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

submitted 19 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours 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] 5 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (2 children)

Since there are a good number of great novellas out right now, I also considered 2-3 novellas can equal one novel depending on length.

Books I considered:

Murderbot 1&2 by Becky Chambers
Binti 1-3 by Nnedi Okorafor
Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Left hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin

[–] [email protected] 4 points 18 hours ago

Check murderbot 1 & 2 for language. Consider adding The Giver, 1984, Fahrenheit 451. They are classics for a reason.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

I left them out of my comment, because I thought it might be too adult, but I think Christopher Paolini's Fractalverse is about the same level as Long Way, so I'm going to recommend that as well! Pretty standard scifi plot (though I haven't finished it yet, so maybe it gets shaken up in later books), but with some really interesting elements of transhumanism, like AR bio-implants, and giant genetically engineered brains for piloting FTL ships