Sci Fi for elementary kids.

[LauraBeth475]

I'd like to find a book or two to introduce the genre to my 8 year old. Something at a 3-4 grade level.

 

Any suggestions?

[desertflower]

A Wrinkle in Time  by Madeleine L'Engle.

 

ETA:  I'd like to know more too, so I'll be following as well.  :)

[Lori D.]

gr. 1-2

- Commander Toad series (Yolen)

gr. 2-3
- Jimmy Zangwow's Out of This World Moon Pie Adventure (DiTerlizzi)
- A Flying Birthday Cake? (Sacher)

 

gr. 3-4

- Great Illustrated Classics: The Time Machine

- Great Illustrated Classics: Journey to the Center of the Earth

- Great Illustrated Classics: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

- Great Illustrated Classics: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

- Great Illustrated Classics: Frankenstein
- Time Warp Trio: 2095 (Scieszka)
- The Iron Giant (Hughes)

gr. 4-5
- The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (Cameron) -- and sequels
- Tom Swift, Young Inventor series (Appleton)
- Time Cat: The Remarkable Journeys of Jason and Gareth (Alexander)

- My Teacher is an Alien (Coville) -- and other alien books by Coville
- The Green Book (Walsh)

 

gr. 5
- City of Ember, People of Spark, Diamond of Darkhold (duPrau)
- Lizard Music (Pinkwater)
- Fat Men from Space (Pinkwater)

- Borgel (Pinkwater)
- George's Secret Key to the Universe (Hawking) -- verging more on non-fiction
- Uncle Albert series (Stannard) -- verging more on non-fiction

gr. 6
- the Bromeliad trilogy: Truckers, Diggers, Wings (Pratchett)
- The True Meaning of Smekday (Rex)
- Space Boy (Card)
- A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle)

 

 

ETA: Sci-fi encompasses MANY types of topics and sub-genres, so it's hard to come up with one book that will represent ALL of Sci-Fi.  ;)  Many people will include fantasy works or works with fantastical elements in the Sci-Fi genre, as the genre "Fantasy" included both traditional fantasy/fairytale AND early (up through 1930s-1940s) Sci-Fi. However, by the 1950s, Sci-Fi really has been most commonly thought of as a separate genre, with a focus on the future, technology and/or space, while Fantasy is more defined by the medieval and magical. Here are some of the bigger sub-genres of Sci-Fi:

 

- space colonization stories
- "space opera" -- strictly space flight/other planets/aliens and stories that arise from that
- "techno tales" -- strictly futuristic technology/robots and stories that arise from that
- time-travel
- "spy-fi" -- combo of intrigue/secret agent and futuristic sci/fi elements
- futuristic technology and use/abuse here on present-day earth
- other-worldliness that is more like fantasy than foreign planet, space port, etc.
- strange/unexplainable events or powers that border on the horror genre
- "think pieces" -- use technology or science as a springboard for wrestling with ethical questions
- apocalyptic / post-apocalyptic -- wiping out of human life; or, how the few survivors manage post-disaster

- dystopia -- imperfect world with oppressive or dysfunctional government; nightmarish vision of future

- steam-punk -- 19th century/Victorian setting with futuristic Jules-Verne-like inventions and adventures

Edited August 16, 2016 by Lori D.

[forty-two]

My oldest dd read Timothy Zahn's Dragonback series and Isaac Asimov's Lucky Starr series in 4th.  I've read and enjoyed them both myself.

[Farrar]

I'd say The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet.

 

There's a bit of a dearth of good sci-fi for this age, honestly. A lot of the MG sci-fi, like Wrinkle in Time or some of the Heinlein stuff like Have Spacesuit, feels like it's just a little older in themes and style. And there aren't a lot of writers doing scifi in MG in general.

[Lori D.]

There's a bit of a dearth of good sci-fi for this age, honestly. A lot of the MG sci-fi, like Wrinkle in Time or some of the Heinlein stuff like Have Spacesuit, feels like it's just a little older in themes and style. And there aren't a lot of writers doing scifi in MG in general.

 

Thanks for saying this… I thought it was just me drawing a blank. ;)

[Farrar]

Yeah, whenever this question comes up, I end up wracking my brain a bit. It feels like there must be more out there, but I think there really isn't. I mean, I can think of a few other things... Bruce Coville has a bunch of books, but I haven't read most of them (I'm more familiar with his fantasy for younger readers)... The Search for Wondla might make a good read aloud for this age (and the illustrations are lush)... The George's Secret Key books are neat with lots of real science. The Margaret Peterson Haddix books are scifi, but I don't tend to rec series fiction for read alouds, though that's my own bias.

 

This list is pretty decent (and the age rec's are spot on IMHO), but it illustrates the extent to which scifi is so many things to so many people. Some of the things in this age range include The Little Prince (feels more like a fable), Cosmic (feels more contemporary with a touch of unrealism), Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM (feels more like a talking animals tale), Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (wait, seriously?), and Franny K. Stein (feels more like campy horror). Even something like City of Ember feels a bit fantastic and otherworldly as opposed to futuristic.

 

But there is a lot more for the upper end of MG... Ender's Game, Wrinkle in Time, piles of Heinlein and so forth... 

[Mergath]

The Animorphs series is sci-fi. They might be closer to fifth or sixth grade and they get a bit darker as the series goes on, but my 8yo read the first few and enjoyed them. They aren't exactly classic literature, but they're fun. ;)

[Guest]

Alfred Slote's Robot Buddy series

Danny Dunn

 

https://allisonsbookbag.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/dannydunn/

 

For younger, Eve Titus' Anatole and the Robot

Edited August 17, 2016 by Heigh Ho

[Lori D.]

