Someone also mentioned Nicholas FIsk in that blog - I remember enjoying Trillions and Grinny, inparticular. There's also the brillianrt Tripods trilogy by John Christopher and Z for Zacharia (I forget the author's name).

In common with many younger SF fans, I cut my teeth on golden age writers like Asimov, Clarke and Bradbury. Asimov's robot series, in particular, is a collection of clever moral or philiosophical puzzles in the shape of literal thinking robots that did a lot to get my young mind working. And I was lucky enough to grow up during the golden era of 2000AD.

I do wonder, though, if that stuff would seem a bit fusty and old fashioned now. SF doesn't tend to age well!

oh my god GRINNY! you've just given me back the memory of a thousand nightmares. Had to hide the book because of the scary picture on the front. It chilled me to the very bone, I tell you.

On Twitter, @TheEdAssistant recommends the Hex series by Rhiannon Lassiter, which I confess I don't know at all - anyone?

There's a self-publishing author named Henry Melton who has written some really great young-adult SF stories. They're available through Amazon and other self-pub outlets, as well as through his website, henrymelton.com. I highly recommend them to young adults of all physical ages.

Whoops, I mean www.henrymelton.com (mutter grumble annoying web hosts that make you have to type the www)

Ha! Was just going to recommend Grinny myself. Tis indeed a terrifying read. (& the tv series was a terrifying watch.)

Also, as well as the Tripods, I remember really loving the post-apocalyptic Prince in Waiting trilogy.

Fisk & Christopher: the masters!

Z for Zachariah is by Robert O'Brien, who also wrote the Newbery book "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" which I recommend without reservation.

For fans of dystopias, I recommend "This Perfect Day" by Ira Levin. There is a bit of sex in it, though not graphic, so it would depend on the age of the child reader and the sensibilities of the parents. My son read it in 9th grade and loved it.

Robert Heinlein's books for teens are always great reads. Among his other writings, I especially recommend "The Door Into Summer." If you have a kid who is forced to read the depressing and overrated "Lord of the Flies," be sure to leaven it with Heinlein's "Tunnel in the Sky," a far better book.

My favorite Arthur C. Clarke is "The City and the Stars." I read it in high school and still consider it a fine, absorbing read and an interesting dystopia.

Diana Wynne Jones is by far our family's favorite fantasy writer. Her books are extremely complex and we tend to love them the most after the third read. They make fantastic read-alouds because you can be sure not to miss any details that way. (If DWJ describes a sunset you can be certain the cloud formations will relate to the story somehow.) Our consensus about the best ones: "Howl's Moving Castle," "Dark Lord of Derkholm," and "Deep Secret." The Chrestomanci books are also fantastic. Be sure to start with "The Many Lives of Christopher Chant" though.

I've heard many good things about Chris Wooding's Tales of the Ketty Jay series.

Oh, also by Fisk: A Rag, a Bone, and a Hank a Hair: great book about cloned kids. (& a fantastic title too, no?)

My daughter has enjoyed Italo Calvino's blend of scientific knowledge and humour in Cosmicomics, particular favourites were All at one point and The light years.

Depends what you mean by 'children', I suppose. I started reading SF when I was about 12, I think. Just classic SF - I wasn't aware of SF for young people, such as the Heinlen that you mentioned although I remember reading 'Tunnel In The Sky'. Actually, I read a lot of Heinlen back then, but can't read him at all now.
In most 'classic' SF it's the ideas that are challenging of course, rather than the writing. Bradbury's 'Martian Chronicles' and 'The Illustrated Man', I enjoyed. Lots of stories about children by the wonderful Ray Bradbury. The one who writes himself a letter, and the child who makes people disappear, (I won't remind you how), both spring to mind. Great stuff. And Keith Roberts' 'Pavane', if they know anything about history. And why not Frank Herbert's 'Dune'?

Almost anything by Timothy Zahn will fit. Mark L. Van Name is good. Much of Allen Steele's is okay for teens, but parents might read them first -- occasionally he drops the "f" bomb which most parents find objectionable. That's three more suggestions.

I've heard many good things about Chris Wooding's Tales of the Ketty Jay series.

Not sure they're quite right for younger readers. I read the first one which was very pulpy and simplistic, but had some "adult themes" as they say. Maybe older teens, I guess.

... just coming back in to say I've now spent £2.83 on a replacement copy of Grinny, complete with Cover of Fear, to see if it stands up. Suspect it will. If I start screaming, come and rescue me (I'll be under the covers)

When I was wee, what I really loved were the rather creepy audiobook adaptions of the Ladybird science fiction books (on cassette of course - this was the 1980s). There were four by Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle (Sir Fred wrote A for Andromeda I believe) which alarmed, entranced and terrified me by turn. The two I remember are 'The Energy Pirate' which involved a villain who was stealing all the earth's sugar. I seem to remember it ended with a huge pitched battle between all these different hats.

The other one really creeped me out. 'The Frozen Planet of Azuron' which had a very cold winter and this chap with a universe inside a carpet bag. It was about entropy. Scared the bejasus out of me but I loved them. You can find the books on Amazon for next to nothing now but alas the cassettes are long gone.

Not strictly SF (arguably more fantasy) but Garth Nix's Old Kingdom trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen) is reall good 9-12ish stuff.

Other than that, Clarke, Asimov as above but also without question Herbert's Dune books. Meaty but not overcomplicated.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne.

I read it when I was 11 and it's stuck with me ever since. The feeling of excitement and wonder it generated (just by the title!) was amazing.

My first hard SF book was Lester Del Ray's The Runaway Robot. I must have read this book a hundred times over my life, and I still have it, though the spine gave out years ago. I think it's out of print now, but if you can get a copy via Ebay or some such it's a great tale of the friendship between a boy and his robot friend as they go on a wild adventure across the Solar System. Heinlein's Have Spacesuit Will Travel is a wonderful book as well.

Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series is fantastic, I started reading one when I was looking after a 10-year-old boy who was obsessed with them and was totally hooked!

Over Christmas my grandchildren [11 and 15] were very excited by Simon Daryl Wood's Fairy Story, a book they downloaded for their new Kindle Fire tablets. From what they've told me it seems to be a mixture of science fiction, fantasy, magic and traditional fairy tales. They're still talking and arguing about it, so I guess that's a good recommendation.

I agree with JessieP, I've only gotten into Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines quartet and three Fever Crumb books as an adult, but I love them, and know lots of kids who are huge fans. His Larklight book is such a great space romp, dressed up in Victorian period costume, with lovely illustrations by David Wyatt. When the Crystal Palace goes on the rampage, it's a sight to behold!

And funnily enough, Lester Del Ray's The Runaway Robot was also a favourite of mine growing up (as mentioned by Wihtgar, above). I also loved the Madeleine L'Engle books, particularly A Wrinkle in Time, which is currently being turned into a graphic novel by Hope Larson. And The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois is another favourite, about a balloonist who crash lands on an island populated by wildly rich, eccentric inventors.

Any SF by Monica Hughes is wonderful. They are straight SF, no fantasy and excellent for good readers age 11 and up, I'd say.

The old Heinlein "juveniles" hold up better than his more adult books, if you ask me. HAVE SPACESUIT WILL TRAVEL, and CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY are two still-popular ones. Then there's Madeleine L'Engle's classic A WRINKLE IN TIME, which is referenced in the much newer and equally stellar WHEN YOU REACH ME, by Rebecca Stead (it won a Newberry!)

Wow! So many options. Many good suggestions already. Apart from the obvious options Asimov Foundation books, or the Lucky Starr series, and maybe some Brian Aldiss, I'd recommend books I read in my early teens. I first discovered Wyndam's Midwich Cuckoo's, Chocky, and Day of the Triffids.

Also, C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet trilogy. H.G Wells', Invisible Man, Tie Machine etc.

Even in more recent times, the Philip Pullman Amber Spyglass trilogy, although they're more fantasy.

As a teen-aged lad, I was partial to the novel "Gateway" by Frederik Pohl.

Fast paced, not too long with a twist ending to boot.

If the couch doctor stuff gets too boring, the restless kids can skip those sections without missing much of the story.

The sequels ain't bad either.

Heymat

I've heard many good things about Chris Wooding's Tales of the Ketty Jay series.

The Ketty Jay books are great (not remotely "pulpy and simplistic") but probably not for kids. The main characters are, at least initially, deeply unsympathetic; the captain of the ship is a drunken, sexist lecher and borderline sociopath, the main story arc is how he gradually becomes (somewhat) more likeable.

Out of curiosity, I recently reread The Prince in Waiting trilogy. Boy, it's bleak by the standards of childrens' fiction. I can't think of any other series aimed at young readers with a less sympathetic protagonist.

I loved all John Christopher's stuff as a kid, even the adult fiction, and I was glad to find it still held up.

Hiya Sarah,

I'll catch ya from the earlier blog:

SarahCrown

9 January 2012 10:50AM

ps @dholliday if you like hard SF you'll LOVE the new Alastair Reynolds - I was entranced. Best space opera since Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy I reckon - have passed on to my dad, which is the highest recommendation I can give ...

