Science Fiction for the Middle School Classroom
Discover engaging science fiction books for middle school classrooms! Explore top picks that inspire young minds, foster creativity, and make learning fun with thrilling futuristic stories.
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Invitation to the Game
by Monica Hughes
Unemployed after high school in the highly robotic society of 2154, Lisse and seven friends resign themselves to a boring existence in their "Designated Area" until the government invites them to play The Game.
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A Wind in the Door
by Madeleine L'Engle
With Meg Murry's help, the dragons her six-year-old brother saw in the vegetable garden play an important part in his struggle between life and death.
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The Phantom Tollbooth
by Norton Juster
With almost 5 million copies sold 60 years after its original publication, generations of readers have now journeyed with Milo to the Lands Beyond in this beloved classic. Enriched by Jules Feiffer’s splendid illustrations, the wit, wisdom, and wordplay of Norton Juster’s offbeat fantasy are as beguiling as ever. “Comes up bright and new every time I read it . . . it will continue to charm and delight for a very long time yet. And teach us some wisdom, too.” --Phillip Pullman For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason. Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams!
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Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
Child-hero Ender Wiggin must fight a desperate battle against a deadly alien race if mankind is to survive.
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This Place Has No Atmosphere
by Paula Danziger
Aurora loves her life on Earth in the twenty-first century, until she learns that her family is moving to the colony on the moon.
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Extremely funny . . . inspired lunacy . . . [and] over much too soon.”—The Washington Post Book World SOON TO BE A HULU SERIES • Now celebrating the pivotal 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read It’s an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur’s best friend has just announced that he’s an alien. After that, things get much, much worse. With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily the fish is quite good at languages. And the book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . . . which helpfully has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large, friendly letters on its cover. Douglas Adams’s mega-selling pop-culture classic sends logic into orbit, plays havoc with both time and physics, offers up pithy commentary on such things as ballpoint pens, potted plants, and digital watches . . . and, most important, reveals the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything. Now, if you could only figure out the question. . . .
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Hidden Talents
by David Lubar
When thirteen-year-old Martin arrives at an alternative school for misfits and problem students, he falls in with a group of boys with psychic powers and discovers something surprising about himself.
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Obernewtyn
by Isobelle Carmody
Born with enhanced mental powers, Elspeth Gordie faces persecution by her own post-holocaust world, but she must resist dark forces who hope to use her powers to resurrect the apocalypse.
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Putting Up Roots
by Charles Sheffield
When Josh and his autistic cousin Dawn are sent to the planet Solferino, they join a group of kids already working for an interplanetary conglomerate stationed there. Assured by the bosses that no intelligent life exists on Solferino, Josh and Dawn come to suspect otherwise. Especially when Dawn makes contact with one of the creatures, a creature with whom she shares a mysterious ability to communicate. With the corporation pressuring them, Josh and Dawn are drawn into a battle to save the creatures. And, it turns out, to save themselves.
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Eva
by Peter Dickinson
THIRTEEN-YEAR OLD EVA wakes up in the hospital unable to remember anything since the picnic on the beach. Her mother leans over the bed and begins to explain. A traffic accident, a long coma . . . But there is something, Eva senses, that she’s not being told. There is a price she must pay to be alive at all. What have they done, with their amazing medical techniques, to save her?