If you like… Science Fiction

Living in the future

If you like stories about children living in the future…

The supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer: Cosmo Hill joins a team dedicated to destroying the mysterious blue parasites which prey on dying people.
Shadow Children Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix: Luke is the third child in a society where the law limits every family to two children only.
Riding Tycho by Jan Mark: Demetria has never questioned her harsh life until she meets a political prisoner with some very different ideas
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry: Lame and suddenly orphaned, Kira is mysteriously removed from her squalid village to live in the palatial Council Edifice, where she is expected to use her gifts as a weaver to do the bidding of the all-powerful Guardians.
The Giver by Lois Lowry: Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.
Tripods Series by John Christopher: Fourteen-year-old Laurie and his family attempt to flee England when the Tripods descend from outer space and begin brainwashing everyone with their hypnotic Caps.
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex: When her mother is abducted by aliens on Christmas Eve (or "Smekday" Eve since the Boov invasion), 11 year-old Tip hops in the family car and heads south to find her and meets an alien Boov mechanic who agrees to help her and save the planet from disaster.
Brother in the land by Robert Swindells: After nuclear war hits England, a teenage survivor and his little brother must fight for their lives in a harsh new world.
Incarceron by Catherin Fisher: Finn is in the ultimate computer controlled prison of the future. Claudia is the warden’s daughter and lives outside where technology is banned. Will they be able to rescue each other and change their broken world?
The Ember Series by Jeanne DuPrau: In the year 241, residents of Ember, the one town left on Earth after an unknown disaster, have forgotten everything that is outside their decaying, dark perimeters. Lina and Doon are trying to find a way out. Can the old instructions they found from before the disaster help?
Reaver’s Ransom by Emily Diamand: In 200 years, Britain is underwater and the sea is ruled by bloodthirsty pirate Reavers. They kidnap the Prime minister’s daughter and Lilly sets out with her sea-cat to rescue her. But nothing can prepare her for what happens next...
Titanic 2020 by Colin Thompson: Everyone said the original Titanic was unsinkable. We all know how that story ended. The new Titanic is also supposedly unsinkable. But there are worse things than drowning as Jimmy Armstrong quickly finds out. Stowing away wasn't one of his better ideas but having to work his passage and put up with spoilt girl Claire is enough to make anyone want to jump overboard... That is until he finds out about a mysterious, incurable disease rapidly infecting the population, Suddenly being at sea seems the safest place to be…
Will Buster Series by Odo Hirsch: Will Buster, an ordinary schoolboy in the future, receives a scholarship to Professor Alphonse Gelmet’s Academy of Leadership Excellence. His parents are only too happy to send Will away in the HoverPod. Life seems so easy at the Academy, all the pupils simply have to sit under the Gelmet Helmet and they seem to learn endless amounts of knowledge, but are they in control or is the mysterious helmet?

Cyber Stories

If you like stories about virtual reality, computer adventures and hackers…

The time hackers by Gary Paulsen: Someone is playing practical jokes on Dorso, but their playing with time could mean the end of the universe.
Portable Ghosts by Margaret Mahy: Ditta wants to be a detective - and when she meets a ghostly boy in her school library she has her very first mystery. Then her best friend Max tells her the floor in his brand new bedroom is haunted. But before they can solve the mystery of the groaning floorboards they have to uncover a deep, dark secret.
Survival in Cyberspace by Angie Belcher: Jen loves computers, and she's a whiz at programming. That's what draws her to the new program being developed at Future-Tech Laboratories. Soon Jen is flung into a cyberspace adventure that wings her through time and space. Then, when her newfound friend, Alexia, is in danger, Jen must use all her knowledge and wits to save her.
A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E. by Malorie Blackman: Elliot always thought his mum was a secretary in a boring office and that her interest in A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E., the environmental action group is just a passing phase. Then out of the blue, the police inform Elliot that his mum has been caught on video camera breaking into a giant pharmaceutical company and now she's on the run, accused of industrial espionage.
Kingdom Keepers Series – Ridley Pearson: Thirteen-year-old Finn Whitman and four other young teens have been transformed into holograms to be guides for visitors to Disney World. When Finn is unexpectedly transported to the Magic Kingdom in his hologram form, Wayne, an Imagineer, tells him that he and the other guides must save the park from the scheming witch Maleficent and the Overtakers.
George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy Hawkins: Take a rollercoaster ride through the vastness of space and, in the midst of an adventure, discover the mysteries of physics, science and the universe with George, his new friends - the scientist Eric and his daughter, Annie - and a super-intelligent computer called Cosmos, which can take them to the edge of a black hole and back again. Or can it?
End Game by Ben Jeapes: Simon prefers computer games to reality until a turn of events may mean game over forever
Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett: When the aliens on Johnny's computer game want to surrender rather than be blown up, Johnny has to learn to wage all-out peace and save them from destruction.

