Despite their scarcity, science fiction books are highly sought after by elementary school students.

I got interested in SF because the librarian in my elementary was a SF lover. There were racks of paperbacks that I gobbled up and it’s stuck with me for decades since. It makes me sad to think that kids don’t have the same chance I did to get interested at an early age in the most imaginative genre of fiction. We all need to do our part to pass it on.

What are your suggestions for getting young people interested in science fiction?

A few I remember from that time:

Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom series

Heinlein’s juveniles like Podkayne of Mars and Have Spacesuit, Will Travel

McCaffery’s Dragonriders of Pern

Niven’s Known Space books

  • Shurimal
    2•1 year ago

    Lem’s Eden was one of my favourites as a kid and works on many levels:

    • Cool action and adventuring on a mysterious alien planet.
    • Plenty of gadgetry of both human and alien origin. Including some of the earliest description of nanotechnology.
    • Social commentary about interfering with an another civilization, oppression, totalitarianism and control of information.

    Niven’s Known Space series, especially short stories like Neutron Star.

    Clifford D. Simak has two fabulous stories, They Walked Like Men and The Goblin Reservation which have the perfect mix of action, humour and societal commentary. It’s hard to beat the latters main cast consisting of a university professor searching for dragons, a neanterthal man, a girl with a pet sabertooth tiger and a ghost with amnesia. Hilarity is quaranteed to ensue.