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From: TMPLee.DODCSC@MIT-MULTICS@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: SF for Adolescents
Message-ID: <5038@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Sep-83 01:57:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.5038
Posted: Fri Sep 16 01:57:00 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Sep-83 22:53:09 EDT
Lines: 26

Can anyone point me (us, the list) to a list of good first-time SF books
for kids just starting to read SF?  What brought the question to mind is
that I happened to pick up a book we had bought for our 12 1/2 year old
(7th grade) on the recommendation of a summer-school science-fiction and
fantasy course (we have a very progressive school district here).  The
book is SILVER ON THE TREE by Susan Cooper; one of the DARK IS RISING
series -- we bought some of the others, this just happens to be the one
at hand.  Neither he nor I has read it, so don't know whether its worth
it or not.

I can vaguely remember the first SF books I read -- Asimov's FOUNDATION
set, Arthur Clarke, and I can even remember that when I read the Tolkien
books when they became a collegiate craze that sometime, perhaps even in
grade school, I had read the HOBBITT before -- the riddles in the dark
had obviously impressed my mind at a very young age because I couldn't
remember when exactly I read them but it was clear to me I had run
across them before and with sufficient impression that it brought back
fuzzy memories of the children's room at the library.  BUT, I can't say
that I read enough SF at an early enough age, or remember doing so, that
I could come up with a "recommended reading list" for kids just starting
out.  (I do have to mention that he has gone through a couple of the
Asimov Robot books, 2001 "a bit confusing", and WarGames (laughed at
frequent intervals throughout, perhaps in part because we had just put
the modem on our Apple and because my profession is computer security)).

Ted Lee