YA Horror & Sci Fi recommendations

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Hi everyone,

I was a never a big sci fi guy (loved Dune...), but I have a student going into 9th grade. Struggles with reading comprehension rather significantly. We want him reading as much as possible, obviously, but he doesn't finish a lot of books. He will finish a book he likes. If you're a teacher, he's one of those struggling students who wants to please. If you found the right book for him, he'll read it--so, I mean, he will work at books awhile to see if he likes them too.

Either way, any young adult science fiction or horror recommendations? I think he's read and liked Goosebumps. I had an old book last summer I never read that I gave to him called Death World, and he said he really liked that.

I know Dune's not the book to recommend. I'd say he read at a struggling 7th to 8th grade level.

[RedEyedGhost]

I don't read much YA, but I would definitely recommend Peadar's (Ô Guilín) books.  His first trilogy is sci-fi with horror elements; it starts with The Inferior.  His second series (a duology) is contemporary fantasy with some horror elements; starts with The Call.

ETA: Oh, another good one would been The Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown.  I thought book one sucked, but I can see younger people really loving (and a lot of older people around here do dig it, too).  It just wasn't for me.

[Errant Bard]

Would short stories work? Poe wrote nice, striking ones, that I could easily digest when I was a kid, I still remember the masque of the red death. (I was also quite impressed by Maupassant's short story the Horla, in the same vein.)

In SF I woulf say the instrumentality of man short stories by Cordwainer Smith could likewise work for a kid.

 

I may be out of touch with what 7th grade reading means, though. I never really understood what YA meant after Harry Potter.

[RedEyedGhost]

Ray Bradbury's books and short stories would be an excellent choice as well.