Yeah, whenever this question comes up, I end up wracking my brain a bit. It feels like there must be more out there, but I think there really isn't. I mean, I can think of a few other things... Bruce Coville has a bunch of books, but I haven't read most of them (I'm more familiar with his fantasy for younger readers)... The Search for Wondla might make a good read aloud for this age (and the illustrations are lush)... The George's Secret Key books are neat with lots of real science. The Margaret Peterson Haddix books are scifi, but I don't tend to rec series fiction for read alouds, though that's my own bias.

 

This list is pretty decent (and the age rec's are spot on IMHO), but it illustrates the extent to which scifi is so many things to so many people. Some of the things in this age range include The Little Prince (feels more like a fable), Cosmic (feels more contemporary with a touch of unrealism), Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM (feels more like a talking animals tale), Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (wait, seriously?), and Franny K. Stein (feels more like campy horror). Even something like City of Ember feels a bit fantastic and otherworldly as opposed to futuristic.

 

But there is a lot more for the upper end of MG... Ender's Game, Wrinkle in Time, piles of Heinlein and so forth... 

 

Thanks for the link to that list -- totally agree with you that there are definitely some head-scratchers on there as to how they fit the sci-fi category. There were a few solid sci-fi titles new to me (Whales on Stilts, Virals, Eager, Akiko on the Planet Smoo, Lunch, Zita Sthe pace Girl). Okay, the title alone on that first one is going to make me hunt down Whales on Stilts… ;)

 

I included the Great Illustrated Classic versions of HG Wells and Jules Verne, which are the grand-daddies of Sci-Fi, and those are abridged to a middle-grade level. Aren't there some graphic novels out there of some of the sci-fi classics that would work for middle/late elementary grades?

 

Also, I just remembered that there are a number of Star Wars books that are stepped readers for the grade 1-4 crowd, as well as some junior novelizations, Lego Star Wars books, and the Jedi Academy series which are all for the gr. 3-6 readers. (Although, Jedi Academy looks like it's really just your typical school story series, but set in the Star Wars setting…)

 

The premise for Tesla's Attic (Accelerati Trilogy) looks interesting -- a bit like a spy/invention/intrigue crossed with a magic adventure book where the magic gimmick is actually technological devices… Not straight up sci-fi, but it does have the technology emphasis which I do think is a heavy focus of much traditional sci-fi...

Edited August 17, 2016 by Lori D.

[Farrar]

Thanks for the link to that list -- totally agree with you that there are definitely some head-scratchers on there as to how they fit the sci-fi category. There were a few solid sci-fi titles new to me (Whales on Stilts, Virals, Eager, Akiko on the Planet Smoo, Lunch, Zita Sthe pace Girl). Okay, the title alone on that first one is going to make me hunt down Whales on Stilts… ;)

 

I included the Great Illustrated Classic versions of HG Wells and Jules Verne, which are the grand-daddies of Sci-Fi, and those are abridged to a middle-grade level. Aren't there some graphic novels out there of some of the sci-fi classics that would work for middle/late elementary grades?

 

Also, I just remembered that there are a number of Star Wars books that are stepped readers for the grade 1-4 crowd, as well as some junior novelizations, Lego Star Wars books, and the Jedi Academy series which are all for the gr. 3-6 readers. (Although, Jedi Academy looks like it's really just your typical school story series, but set in the Star Wars setting…)

 

The premise for Tesla's Attic (Accelerati Trilogy) looks interesting -- a bit like a spy/invention/intrigue crossed with a magic adventure book where the magic gimmick is actually technological devices… Not straight up sci-fi, but it does have the technology emphasis which I do think is a heavy focus of much traditional sci-fi...

 

Whales on Stilts is funny. Akiko is cute - those are actually a good sci-fi rec for this age. And, of course, everything Ben Hatke does is amazing. Zita is awesome, awesome. Not for a read aloud, obviously, but just because it's one of the best graphic novels out there.

 

The Jedi Academy books are basically Wimpy Kid with Jedi characters. But Jeffery Brown, who did the first set of them, is a good artist and they're a lot kinder than the Wimpy Kid books, which don't really have characters parents want their kids to emulate. I like his Darth Vader and Son books better though. We saw him at the National Book Festival a couple of years ago and he was super nice. 

 

Somehow I didn't know about Tesla's Attic, but holy cow - Neal Shusterman for younger readers? I'll bet it's interesting at the very least. That would have been a good one for us when we were doing a spate of steampunk things.

[raptor_dad]

DS9 has read most of those... the only sci-fi he has reread is Phillip Reeve's  Larklight series... it is fabulous steampunk written at about the same level as A Wrinkle in Time... the large print, illustrations, and small book format might make it more approachable. John Christopher's Tripod trilogy(White Mountains, City of Gold and Lead, and Pool of Fire) are also a good set of books at that level.

 

Whales on Stilts was too ironic for us. He just read City of Ember this summer, sort of like Hugh Howey's Wool for kids... he quite enjoyed it but the sequels were sort of meh.

[luuknam]

Okay, the title alone on that first one is going to make me hunt down Whales on Stilts… ;)

 

"Whales on Stilts" totally sounds like Sharknado, but a book for 10yos.

[Farrar]

Oh, I thought of one that didn't make any of the lists. The True Meaning of Smekday was amazingly awesome. Weird, quirky alien invasion story. Awesome heroine. The movie Home was based (very, very loosely) on the first half of Smekday.

[Lawyer&Mom]

I really enjoyed the Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher at that age.