Cloning Stories

If you like stories about characters who are just a little bit different from the rest of us…

Milo’s wolves by Jenny Nimmo: Gwendal’s arrival in the family sets off a chain of mysterious events
Missing Link Series by Kate Thompson: If your body is the result of genetic engineering, how human are you?
Avril Crump and her amazing clones by Angela Woolfe: Dr. Avril Crump, a chubby, balding, and lonely research scientist at Leviticus Laboratories, befriends three strange clones that were created during a failed laboratory experiment, but when she discovers a plot to destroy them, she embarks on a dangerous mission to save the only friends she has ever known.
Jimmy Coates Series by Joe Craig: While escaping from the strange men that are after him in London, Jimmy discovers he possesses many unusual talents for an eleven-year-old boy.
Tim: Defender of the Earth by Sam Enthoven: TIM is Tyrannosaurus Improved Model. He's a genetically modified dinosaur that the government have been growing in a secret bunker under Trafalgar Square. And he's on the loose, after the Prime Minister decides he's just too expensive to keep. He's huge and clumsy. He tries to get away but something's calling him back.
Ghost Soldiers by Justin Richards: Investigating a strange death and a haunted house, Art and company are drawn into a world where nothing and nobody can be trusted. Monsters on the streets of London are dressed as soldiers and trained to kill. As a terrifying plan is put into action, only the Invisible Detective can stop it.
Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves: At nearly fifteen years of age, Joey Harker learns that he is a Walker, 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. This book is a mix of fantasy and science fiction.

Time Travel Stories

If you like stories about people who travel through time…

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle: Meg and Charles Wallace set out to find their father. His top secret job as a physicist for the government has taken him away and the children search through time and space to find him.
Molly Moon’s Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure by Georgia Byng: Molly Moon is hypnotized by a mysterious turbaned gardener and eventually transported to India, where she meets a maharajah who has kidnapped younger versions of Molly.
The Navigator by Eion McNamee: Owen has always been different but he is not prepared for the knowledge that he has a mission to help the Wakeful--the custodians of time--to stop the Harsh from reversing the flow of time.
Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson: Eleven-year-old Silver sets out to find the Timekeeper--a clock that controls time--and to protect it from falling into the hands of two people who want to use the device for their own nefarious ends.
Found by Margaret Haddix: When thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip, who are both adopted, learn they were discovered on a plane that appeared out of nowhere, full of babies with no adults on board, they realize that they have uncovered a mystery involving time travel and two opposing forces, each trying to repair the fabric of time.
Time Twister : Journal #3 of a Cardboard Genius by Frank Asch: When his co-pilot finds a glitch in his Star Jumper, Alex Archer invents a time machine to rectify the problem, and he, along with his little brother, embark on a series of mind-boggling time travel adventures that threaten the very existence of the universe.
The Game by Diana Wynne Jones: Sent to a boisterous family gathering in Ireland by her overly strict grandmother, orphaned Hayley feels out of place until her unruly cousins include her in a special game involving travel through the mythosphere, the place where all the world's stories can be found, and where some secrets of her past are revealed.
Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones: When Jamie unwittingly discovers the scary, dark-cloaked Them playing games with human lives, he is cast out to the boundaries of the worlds. Clinging to Their promise that if he can get Home he is free, he becomes the unwilling Random Factor in an endless game of chance.
Starcross by Philip Reeve: Art and his family are invited on a free holiday to the exotic Asteroid Belt, a remote part of space near Mars. They arrive to discover that nothing is quite as it seems, the hotel slips back and forth through time, and the guests behave strangely. It's up to Art, Jack Havoc and his sister Myrtle to get to the bottom of these bizarre things.