Help me find this childhood SF read! Eighties, GenX, etc
January 21, 2025 10:34 AM Subscribe
Noting a comment on the grey saying that people weren't asking to identify childhood reads anymore, I was reminded of this mysterious childhood SF novel, details within!
I would have read it in 1983 or 1984. I am pretty sure I bought it at a Scholastic book fair. It was more geared toward tweens and teens than kids - short novel length, teenage protagonists, dark themes. I vaguely remember that the cover had an illustration of the male protagonist, possibly with the main female character in the background. I feel as though the cover had yellow and purple elements, but both these memories might be my mind playing tricks.
I do remember the broad arc because I'd never read an SF novel like it before, or much SF at all. The protagonist lives in the polluted future (probably in, like, the year 2000 or something). He lives in a city with his father. The air is so bad that there are oxygen booths like phone booths. Food is bad and expensive, so he raises rabbits to sell and to eat. He is interested in old skills like raising animals. He meets a teenage girl who was, unfortunately, not as memorable. Various shady things happen. At the end, they discover that someone (scientists? the government?) has determined that the environment is going to collapse totally and everyone is going to die, so they have developed a cryo-sleep technology and are going to save people with skills (such as animal care, for instance) who will sleep for ten thousand years until the climate has healed. The last sentences are about the boy waking up in the new world.
What WAS this masked book? It presumably didn't make as big a splash in the world as it did with me, because I have never been able to find it again and I lost my copy somehow when I was still in my tweens.
I would have read it in 1983 or 1984. I am pretty sure I bought it at a Scholastic book fair. It was more geared toward tweens and teens than kids - short novel length, teenage protagonists, dark themes. I vaguely remember that the cover had an illustration of the male protagonist, possibly with the main female character in the background. I feel as though the cover had yellow and purple elements, but both these memories might be my mind playing tricks.
I do remember the broad arc because I'd never read an SF novel like it before, or much SF at all. The protagonist lives in the polluted future (probably in, like, the year 2000 or something). He lives in a city with his father. The air is so bad that there are oxygen booths like phone booths. Food is bad and expensive, so he raises rabbits to sell and to eat. He is interested in old skills like raising animals. He meets a teenage girl who was, unfortunately, not as memorable. Various shady things happen. At the end, they discover that someone (scientists? the government?) has determined that the environment is going to collapse totally and everyone is going to die, so they have developed a cryo-sleep technology and are going to save people with skills (such as animal care, for instance) who will sleep for ten thousand years until the climate has healed. The last sentences are about the boy waking up in the new world.
What WAS this masked book? It presumably didn't make as big a splash in the world as it did with me, because I have never been able to find it again and I lost my copy somehow when I was still in my tweens.
That's what I was thinking too. Here's a summary that reads even more like your description.
posted by teremala at 11:30 AM on January 21
posted by teremala at 11:30 AM on January 21
Response by poster: Wow, that's got to be it! Funny, I remember a much more dynamic cover and I had transposed the red of the girl's shirt into the boy's jacket in memory, also there is yellow but no purple. How did you figure that out?
posted by Frowner at 11:32 AM on January 21
posted by Frowner at 11:32 AM on January 21
Hi Frowner if you’re feeling into 80s environmental dystopian YA novels this genX’er recommends ring rise ring set about a dust that blocks the sun leading to perpetual winter, and a girl living at a colony in the Canadian artic that is trying to research and prevent a new ice age. I’ve been dying to recommend this to somebody :P
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:50 AM on January 21 [5 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:50 AM on January 21 [5 favorites]
How did you figure that out?
"ya sf raising rabbits apocalyptic" got me to a reddit whatsthatbook post that fit the bill.
posted by zamboni at 11:58 AM on January 21 [3 favorites]
"ya sf raising rabbits apocalyptic" got me to a reddit whatsthatbook post that fit the bill.
posted by zamboni at 11:58 AM on January 21 [3 favorites]
« Older How to pack up a house as fast as humanly possible | You like your Reform-y Hagaddah. Which one is it? Newer »
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by zamboni at 11:22 AM on January 21 [3 favorites]