I read some fantasy (and likely even some sci-fi) in Elementary school starting around when I was 8 or so. We read Wrinkle in Time, and an Asimov short involving people made of sugar for school. (To this day, I sometimes exclaim, "I'll melt! I'm made of sugar!") I read Pinocchio and Peter Pan on my own. (However, I had been exposed to Star Trek and Doctor Who since well before I could read. -- However, the Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon was my first exposure to fantasy. I loved that show, but I was unable to continue watching it once I started kindergarten due to schedule conflicts.) However, I didn't really get in to science fiction until 6th grade... that puts me squarely in the 11/12 bracket.

I had a lot of book reports when I was in 6th grade. I thought it would be easy, as there were a lot of books in my house. Of course, it turned out my English teacher personally hated science fiction, and so didn't want any of the kids to do book reports for books in the science fiction genre. I had a problem in school: my interest usually waned (in part because I pretty much always refused to do anything that appeared to be busywork) and my grades would slowly slip. That year almost all my classes saw a true 1 grade slide every quarter. It didn't take long before my parents decided something needed to be done, so they said I couldn't watch TV until my grades improved... so I started reading books instead of doing my homework, and there was only Sci-Fi on hand, so...

That was the year I started reading books in class instead of paying attention to the teacher. I read things like Animal Farm and Tolkien for book reports. I read Heinlein, Asimov, Niven and Herbert for fun. It wasn't long before I had read every sci-fi book in the house worth reading, and the major thing I wanted for Christmas and my birthday was money for more books.

Age 11/12 - not sure which was first, but I read all of these during that year of school:
The Hobbit
Fahrenheit 451
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Midworld

Great topic! I don't know if reading Marvel comic books count but my SF type reading began in my teens with them. Later in the early 1970's I began reading the Ace doubles and Perry Rhodan novels.

I believe I was eight years old when I read The Hobbit. A Wrinkle in Time followed shortly as well as War of the Worlds. I had nightmares for weeks after that one.

Some where around 8 (1964) I moved from Super Hero comics to these syfy pulp magazines. I was delighted to find this on the web, 'Video magazine recounts the history of the pulps.'
Link: http://www.rimworlds.com/thecrotchetyold...
[summary:]
"The premiere episode of Electro-Pulp Video Magazine, a visual history of pulp science fiction magazines. The premiere episode covers the inaugural issue of Startling Stories from January, 1939. Features Stanley G. Weinbaum's novel The Black Plague, a short story by Eando Binder, the first ever SF story to be inducted into the Scientifiction Hall of Fame (D D Sharp's The Eternal Man), an editorial by Otis Adelbert Kline and a letter column featuring Isaac Asimov."

Some where around 8 (1964) I moved from Super Hero comics to these syfy pulp magazines. I was delighted to find this on the web, 'Video magazine recounts the history of the pulps.'
Link: http://www.rimworlds.com/thecrotchetyold...
[summary:]
"The premiere episode of Electro-Pulp Video Magazine, a visual history of pulp science fiction magazines. The premiere episode covers the inaugural issue of Startling Stories from January, 1939. Features Stanley G. Weinbaum's novel The Black Plague, a short story by Eando Binder, the first ever SF story to be inducted into the Scientifiction Hall of Fame (D D Sharp's The Eternal Man), an editorial by Otis Adelbert Kline and a letter column featuring Isaac Asimov."

3rd grade and my first chapter novel...The BFG. Roald Dahl turned me on to the world of the fantastic and I have never looked back.

I was in fifth grade (about 11?) I read "tom Swift and The Ultrasonic Cycloplane." Then, "The Time Machine." I was hooked!!!

My first sci-fi experience was "Starship Troopers", by Robert Heinlein in 1967...I had just been told that I could actually take a book home from the "Bookmobile" that came to my elementary school. What a joy! I have since then ruined my eyes reading - and can't stop!Starship Troopers

The first science fiction book I ever read was Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land"... May of 1973, I was 17. The only reason I remember the time so clearly is because I was away from home for a whole month at the time (first time extended trip without family) and it was the first book I borrowed from the Wichita, KS library.

I honestly can't remember how I got into sci-fi, which is odd. I remember exactly when I got into fantasy (sixth grade with Sword of Shannara), and I read a ton as a kid (Roald Dahl, John Bellairs, Stephen King). I just can't recall where sci-fi entered the mix. Relatively recently, within the past ten years, almost certainly. I don't recall reading any in college.

I've always liked sci-fi-ish movies, so it's strange that I just never got around to reading any until recently.

I was 7 and my first SF book was Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein. I loved it! Several months ago I started reading it aloud to my daughter who is 6 and she likes it, especially Willis and his ability to copy anybody's voice.

My family has always read sci fi but not as agressively as I have been on recent. Ender's Game got me reading it more seriously so 40s.

I know I watched Star Trek on TV every night when I was a kid. But as to books, I remember when I was in third grade, I was in an advanced reading group, and we read a book about a couple of boys that build a spaceship in their back yard and fly to the moon. That's the earliest sf book I remember.

The next one I remember, I was probably in eighth grade. I read all of the Walter Farley horse books, and one of the Island Stallion books had aliens in it.

In High School, I got into fantasy on my own by reading the hobbit and playing D&D. Then in 12th grade, one of my English electives was Sci Fi and Fantasy. We read 1984 and Farenheit 451.

I also remember going to the town library when I was in High School and reading everything they had by Isaac Asimov.

It must have been 11 or 12
We read "Little lost robot" in English class and from then I was hooked. I reread the story that night and from there bought a couple of Asimov books and never looked back. 30 years ago! OMG

Stacie,
I was the fourth child in a family of readers. We had so many books in our house that it was sometimes hard to know where to start. The family definitely influenced me towards fantasy and Sci-Fi.

Junior high (13? 14?). Michael Crichton's works is my first sci-fi love, started with Congo, followed by Jurassic Park, the Lost World, etc.

I was 7 and in the second grade. I started with Fantasy (Narnia) but by the end of the school year I was also reading Bradbury's short stories- didn't always understand them, mind you, but I loved them! The rest, as they say, is history :) I benefitted greatly from being the youngest child in an entire family of readers.

I read The War of the Worlds, Farenheit 457, The Time Traveler and Journey to the Center of the Earth all by the time I finished 3rd Grade, so at about 8 years old.

Jason wrote: "It might have been Victor Appleton's Tom Swift Jr. series..."

Yeah, I read those too. Fond memories.

It might have been Victor Appleton's Tom Swift Jr. series. That was awesome, when I was about nine or ten. Even my son, now 19, says he loved them when I introduced them to him. Sadly, these books have been pulled from most libraries now, and are hard to find. My first real non-reality was of course Tolkien, starting at about nine years old.
C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy was an early read for me, around the 8th grade. And I read Asimov's Foundation when I was about 15. But I never read SF much until I was out of school.

Added a little postscript.

This is a difficult one, as I was brought up on the like of Dr Who and remember the original transformation of William Hartnell into Patrick Troughton. On the other hand I probably did not actually read any sci fi till I was about 13. Then it was a case of what Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein or Moorcock I could find...I know Moorcock is more fantasy.

My parents gave me a very large hard cover collection of the Buck Rogers comic strips when I was 6 or 7. I spent the next three years drawing space ships in the shapes of cigars with wings and cockpits. That was the beginning.

Then I was given some juvenile sci-fi short story collections and I learned to look for the planet and rocket ship stickers at the library and proceeded to tear through the Heinlein juvies and every John Christopher book I could find.

When I was ten, I read The Stars Like Dust by Asimov. I remember this clearly because it was the Rubicon line for me. I moved from juvenile sci-fi to the hard stuff. I still read juvies, but once you've had Asimov, you can't go back. Foundation at age 12 was mind-blowing.

Stephen wrote: "Jessica wrote: "anyone ever read a book called footfall? i remember reading that in 8th grade..."

Yes, Footfall was a great book! That was probably the 2nd or 3rd [author:Larry Nive..."

I was about 13 when that came out. It was one of the first books that I found completely unputdownable. Don't think I moved for the last few hundred pages, right from the moment the Michael blasted off...

"Eat hot gamma rays, foolish Centaurans!"

By around 7, I was reading tie-in novels - Star Trek (memorably The Entropy Effect and the James Blish adaptions), Star Wars (memorably Splinter of the Mind's Eye) and countless Doctor Who novels, which led on to Ursula Le Guin (Earthsea), C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time).

Shortly after that I was let loose in a box of my dad's old paperbacks, an absolute gold mine to which I probably owe my entire taste in fiction. I must have been around 8 or 9 when I discovered Arthur C Clarke - The City and the Stars was the first one I read, a battered '50s paperback, after which I devoured everything he'd written in short order. Next came Asimov, Heinlein, Verne, Wells, and a cross-section of whatever else my dad had - Eric Frank Russell's The Great Explosion, Fritz Lieber's The Wanderer, Charles Maine's Calculated Risk, James Blish's Cities in Flight, E.E.Doc Smith's Lensman, and James White's wonderful Sector General. I attempted Frank Herbert but Dune was too hard going back then. Meanwhile in school we were reading Judy Blume....

But Niven & Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer absolutely gripped me at 9. I read it around the time of the first Shuttle flight, shortly after visiting the Cape and JSC, and seeing the huge Saturn Vs turned into lawn ornaments.

I wouldn't discover the rest of Niven until I was about 12, when I started hitting the libraries and buying books myself, along with Joe Haldeman, Stephen King, Tolkien, and the rest of the Universe.

Twelve probably is the golden age.

Started reading SF and F when I was 8. Had always been a book hound. I read The Hobbit Or There and Back Again, Starman Jones, Podkayne of Mars and Anthem. That started the obsession. I had to train my Mom to find SF&F books at garage sales. She would bring me a box full of them about once a month.

Norton, Heinlein, Zelazny, Herbert and Asimov were my fare for many years. Many happy memories.

Liz & Dana - same here, though I was more like 10 when Star Wars came out....

Liz - my experiences were similar to yours! My parents took me & my siblings to Star Wars When I was five, too. :) Although I also watched Dr. Who consistently through Jr. High, I didn't actually start reading SFF until I was 14 or so.

I think it started with Anne McCaffrey and Piers Anthony, because those were the SFF books I could pick up when shopping with my mom at the grocery store.

I couldn't say what age I started reading SF. Probably my entire reading career. I remember spending Sundays in bed with my Dad watching Dr. Who on PBS, Star Trek and Planet of the Apes on TV with him. I asked him recently when he took me to see Star Wars. It was the original release - I was 5! So, as far back as I can remember, I've been reading or watching SF/fantasy.

I was 9 or 10 (not counting comics) and started with Tom Swift and Tom Corbett books.

I read things like A Wrinkle in Time and suffered through Anthem in school. I didn't start reading SF on my own, for fun, until I was about 16-17, when I got addicted to Hiero's Journey. I moved past it eventually. Mostly I read Fantasy now.

My parents used to prop me up as a baby and have me watch the original Star Trek series. I had read the Narnia series in grade 5-6 but it was Star Wars that truly launched the realm of SF. I loved Spider Robinson's Callaghn's Crosstime Saloon, Issac Asimov and the Rama series and journeyed to Pern for a wonderful blend of dragons and SF. Lately, I've moved more into urban style fantasy, less Lord of the Rings and more realism.

Wow this brings back fond memories.
I can't remember, though, if my first SF/F read was The Hobbit or A Wrinkle In Time. Funny how many have one of those as their firsts as well. From there it was anything I could get my hands on. Bradbury's Farenheit 451 was among my first reads as well. The Dune series, The Foundation series, McCaffrey's Pern series... I still have all of the well-loved, dog-eared copies I started with all those years ago. I thank my parents for allowing me the freedom to read anything I wanted. They even bought me my first subscription to Asimov's magazine way back when, and I still have a pile of those too.

I never really read much as a child. I first got into science fiction recently. I am 20 now

My first SF book was Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein. I picked it up at random off the shelves of my school library. I think I would have been in 3rd grade, so around 9 - 10. What's funny is that I didn't know what SF was, and that book puzzled me because it was so real and so possible, but I was fairly sure nobody was farming on Ganymede yet. I even remember finding out Jupiter had a moon called Ganymede and going "wow". I was confused.

I don't know why I didn't ask an adult. I just puzzled over it. Anyway, the next SF I was exposed to was Asimov short stories in High School. Then I read all the Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein I could find. I got into Asimov's science-for-laymen books, too, and this sort of sent me into science geekdom and eventually into my career in engineering.

