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Need YA-accessible Sci-Fi suggestions. (literature.cafe)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The local high school is considering redoing their selections for their 9th grade Sci Fi unit and I’m privileged enough to be able to provide suggestions. Currently they have a choice of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E Pearson, Scythe by Neil Shusterman, and Unwound also by Shusterman.

It doesn’t have to be explicitly YA, but definitely YA accessible, and preferably something that will keep a 9th grader interested and isn’t just a fluffy book but challenges thinking/perceptions like good Sci Fi can. My goal is something near 300-ish pages but if it’s a faster read more is ok.

TiA

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I kind of want to suggest Children of Time and the other Adrian Tchaikovsky books in that series. He's very good at writing non-human intelligences and it stays relatively hard sci fi throughout the series. I just am not sure how much they would appeal to teens, I certainly would have liked them but I was very bookish. I really like the exploration of emergent cultures and technologies and the books all have a hopeful and optimistic turn to them.

Also seconding Andy Weir books, and Murderbot by Martha Wells.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

“ …just am not sure how much they would appeal to teens, I certainly would have liked them but I was very bookish.”

That’s part of the challenge too. It’s hard enough to get some of these kids to read a book, let alone a hard Sci Fi book that is now a required reading. It almost has to fool them into enjoying it first.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Haha yeah. So I think Murderbot and The Martian/Project Hail Mary would be solid choices, because they're cinematic and entertaining. They have humor and a lot of action. Murderbot hides the vegetables well and brings up a capitalist dystopia, personhood, gender identity and the meaning of freedom in subtle and clever ways. I'd be surprised if a teenager who read All Systems Red didn't ask for the sequel pretty soon after 😋