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

  • Flying Squid
    3•1 year ago

    I was already very interested in SF (my much older brother and I watched Star Trek together from the time I was a toddler), but my high school had an SF Lit class and it was such a great class. Mystery Lit was fun too.