Sci-Fi books, short storys for a 9 year old boy

October 11, 2016 5:47 PM

looking for help finding Sci-Fi books, short story's for a 9 year old boy. Trying to get that book habit going. thanks
posted by patnok to Education (12 answers total)

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle and Red Thunder by John Varley. These are both the first books of their own respective series. Charles Sheffield also wrote several youth-oriented Sci-Fi works, one is called Godspeed, but I've never read it. I hope this helps. Good luck!
posted by mdrosen at 6:04 PM on October 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

You can do worse than Heinlein's Juvenile books:

Space Cadet
Farmer in the Sky
The Rolling Stones
Have Space Suit -- Will Travel

Some of the others are not as good, but those four are superb.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:34 PM on October 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh
George's Secret Key to the Universe (and sequels) by Lucy and Stephen Hawking
posted by Redstart at 6:44 PM on October 11, 2016

I discovered Asimov's robot stories when I was a little older than that, and liked them.

John Christopher's Tripods trilogy is often cited as good juvie science fiction, although I haven't read them.
posted by zadcat at 7:30 PM on October 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

Zita the Space Girl! It's a graphic novel but it definitely SF.
posted by suelac at 7:33 PM on October 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

I loved these books around that age:

Devil on My Back – Monica Hughes
The Tripods trilogy by John Christopher
The City Under Ground by Suzanne Martel
This Time of Darkness By H.M. Hoover

Seconding A Wrinkle in Time too.
posted by ripley_ at 7:37 PM on October 11, 2016

The Mad Scientists' Club is loads of fun. I was about 9 when I read it and I loved it. It's about some boys in high school who are in an Explorer post and use science and technology to do stuff, especially to pull pranks.

Since they were written in the 1950's and 1960's the technology is a bit out of date, but that shouldn't detract from the fun. (For instance, a lot of the boys are radio hams. Hardly anyone that age does that now; they're all online instead.)

Here's the official web site for the series, created by the son of the now-deceased author.

Also Wikipedia.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:47 PM on October 11, 2016

Quite a bit of early Ray Bradbury, ie Dandelion Wine, The Halloween Tree, R is for Rocket, S is for Space, The Martian Chronicles etc is very oriented towards younger readers even as the subject matter is quite mature. Also that era is Bradbury at his poetic finest.
posted by elendil71 at 2:53 AM on October 12, 2016 [3 favorites]

Isaac Asimov wrote some decent sf juveniles -- the Lucky Starr series, as by Paul French. I suppose they're pretty outdated, but they might be worth a look if you can find them anywhere.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 7:16 AM on October 12, 2016

Lots of recommendations at a similar question I posed recently.
posted by mareli at 10:07 AM on October 12, 2016

The Danny Dunn books were awesome when I was around that age.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:39 AM on October 12, 2016

Asimov also edited a bunch of children's anthologies with titles like Young Mutants and Young Star Travelers. They're out of print but you can dig up used copies online.
posted by yeahlikethat at 12:22 PM on October 12, 2016