Swiss Army Knife, which is nearly identical to the one my dad gifted to me as a preteen.

It's got most everything a budding adventurer needs:

• Large and small knife blades
• Phillips and flathead screwdrivers
• Bottle/can opener (for root beers, etc)
• Removable toothpick and tweezer inserts
• ...and more.

Just an all-around good starter pocket knife/multitool thing for a kid, I'd say. And at $23 on Amazon, it's not too bad a deal either.