I read the first book of Mars but found it a little one-paced...never did get round to the other two books. Does it get more exciting?

I heartily recommend to you and your Dad Stephen Baxter's Manifold Cycle if you haven't read it yet. HUGE ideas.

ToucanGesture: on the look out for a Harry Potter-type sci-fi series

I think we'll have to write one. We could start it right here, collaborative effort :))

A young girl discovers she has an almighty natural grasp of advanced mathematics, culminating in a famous solving of the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem, which kickstarts a global revolution in 4th dimension science.

Lord Luddimort, however, has other ideas...

No? Oh, alright then.

Are we talking "children" or "young adults" (I hate labeling lol)?

When I was a teenager I read voraciously, but a lot of that stuff is, I suspect, no longer in print; Andre Norton is probably the author I read most, pretty sure most of her stiff is gone now. Also did the obligatory Clarke/Bradbury/Asimov/Heinlein (although I found a lot of his stuff reactionary even back then). Like ItsAnOutrage2 Dune was in the mix, as was Pavane.

My own son inherited that appetite for reading; alongside a collection of dire TV spinoffs (but hey, a book is a book, if it keeps people reading) he also read Clarke & Asimov, but I think he did find Asimov a bit creaky, which rather supports HudsonP's earlier comment.

Another author he picked up on at about 12/13 was Peter F Hamilton, the Mindstar books; the fact we were living in Peterborough at the time may have made them more relevant - needless to say I didn't let him read some of the later ones until he was a lot older!

The Witches of Karres by James H Schmidtz A rollicking good space adventure with some strong young female characters, my kids loved this when I first read it to them. I also recommend The Wardstone Chronicles (aka the Spook books) by Joseph Delaney, set in a mythical County (Lancashire) about 300 years ago. Lots of creepy and sometimes downright nasty things going on. Perfect fodder for the average teen.

All this talk of Grinny has just dragged me, kicking and screaming, back through 37 years to when I was 11. Must have made an impression on me!

Anyway, apart from that one, I'd also go with Asimov's Robot stories, and Nightfall, too. Many of Arthur C. Clarke's earlier works and short stories would also be suitable in my opinion.

I think that the short stories are the best to start with as they were written for the magazines; which were read by a wide age range and therefore had to have a wide appeal.

I'm with Patrick et al, Trillions and Grinny were my favourite kids SF way back when.

The second and third Mars books are definitely more ambitious - worth a try if you can face returning. And I've never read Stephen Baxter so will look into that forthwith (and check my dad hasn't, either). thanks!

I think your SF series has legs, meanwhile. I watched the Horizon Higgs Boson programme last night and it quite reminds me of that: I'm envisaging lots of sitting in cubicles looking at data printouts ...

I'd recommend The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (the whole 'trilogy' of five books, I haven't read the sixth yet, 'And Another Thing...'), what a class act and so enjoyable on so many levels.
I can never thank the BBC enough for introducing me to this in 1978 when it was broadcasted on Radio 4.

Ok, time for my breakfast Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster *hic*

Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books are great, as is "The men from PIG and ROBOT"...
Piers Anthony has created some readable science fiction, but it can be a bit racy in parts... Stay away from "Bio of a space tyrant" until teenage years, I think...
Science Fiction Harry Potter? The best I can think of is the excellent Legionary series by Douglas Hill - absolute classics, and read to death when I was a lad... They still hold up even now, and are an absolute delight for a young person with an interest in the genre...

When I was a teenager I read voraciously, but a lot of that stuff is, I suspect, no longer in print;

SF Gateway has been doing a sterling job of bringing a lot of older SF back in ebook form -- little of it explicitly YA, but plenty that I was reading as a teenager. Though I get the impression e-readers are mostly owned by older readers.

When I was a pre-teen child in the '70s Puffin published three SF booksnwhich I greatly liked 'Islands in the Sky', 'Of Time & the Stars' both by Arthur C Clarke, the latter a collection of his short stories, and 'Starship Medic' by Harry Harrison. 'Islands in the Sky' has probably dated too much to be acceptable but the short stories should hold up. I also read 'War of the Worlds' and 'Rendezvous with Rama' which I adored. As a teenager I read nothing but SF for about three years but found my own authors with the help of libraries, second hand bookshops and a schoolfriend who shared my passion.

John Wyndham and Douglas Adams always seem to be safe recommendations.

Also - "The Technicolor Time Machine" by Harry Harrison

i think "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury opens with a story about a "holo-room" where two kids re-create the african veldt, which leads to a gory end for their parents - a superb if gruesome "hook" for a young imagination.