Middle Grade Science Fiction

Someone on facebook asked for middle grade sci-fi titles and so I went through my goodreads list and came up with the following.  These are only those I’ve read and enjoyed. (ETA And that I’ve seen kids read and enjoy in the last couple of years.) There are certainly many other titles out there and I do hope you will add your favorites in the comments. I stayed with titles that seem to me to be clearly science fiction as opposed to books that mix sci-fi with fantasy (e.g. Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series) or have just a smidgin of it. I also decided not to include YA books that my 4th graders read such as Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Orson Scott Card’s  Ender’s Game.

Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.

Adam Rex’s The True Meaning of Smekday.

Diana Wynne Jones’ Hexwood.

Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society.

Richard Reeve’s Larklight series.

Rebecca Stead’s First Light.

Lissa Evan’s Horton’s Miraculous Mechanisms (and its sequel).

Eleanor Davis’ The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook.

John Hulme and Michael Wexler’s The  Seems series.

Terry Pratchett’s Bromeliad Trilogy.

Jill Paton Walsh’s The Green Book.

6 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction

6 responses to “Middle Grade Science Fiction

  1. Diane

    I would add Homer Hickam’s brand new title “Crater” to the list. Great science with a good story.

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  2. Hi Monica! your list inspired me to make a page of all the mg sci fi I’ve ever reviewed–here it is: http://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

    Someday I am going to read The True Meaning of Smekday. And Larklight. Someday.

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  3. Tom

    The king of mid-grade Science Fiction is John Christopher. His tripod series, beginning with the White Mountains is a sure-fire kid pleaser. The Lotus Caves is somewhat more thoughtful and The Sword of the Sprirts is very challenging/rewarding.

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    • Tom, I thought of these, but I stuck to those that I’ve seen kids read and enjoy in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen anyone with these in a long, long time. They were very popular when I started teaching in the 70s and 80s though.

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  4. Eric

    My mind went immediately to The Green Book, glad you’ve had students enjoying it recently.
    House of Stairs and Z for Zachariah Are two of my scifi favorites.

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  5. Michele

    My daughter read the White Mountains just 4 years ago in middle school.
    It was assigned reading, however.

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