The local high school is considering redoing their selections for their 9th grade Sci Fi unit and I’m privileged enough to be able to provide suggestions. Currently they have a choice of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E Pearson, Scythe by Neil Shusterman, and Unwound also by Shusterman.
It doesn’t have to be explicitly YA, but definitely YA accessible, and preferably something that will keep a 9th grader interested and isn’t just a fluffy book but challenges thinking/perceptions like good Sci Fi can. My goal is something near 300-ish pages but if it’s a faster read more is ok.
TiA
That’s part of the challenge too. It’s hard enough to get some of these kids to read a book, let alone a hard Sci Fi book that is now a required reading. It almost has to fool them into enjoying it first.
Haha yeah. So I think Murderbot and The Martian/Project Hail Mary would be solid choices, because they’re cinematic and entertaining. They have humor and a lot of action. Murderbot hides the vegetables well and brings up a capitalist dystopia, personhood, gender identity and the meaning of freedom in subtle and clever ways. I’d be surprised if a teenager who read All Systems Red didn’t ask for the sequel pretty soon after 😋