Raising a Sci-Fi Kid (continued)

• Tria and the Great Star Rescue by Rebecca Kraft Rector (Delacorte:2002) Tria, whose best friend is a hologram, finds herself Outside, away from her safe "pod" home. She needs to find a way to save the changing world and get back home.

• Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Simon & Schuster, 1998) In a future in which the government only allows families to have two children, Luke is a third child. Though he's in hiding he finds other "thirds" and they find a way to fight against the governmental rule.

Middle and High School:

• The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979). The classic tale of Arthur Dent's travels across the universe and the mishaps that occur along the way.

• The Time Quartet (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet & Many Waters) by Madeline L'Engle (1962-1986). Award-winning stories of the Murry family's attempt to save the world from evil with the help of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which.

• The Giver Trilogy by Lois Lowry (1993-2004). These three novels, including The Giver, Gathering Blue and Messenger tell, through the eyes of adolescents, of a future society where history isn't shared and people must meet certain specifications. The adolescents must relearn their history and remake the society before it dies out completely.

With your help, your Sci-Fi kid can see the world through different eyes, asking not "What happened here?" but "What could happen here?", "What effect will it have?" and "What else could the characters do?" While reading science-fiction with your child doesn't ensure his ability to change the world, it can help change the way he thinks about the world, expand his dreams of the future and give him the inspiration to pursue those dreams, however far-fetched they may seem. After all, as Ray Bradbury once said, "Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction."