Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Science Fiction for Middle School Age?

I thought that all of them were rather dark. My kids' biggest issue with the third book, and I tend to agree, is that it didn't end in a satisfying way (say the way the HP series did) and the author tended to change/develop the characters' core personalities in a way that didn't seem totally believable (Katniss especially). I can certainly see the types of things that go on in those books modifying one's world view, but it seemed like the main character become someone she wasn't likely to be.

Sorry for the derail and I'm sure that not everyone will agree with me.

I wanted to mention that DS has really enjoyed some William Sleator books lately. The Lexile scores are not terrifically high, generally in the 700s to 800s with a few higher or lower, but they seem to be well-constructed stories and he loves them. Ones he's liked:

The Green Futures of Tycho
Interstellar Pig
Singularity
House of Stairs

Anyone else discover these?

I just wanted to add a couple of books I have discovered:

Michael Reisman's "Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper" and "Simon Bloom, The Octopus Effect" are really terrific Junior Fiction SF books. Highly recommended for the scientific-minded! Science as magic, three 11-yr-old kids take on some evil grownups with really awesome physics and biology powers gained from the "Teacher's Editions" of physics and biology (one in each book) and save the world.

DS just started the gravity keeper - haven't gotten his review yet, but I thought it looked good too. Same vein as the george and the secret key books

DeHe

No! These look great. Hopefully the library has them, but they look intersting enough to buy. He goes through fiction as such an alarming rate, I try to save the purchasing for stuff that DS will go back to, so I usually want to try it first, but sometimes it's clear from the description it's worth it!

DeHe