Science Fiction Novels For Children And Teenagers
Science fiction is a futuristic genre that doesn’t just target adults. Next we will review some science fiction novels for children and adolescents that will awaken your child’s imagination and, why not, yours too.
In the first instance, it is appropriate that we define gender. Science fiction is often confused with fantasy, in the sense that both present unreal worlds. However, while fantasy tells stories of mystical beings and monsters with amazing powers, science fiction aims to “play” with the distant future.
It is divided into two trends: hard science fiction (or hard ), where scientific rigor carries a lot of weight and actions have some logical support; and soft science fiction (or soft ), in which the author’s imagination is more loose and it is not necessary to meet this requirement.
Robots, androids, spaceships, state-of-the-art machines and even aliens make up the cast of these stories, which often take place on other planets or in unknown dimensions.
Children’s science fiction
This type of literary works causes a lot of impact on people. First, because it tells exciting and suspenseful stories. Second, because it attracts us to think that we are a race in constant evolution whose limits are not known.
The idea of someone presenting us with a hypothetical world in which advances and inventions exceed the limits of our imagination is charming to us. This is enhanced, of course, when the readers are children or adolescents. They are going through a stage in which the magic and enchantment of the unknown move their imagination.
Some science fiction novels for children and adolescents
We will start this list by listing works that target the little ones. That is, its audience includes children between 7 and 12 years of age.
- First Day on a Strange Planet, by Dan Yaccarino
In this work Yaccarino introduces us to the first day of classes of a terrestrial child who attends a school on another planet. Conversely, it also tells us about the adventures of a boy from another world who comes to Earth for classes.
The familiarity that the school environment represents awakens in the little ones the curiosity to know what this story is about. In addition, they can be invited to power their imagination with a simple question: Can you imagine yourself in a class on another planet?
- The Knights of the Stars , by Michael Peinkofer
The typical story of heroes and villains that attracts children so much. In this novel, the author presents us with intergalactic battles between the protagonists (children named Ben, Sammy and Mia) and Count Atrox and his robotrox.
- The true meaning of Smekdia , by Adam Rex
It is the novel on which the famous movie Home was based . The Earth has suffered an alien invasion that has made all the inhabitants of the United States move to the state of Florida. A short time later, Tip, an eleven-year-old girl who has been left alone, sets out on a trip south in her mother’s car with her cat.
Along the way, he meets Buv, a sweet alien with whom he establishes a friendship relationship and with whom he discovers the strange customs and strange tastes of this new race that inhabits the planet.
Science fiction novels for teens
In addition to the science fiction novels for children that we detail, we will add two that may be liked by young people over twelve years of age who enjoy reading:
- In the Mountains of Madness , by HP Lovecraft
Lovecraft is a successful author of horror works. In this case, it combines its main genre with science fiction. In this work, the members of an expedition organized by the Miskatonic University to Antarctica come across a buried city that preserves the bodies of its inhabitants: the millennials.
Through a first-person narrator and student Danforth, the author recounts the disappearance of these researchers and the chilling characteristics of this sleeping civilization.
- Two Suns , by Beth Revis
It narrates the experiences of Emy and Elder, two young people who arrive on the planet Earth Centauri. As the final part of the Awake trilogy , this work narrates the encounter between two unknown civilizations, but which must face the threat of an invasion of the world in which they coexist.
Other science fiction novels for children
We could cite many more works, but we will limit ourselves to offering the names of other books that we consider highly attractive to young audiences:
- Invasión Saturniana , by Ana Carlota González
- The trip , by Margarita Londoño
- The Empire of the Five Moons , by Celso Román
- The Time Machine , by HG Wells
- The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares
