Recommendations for Sci-fi space books for young but advanced reader

[Rosanna]

So my 7-year-old sat down in the local library's sci-fi section and picked up a book which she started reading. The book was The Stars Are Legion At first, after a quick glance, I was thinking "ok we'll give this a try" However, after doing a bit of research later I feel it would be too mature for her, so I'm trying to come up with a list of good sci-fi with a space setting to suggest. Other sci-fi/fantasy recommendations also more than welcome, but she's super into space exploration at the moment.

[Joel]

Larklight by Philip Reeve. I haven't read it, but I have enjoyed his other works.

[Qukatheg]

Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein might work for you. It's a bit dated, but still great fun and suitable for young readers.

[Melani]

John Christopher's Tripods Trilogy is a classic.

There's this list. I've enjoyed the books that I've read on this list. And I think they've varied the reading level a lot so you should be able to find something for your kid. https://best-sci-fi-books.com/25-best...

Margaret Peterson Haddix has a couple of science fiction books that would probably be age appropriate.

[Aaron]

Don't underestimate what young readers can handle. Some of us grew up reading many years above our age.
You could read it together to be in a better position to help her with any parts that are too much.

That said, there are some excellent series I've enjoyed aimed decades younger than me. They aren't space, but my space needs are generally covered by Wayfarers and Firefly novels.

M.T. Anderson's Pals In Peril series spoofs the the pulp series children's books of the 50s & 60s (like Nancy Drew and Tom Swift). I took a chance on Whales on Stilts based on the title and cover alone and was not disappointed.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/5941...
The final book in the series is more space oriented.

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde (my favorite author)

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

[John (Nevets)]

Qukatheg wrote: "Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein might work for you. It's a bit dated, but still great fun and suitable for young readers."

Seconded, and a nice read for older readers as well, read it the first time at age 19, and then again a year or so ago at age 40. Apparently Heinlein has a few other “jouvanels”, if she likes that one.

And while I’m not reading this months pick, from what I hear that may be a good choice to keep her interested in space. Like most things in life we do pick up more nuance as we grow a bit wiser, but even if we don’t pick up all of that, good stories are good stories.

[John (Taloni)]

Hmmmm...I read Alexei Panshin's "Rite of Passage" at the age of eight. Fourteen year old female protagonist. The setup is that a group of people live on spaceships but have to live for a month on a planet - the aforementioned Rite of Passage - at fourteen. Includes some sections on bullying depending on what floor of the ship you live on.

There's a little bit of making out at the end which puzzled eight year old me. Also I thought the MCs were terribly aged being already in their teens. Maybe read it first before deciding. But it won the Nebula and was nominated for a Hugo, so the SF community of the day thought it was plenty good.

[Daniel]

One sci-fi book I read as a kid which I have good memories of is Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett.

Don't be mislead by the author though, this is nothing like his fantasy books. It is about aliens and space and I remember finding it very fascinating when I was young. It is about a boy whose aliens from a computer game come alive, he eventually (if I remember correctly), meets them in his dreams on their space ship.

I'm not sure how well the book aged though (it was written in 1992 and plays in that time), when I was a kid, I still had some notions of installing games from floppy disks, which might be a foreign concept to a kid of today.

As a side note, there are two continuations in the series (Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb) those are not really about space.

[Stephen]

I also third Have Space Suit—Will Travel. It is fun.

[Hsider]

I read a lot of Andre Norton at about that age. Not heavy on the science, but a lot of fun.

Not SF, but Martha Wells' Emilie books are quite good - I describe them as what would happen if Joan Aiken played in Edgar Rice Burroughs' worlds.

I also liked Heinlein's juveniles, but I haven't read them in a while.

[Seth]

The Martian was crazy popular for good reason. I think that would be great for people of just about any age. As far as I remember the most offensive content was some snarky swearing and poo jokes.

The newest series in the Honor-verse would probably be OK too, search for Manticore Ascendant - it's the one co-written by Weber and Zahn. The beginning of the main Honor Harrington arc would probably be comprehensible to a kid too, but her past includes being the victim of an attempted sexual assault, which is fairly grown-up to think about.

Speaking of Timothy Zahn, I was crazy about Star Wars as a youngster. I started reading follow-up Star Wars fiction pretty early and Zahn's Thrawn books are the best of the bunch (start with Heir to the Empire). Since being acquired by Disney, Star Wars has a lot more titles actually geared to children of all ages. I haven't read them, but since they're marketed to children I think it's safe to assume they wouldn't contain anything terribly weighty. But even the adult books are PG-13 just like the movies.

[Jeremy]

I second the previous mentions of Have Space Suit—Will Travel, almost anything by Andre Norton, and the Manticore Ascendant series.

Additionally, I'd recommend the works of James H. Schmitz, particularly The Witches of Karres and The Hub series.

Also:
Seth wrote: "The Martian was crazy popular for good reason. I think that would be great for people of just about any age. As far as I remember the most offensive content was some snarky swearing and poo jokes."
I'm a huge fan of The Martian, and have both read and listened to the audiobook several times. In terms of subject-matter and reading level, it'd probably be good for a precocious 7-year old (although the science and math gets a bit dense and wordy in a few parts) but there's a *LOT* of swearing in The Martian.

[Tamahome]

I believe Alastair Reynolds's Revenger is YA. Luke Burrage just reviewed it on his podcast. Oh there's a second one.