Some of our favorite science fiction stories for school-age children.
Science Fiction
Picture Books and Younger Elementary
When their spaceship crash lands on Earth, Ploo is captured by the Army and taken to the mysterious Area 51. While her brothers, Lek and Klatu, try to rescue her, Ploo uses her ESP to make a new friend.
The Glorkian Warrior isn't the brightest bulb in the box, so it's good he's got his trusty talking backpack to advise him as they set out on a perilous journey to deliver a pizza. The pizza's got clams and peanut butter on it, so it's not clear who's going to want it, but deliver it they will.
When a girl finds a lost robot in the woods, they become fast friends, but they're both in for an adventure when a much larger, menacing robot comes to retrieve it.
Franny K. Stein is a mad scientist who prefers all things spooky and creepy, but when she has trouble making friends at her new school, she experiments with fitting in—which works until a monster erupts from the trash can.
Ricky Ricotta, a small mouse, saves a giant robot from his evil creator, Dr. Stinky. In turn, the robot protects Ricky from the bullies at school, and it saves the city from Dr. Stinky's plan to destroy it.
Older Elementary
On his 13th birthday, foster child Alcatraz Smedry receives a bag of sand which is immediately stolen by the evil librarians who are trying to take over the world.
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke has lived all of his 12 years in isolation and fear on his family's farm—until another "third" convinces him that the government is wrong.
Trix's life in boarding school as an orphan charity case has been hard, but when an alluring young Ringmaster invites her, a gymnast, to join Circus Galacticus, she gains an entire universe of deadly enemies and potential friends—along with a chance to unravel secrets of her own past.
In the year 241, 12-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger that runs to new places in her decaying—but beloved—city, and to glimpse Unknown Regions.
Min, a 13-year-old girl with fox-magic, stows away on a battle cruiser and impersonates a cadet in order to solve the mystery of what happened to her older brother in the Thousand World Space Forces.
In 2194 Zimbabwe, General Matsika's three children are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine, while three mutant detectives use their special powers to search for them.
Two middle-grade kids take a shortcut home from school and discover what looks like fuzzy mud, but is actually a substance with the potential to wreak havoc on the entire world.
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community. Then, he discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.
When a mysterious boy falls from the sky, friends D.J. and Gina must discover the secrets of his identity and help him save the world.
Time has gone wrong, and together, best friends Dak Smyth and Sera Froste, with the young Hystorian Riq, must use the infinity ring to travel back to one of the Great Breaks—a mutiny on the Santa María—to correct history and defeat the SQ.
At nearly 15 years of age, Joey Harker learns that he is a Walker—a being able to travel between dimensions—and soon joins a team of different versions of himself, each from another dimension, to fight the evil forces striving to conquer all the worlds.
Klawde, the exiled ruler of the planet Lyttyrboks, and Raj, who just moved from Brooklyn to tiny Elba, Oregon, forge an unlikely friendship as they find their footing in a strange new world.
In an overpopulated world where all signs of nature have been obliterated and a wall has been erected to keep out plague-ridden animals, 12-year-old Mika refuses to believe that his twin sister was killed after being abducted, and continues to search for her in spite of the dangers he faces in doing so.
In order to heal after his mother's death, 13-year-old Sal learns to reach into time and space to retrieve things—and people—from other universes.
When 12-year-old Johnny and his sister arrive on Orbis in a space ship of orphans, he finds he has a unique ability to communicate with computers.
Told from separate viewpoints, Chess, Emma, and Finn Greystone investigate why their mother went missing and uncover their ties to an alternate world.
After a year on Mars, a young boy and his family migrate to the planet Choom, but the inhabitants of Choom, the Zhuri, who look like giant mosquitoes, don't really like humans. It's up to the boy and his family to change their minds if they hope to survive.
Young Will Parker and his companions make a perilous journey toward an outpost of freedom where they hope to escape from the ruling Tripods, who capture mature human beings and make them their docile, obedient servants. First in The Tripods trilogy.
Roz the Robot discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island with no memory of where she is from or why she is there. Her only hope of survival is to try to learn about her new environment from the island's hostile inhabitants.
Meg Murray and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.
When young Zita discovers a device that opens a portal to another place, and her best friend is abducted, she is compelled to set out on a strange journey from star to star in order to get back home.