Then through the years I read everything I could by other authors I discovered. Tolkien, Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Ursula K. Le Guin (I think she writes outstanding SF), and on to Orson Scott Card, Octavia Butler, Lois McMaster Bujold, etc. I usually prefer hard or realistic science fiction most, and SF with interesting ideas. Fantasy I love is restricted mainly to Tolkien and Le Guin (who makes her fictional worlds so real). I'm much more of an SF reader than Fantasy.

One reason I joined this club is that I'm looking for good hard SF authors that are new to me. Any suggestions?

so long ago I can't quite remember. I do know I started with historical fiction, reading about the medieval era, then read fantasy, then sci fi.
Norton was the best!

I had to have been 7 or 8 when I started reading the Heinlein, Asimov and Andre Norton books from the library. The children's library in Idaho Falls at that time would only let you have FOUR books, and Mama wouldn't take us but once a week. (There were four of us to drag down there...) I read all the SF and fantasy books they had, plus the fairy tales. I've always been a binge reader, so I'd read ALL the Asimov, then all the Norton, then all the-- You get the picture.

I read The Children of Dune when it was serialized in Analog magazine, then backed up to read Dune--but I was in high school then... And have read SF/F ever since. I do get tired of the overly militaristic SF, but I just read one of the other varieties...

I don't really remember when I first started reading fantasy and Science Fiction, but the first I remember clearly was The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings at seven.
My dad had read those and the Chronicles of Narnia to us growing up, but that was when I first started reading them on my own.

I forget how old I was when I touched my first scifi or fantasy book. I know young.

Narnia, Wrinkle in Time, might have thumbed through Dune since my Dad and I watched Lynch's version a lot, tried Bradley when I was younger and couldn't get into her. Then went full blown into Mercedes Lackey, Andre Norton and some Bradley. Do like Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Movie sucked to pieces. The CGI is an acceptable interpretation. Still like the book more.

Haven't touched the ST or SW books aside from flipping through Young Jedi or SW comics. Think I enjoy imagining my own 'verses and adventures.

Stephen wrote: "I seem to remember by first sci-fi books as those by Monica Hughes, especially The Keeper of the Isis Light and the rest of the Isis series. After that it was open game for whatever..."

"Keeper of the Isis Light" was one of my first SF books, as well. I don't recall for sure, but I'd swear I was reading SF/Fantasy in elementary school.

My grandfather gave me a set of Tom Swift books at the age of 7 and I stumbled upon The Hobbit at age 9.

Battlefield Earth was by L. Ron Hubbard

a very awesome book which was turned into a horrible farce of a movie...tragic, really..,

Jessica wrote: "...i remember carrying that gigantic thing around for WEEKS. i'll have to read more of his now..."

ah yes, I do remember thinking it was big at the time. Now its just the norm ;) I really enjoy Larry Niven, especially his "Known Space" books. I have read many of them multiple times.

Footfall was by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

Stephen wrote:
Yes, Footfall was a great book! That was probably the 2nd or 3rd [author:Larry Nive..."

ah! i could have looked it up, i suppose. i remember carrying that gigantic thing around for WEEKS. i'll have to read more of his now - i think my tiny small town library actually has a few.

Jessica wrote: "anyone ever read a book called footfall? i remember reading that in 8th grade..."

Yes, Footfall was a great book! That was probably the 2nd or 3rd Larry Niven book that I read and hooked me for the rest of his (and of course Jerry Pournelle)

Can't remember when exactly, but before 10. I think Ngai Hong was my introduction to the genre. Looking back, however, I don't find his books aren't very SF-ish these days. I also remember reading the abridged/kids version of some of Jules Verne's books.

anyone ever read a book called footfall? i remember reading that in 8th grade, around the time i read battlefield earth, but i don't remember the author.

I seem to remember by first sci-fi books as those by Monica Hughes, especially The Keeper of the Isis Light and the rest of the Isis series. After that it was open game for whatever I could get out of our school library. This would have been what I was about 12. When I hit high school, it's "huge" library (compared to the elementary school) was like a dream come true. Spent a lot of time exploring their much larger sci-fi and fantasy sections!

Growing up, my parents never said there was anything I couldn't read. If I wanted to read it and could, it was fair game.