Ask HN: Sci-Fi book recommendations for kids? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Sci-Fi book recommendations for kids?

9 pointsceocoder13 comments

My friend (iamgopal) and I grew up reading adventure/science fiction books by Jules Verne; shared love of these books was the reason we became best friends in matter of days, and were a huge influence for us - reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Mysterious Island and the like were a huge influence during our formative years. Even today I have a mild obsession with submarines that probably links back to reading 20k leagues.

Now that both of us have kids of our own and want to expose them to some good books. Any and all suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks

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You don't mention their age which may help!

Charles Stross's Merchant Princes is a rolicking good read, and well suited for teens and near I think - our eldest loved them. I recommend the first six (the six books are now sold as a trilogy, as they were originally intended to be).

The relaunch of the series with a new follow-up trilogy rather loses the plot and was a big disappointment... So I'd stick to the originals. :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_Princes

Sorry age between 3 and 6

They're rather young for Merchant Princes yet then. Hmm.

Jonathan Stroud's award winning Bartimaeus Trilogy (in 4 parts with prequel) is younger - probably around 8 or 10, and is one of those children's series that there's a good chance parents will enjoy too. More alternate history and fantasy than sci-fi though. There's an adult layer in things, and a deliciously acerbic and sarcastic main character, so a good series for reading to them. I think I would have bought the rest of the series even if the kids hadn't enjoyed the first! Hugely recommended.

His other series, Lockwood, is similar but perhaps less for the adults though there's similar humour. They're a group of kids who are ghost hunters. So more squarely in the Harry Potter vein.

Younger still and I draw a blank, sorry - it's been a good while since our kids were in that age bracket. If I do remember anything suitable I'll update.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartimaeus_Sequence

> They're rather young for Merchant Princes yet then. Hmm.

i pretty much enjoy any book that Stross publishes, including the merchant princes series, but things do get rather grim. (now kids, what do you think would _really_ happen if a superpower discovered a doorway into narnia? ...)

True, they do get a bit grim, but not graphic, which is why I thought them well suited for early teen. I think the lad was 12 when he started them and teens when he'd done, and he was a big fan. YMMV. He was an age to have enough glimpses of the real world in media and internet to get, and enjoy the ideas the books were playing with.

I enjoyed The House of the Scorpion https://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Scorpion-Nancy-Farmer-ebook/d...

You can find award winning books of different genre in the database of award winning children's books: http://www.dawcl.com/

You can browse through winners of the Carnegie Medal here: https://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/archive.php

Weirdly they don't keep the short lists. :-/

EDIT: here are the shortlists for a few years. You can find them easily with google:

https://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/press.php?release=pres_...

https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/mar/17...

http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/childrens-books/news/2012-cilip-c...

How old are the kids?

I.e. I have read Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy as ~13 year old and enjoyed it immensly. Terry Prattchets later discworld books might count as well, i.e. Going Postal, Making Money and Raising Steam is quite a bit about new technology and its influence on the changing world :-)

Ah, now I see, 3 to 6 year olds.

My daughter is 5, and we haven't really been reading sci-fy, but next time I might ask in our library :-) We mostly read fairy tales an light fantasy (i.e. she really enjoyed Hilda)

But she likes machines and robots and I amused her several times with i.e. guides through International Space Station or documentaries about various robots on Mars :)

A lot of what Cory Doctorow writes is accessible to a young adult audience, like Pirate Cinema and the Little Brother series. For younger kids there are probably lots of books at the library with a science fiction theme for those just getting a taste for reading. I think Choose Your Own Adventures were some of the first sci-fi books I got into when I first learned how to read.

Eoin Colfer generally writes science-fantasy appropriate for older kids / young adults. See: "the Supernaturalist", the Artemis Fowl books, the WARP trilogy.

"Escape to Witch Mountain" (by Alexander Key) is a classic.

i have vague and hazy memories of reading loads of andre norton science fiction books borrowed from a library when i was younger -- lots of weird stories about trading ships visiting far planets, meeting aliens, some unusual amount of gem trading, "forerunner" alien races...

edit: aside from scifi, garth nix' "sabriel" books are a pretty good read. fantasy, necromancy, & quite an imaginative take on how magic systems work

Fables for Robots - Stanislaw Lem

Not really sci-fy, but my 5 year old daughter enjoyed reading Thing Explainer and What if? from Randall Munroe of xkcd.com fame.

What if? is more speculative of the two, and you can read a few of the stories/speculations on https://what-if.xkcd.com/ :-)

Ender's Game Saga

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