jdb@qubix.UUCP (Jeff Bulf) (09/21/83)
When this article came back to me, the first line was missing. Made no
sense that way, so here goes again....
I started sf as a kid on the numerous Heinlein "juvies". eg Time for
the Stars, Rolling Stones, etc. They were good sf, good physics, engineering,
relativity, good intro to RAH philosophical gibberish.
There may be better stuff since then. Any suggestions out there?
Jeff Bulf
{decvax.decwrl}!qubix!jdbCARROLL@USC-ISIB@sri-unix.UUCP (09/22/83)
My first two SF books were "The Secret of Saturn's Rings" by Donald A. Wolheim, and "Operation Springboard", author unknown. I think I was about eight at the time. I also read my first comic book then, a DC mag, "Action", starring the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century. If anyone knows the author to "O.S.", please clue me in. Other goodies were: The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald The Mad Scientists' Club Spaceship Under the Apple Tree ( Especially good was the part where the alien didn't want the boy to go to "General Store": he thought his visit to Earth would be revealed to the military.) The Time Machine series ( These two books were published by the Boy Scouts, I think. Two present-day scouts find a time-machine, and team up with a bald, toothless scout from the future and a slave- gladiator from ancient Rome. I remember a part in which they make an enemy think he's surrounded by time machines, by re-visiting the same time period again and again.) Black and Blue Magic ( By Zilpha Keatley Snyder. A fantasy.) The Tom Swift series ( flying lab, jetmarine, electronic retroscope, triphibian atomicar...) The Space Eagle ( published by Whitman- you know, those hardcover books in the same rack as coloring books, with a picture on every other page- Space Eagle was good, with his SWIFT: Space Warp Infinity-Finity Transport.) Also read lots of comics, especially DC- Superman, Superboy, Action, Batman, World's Finest (Superman-Batman team-ups). Good stuff in the mid to late 60's. Steve -------
burton@inuxe.UUCP (Thomas Burton) (09/23/83)
One of my favorite 'adolescent SF' authors was John Christopher. I read the trilogy consisting of "The White Mountains", "The City of Gold and Lead" and "The Pool of Fire" when I was in 7th grade, and thoroughly enjoyed them. I haven't read any of his other works, which appear to be more fantasy and less SF (which isn't a criticism, by the way). Highly recommended, especially since adolescents are the heroes; I felt I could relate better to young teens attempting to save the world than I could to adults or even older teens. Also, Alan Nourse wrote a novel called "The Universe Between"; it was my first introduction to higher dimensions and alternate universes, and also had young protagonists. A book I recently re-read, which I enjoyed in elementary school, was "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeliene L'Engle; its the first book in a trilogy, and the later books have a strong religious tone (sort of like C.S. Lewis); still, they were rather good. Again, young protagonists are featured. I believe the other books are "The Wind in the Door" and "A Swiftly Tilting Planet". For much younger readers, there is the Tycho Bass series (I forget the author) and the "ZipZip and the Flying Saucer" books; I read these in elementary school. They may be out of print now; I remember trying to find them once a few years back, without much success. And of course, how can anyone forget the Danny Dunn series (well, we can try). I remember being on waiting lists at my elementary school library for the "new Danny Dunn book". Such titles as "Danny Dunn on the Ocean Floor" and "Danny Dunn and the Smallifying Machine" cannot readily be forgotten. Sigh. Doug Burton inuxe!burton ATTCP - IN
msk@mtplx1.UUCP (09/23/83)
I too highly recommend "A Wrinkle in Time" - but I never knew that 2 more books in a trilogy existed. Also I could just kill my mother for giving away my complete set of TOM SWIFT books - talk about juvenile sci-fi - these were great when I was very young. Now that I have sons of my own,... Oh well, we all know how mothers can be sometimes (NO FLAMES PLEASE - I was just recollecting; now I want those books for my sons but at the time I was glad to donate them to a library where other youngsters could get as turned on to sci-fi as I had been.)
preece@uicsl.UUCP (09/27/83)
#R:inuxe:-61900:uicsl:10700035:000:1598 uicsl!preece Sep 26 11:00:00 1983 I'm not sure I like to break out "kids'" SF from the rest. The first SF I read (about sixth grade) was all adult stuff: the Kuttner Gallagher stories (I think the collected title was Robots Have No Tales, but I couldn't swear to it), the Fadiman math collections (fantasia Mathematica, et al; "A Subway Named Moebius" is one of my favorite shorts), and Starship Troopers. Needless to say, reading them now I get a host of connotations that went right past me at the time, but I loved them at the level I read them, too. I'd say it's most important to pick things that will hit the areas where the kid's imagination has already been sensitized. I was into math at the time, hence the math-related stories. Try a few different things and see what works. Most kids are likely to be happiest with a fair amount of action, but even that isn't necessarily required. I would say, though, that you shouldn't stick to juvenile titles. Most of them are just not as good, and you want kids to be reading the best written material they can handle (the Heinlein juveniles and some others are clearly exceptions to this rule, books that grownups read despite the juvenile label). [Actually, the books I was most hooked on were the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome, but they aren't SF by any possible stretch of the imagination...] The principal rule, though, is get them reading SOMETHING. Kids who read and collect comic books are still likely to turn into readers of regular books later, and if anything correlates with success it's a love of reading. scott preece pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece
davidl@tekecs.UUCP (David Levine) (09/29/83)
And of course, how could we forget Matthew Looney? There were at least
three Matthew Looney books, and possibly four, of which I remember
Matthew Looney's Voyage to the Earth
Matthew Looney Conquers the Earth
Matthew Looney and the Space Pirates
quite fondly. I have forgotten the author, but I'll never forget the
illustrations by Gahan Wilson (!). The books chronicle the career of
Matthew Looney, resident of Crater Clavius on the Moon, from his first
space voyage (as cabin boy on the first Lunar ship to visit the Earth)
to his promotion to Admiral and explorations of the rest of the
universe. The science was moderately accurate and the humor was
fantastic. Not just for kids.
Gahan Wilson and this author also collaborated on a book about a boy
who accidentally invents a zero-friction grease based on the mystrious
"Ingredient Zeta". I have forgotten nearly everything about this one.
Finally, I must bring up the first SF book I remember having read,
which was "The Runaway Robot" by Lester Del Rey. It's probably too
dated for today's readers, though...
-- David D. Levine (...decvax!tektronix!tekecs!davidl) [UUCP]
(...tekecs!davidl.tektronix@rand-relay) [ARPA]