Comments on: MIND MELD: SF/F Book Recommendations for Teens 13-16

By: Kristin Centorcelli

Kristin Centorcelli — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:17:44 +0000

I’m a big Cory Doctorow fan also and really enjoyed Life As We Knew It! I’ve read the first in the Uglies series…need to read the rest!

By: Kristin Centorcelli

Kristin Centorcelli — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:16:35 +0000

It’s always good to go back to the classics:)

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 03:10:11 +0000

My teenage daughters LOVE Cory Doctrow- especially Little Brother, For the Win, and Makers.

They also really like the Uglies series by Scott Westerfield.

And Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

By: John DeNardo

John DeNardo — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:51:14 +0000

[Looks at Patrick]

By: Kristin Centorcelli

Kristin Centorcelli — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:30:19 +0000

Hey, don’t blame that on me! John’s editing must be getting rusty;)

By: John DeNardo

John DeNardo — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:35:20 +0000

Thanks, Heather. Fixed.

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:16:14 +0000

The author of Chaos Walking series is Patrick Ness ( typo in surname)

By: carlam

carlam — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:43:37 +0000

The Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, is a dynamite series. Glad to see it mentioned.

By: Kristin Centorcelli

Kristin Centorcelli — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:48:18 +0000

Soooo many excellent recs in there. Ya’ll makin’ your shopping lists yet??

By: Science Fiction Concatenation

Science Fiction Concatenation — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:33:37 +0000

Glad Andrew recommended Ender’s Game and Will suggesting Pratchett.

However I am _not_ concerned about recommending any teen books from the current crop (they can see the current marketing).

What I _do_ want to recommend teens (indeed get as Christmas and birthday presents) classic SF books still in print that are suitable for teens.

By: Carl V.

Carl V. — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:11:11 +0000

I would recommend:

Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman features a young male protagonist and has some nice creepy moments as well as a good sense of adventure, plus each chapter is in essence its own short story so makes for reading in bite-sized chunks.

Alex Scarrow’s Ellie Quin series features a spunky heroine and describes a future with all manner of interesting gadgets.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead has an interesting time travel element to it, as does Delia Sherman’s The Freedom Maze.

Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce novels are mysteries featuring an 11 y/o protagonist who loves to concoct poisons and delights in dreaming up, and sometimes enacting, ways to wreak vengeance upon her older sisters.

Allen Steele’s novel Apollo’s Outcast’s features a strong male and female protagonist, both of whom are 16, I believe.

If the child was older and was a gamer I would recommend Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I say older because of language issues that parents may or may not have concerns about.

Brandon Sanderson’s latest novella, The Emperor’s Soul, has a young, smart, artistic female protagonist and the story has interesting magic and it conjures up interesting visual imagery.

John Scalzi’s novel Zoe’s Tale features a teenage girl as the main character and it is a fun, adventurous SF novel.

By: Nick Sharps

Nick Sharps — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:02:41 +0000

Great call on Doug TenNapel! I love his graphic novel Creature Tech!