Query: Is it possible that the rise of interesting science fiction in children’s books walks hand-in-hand with the state of the world? In happier times do we see less of it on our shelves? I can’t answer that. All I can do is point out that I’ve seen a nice uptick in publications in the last few years. Nothing trendy or anything, but enough that I can make a nice concise listing of my favorites here today. If you’re a fan of robots, post-apocalyptic floods, aliens, and more, you’ve come to the right place.

You can find a full PDF of this list here.

Want to read other science fiction lists that ALSO deserve love? Then check these out:

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2025 Science Fiction Books for Kids

Picture Books

FEATURED TITLE

Little Moments in a Big Universe by Todd Stewart

While I’ll acknowledge that this book could, potentially, have also been included on the Unconventional Children’s Books list, I guess I just love it here instead (and, if I’m being honest, I didn’t write it up in time, which is probably more significant). It certainly belongs here, but of all the science fiction-minded picture books on the list today, this is undeniably the most beautiful of them all. This is the kind of book where the front endpapers are a map of the nearest galaxies in the universe “used by space explorers and robots to fly their spaceships” while the back endpapers are diagrams of chemical compounds, whose structures are identical throughout the universe. “Many organic compounds, such as cellulose, are the building blocks for life.” Alas, I don’t know how Stewart creates this art. I just know that I want more of it. In this tale, a space explorer and robot crash on a strange new planet. However, I’m making this sound a lot more simple than it really is. The book is written in the first person from the explorer, robot, spaceship, forest, planet, solar system, galaxy, universe, and more’s point of view. On the planet the two encounter friendly life, depicted in a myriad of cool and interesting ways. You know what this book does for kids? It expands their minds. You’ve the text to help you out, which you’ll need because the art is doing this wide range of interesting things on beyond the immediate words. Mind-blowing is the only way to describe this. And maybe beautiful as well. The kind of book I may just keep for myself, it’s just that great. 

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Astro by Manuel Marsol, translated by Lizzie Davis

[Previously seen on the Unconventional List]

Naturally I start with this one. How could I not? In it, a sweet alien recounts his time befriending a curious spaceman. A bittersweet tale of love, loss, friendship, and the fragility of life. Boy, they just don’t make ‘em like this in America, do they? I think I can faithfully say that this is one of the very few picture books I’ve encountered where the plot is recounted by a deceased narrator. But before we get to any of that, let’s just take a moment to admire the art itself. So many picture books try to show alien worlds, but this one really committed to the bit. Things don’t just look alien to us. This world seems to operate on an internal logic that it’s not particularly interested in catching up the reader on. Then there’s the story, which is so sweetly recounted and told. I adored the relationship between the alien and Astro. And that was before I reached that 2001 Space Odyssey-styled ending. Wowza. This is the kind of book that is going to wiggle its way deep into some young readers’ minds so that they spend the rest of their natural born lives asking people, “Do you know that picture book? That one about the spaceman and the alien and the alien dies? I think it’s orange?”

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Field Trip to Dinosaur Valley by John Hare

[Previously seen on the Wordless List]

I am beginning to have some serious concerns about the safety protocols at this school. If you know John Hare then you know that he has already produced such wordless science fiction titles as Field Trip to the Moon and Field Trip to the Ocean Deep. I suppose one should be relieved at the premise behind Field Trip to Dinosaur Valley, since at least the kids will be able to breathe freely on the trip. Time travel is the name of the game behind this new installment in the series, and I rather like the dial that simply reads, “PAST”, “PRESENT”, and “FUTURE” on the driver’s dashboard. We’re definitely not adhering to the rules stipulated in the old Ray Bradbury story “A Sound of Thunder” in this book, since almost immediately one of our intrepid students gets their lunch stolen by a hungry pterosaur. Attempts to retrieve it means getting left behind by their classmates, which isn’t great news. They then befriend and feed an array of other dinos, before a hungry T.Rex puts an end to their fun. I was amused by the final sequence in which our hero has been retrieved and their classmates share lunch with them since they left their own lunchbox back in the past. Meanwhile, the teacher is getting seriously chewed out by someone over this lapse (and there’s a nice poster instructing people not to feed the dinos hanging quietly on the wall in the back). Hare is a master at wordless storytelling, of course, so you won’t have a lick of difficulty following along in the least. 

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Old MacDonald Had a Farm E-I-UFO by Zach von Zonk, ill. Benjamin Chaud

[Previously seen on the Readaloud List]

Extra points for the italics on the word “Had” on the cover.

Classic storytime songs meets alien abduction. Two great tastes that taste great together! One should never discount the power of the art of Benjamin Chaud. The man simply knows how to illustrate something fun. This book starts off simply enough, with a great two-page spread where everything is exceedingly normal. “Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!” You might not even notice the flying saucer in the sky at that moment, but you’ll certainly pick up on it when the book goes “And on that farm he had a …” [page turn] “spaceship? E-I-UFO!” Now the farm, I should note, is exceedingly small. Just a barn, a fence, some lands, a nice looking crop of corn, and about eight animals in total, not including the farmer. The kind of farm that would fit into a Jon Klassen board book, honestly. Promptly (and with plenty of catchy music) everyone gets abducted, except the farmer who manages to save himself (but not his clothing). The clothing is key, by the way, because it means that now the alien can dress the part. That’s about the happiest it becomes, however, because the animals immediately begin to trash the place in their own distinct ways. Now the book/song lets you MUNCH MUNCH, GLOOP GLOP, HISS SCRATCH, and more. In the end, the alien returns the animals, Bremen musicians-style, and then it cleans up. Perfect if you’re doing a space/science fiction/alien storytime of any kind. E-I-E-I awesome! 

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The Search for Our Cosmic Neighbors by Chloe Savage

I wonder what it says about Chloe Savage that, until now, all her picture books were about people searching for things that they might never find? Previously her characters have searched the seas for giant arctic jellyfish, or down below the waves for octopuses with names like Carmella (you can find The Search for Carmella on my Caldenott list this month). But Cosmic Neighbors strays from this strict format. A ship is still involved, but this time it’s a spaceship. And where those other books ended with both disappointment and found family, here we finally have success! If these three books are a trilogy then it seems fitting that Savage would finally end it with a happiness of this sort. After all, there’s nothing worse than traveling through space and finding nothing at the end. And considering the end of this book (where the crew decides to stay just “a little longer”) it’s possible that this is also a tale of found family. Just of the more extraterrestrial variety. 

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Tate Tuber: Space Spud by Michael Slack

[Previously seen on the Easy Book List]

Definitely on the upper level for new readers, so don’t go handing this to someone who’s just starting out. As a fan of the movie The Martian (and yes, I really do need to read the book) I was already primed to find a story of a potato with ambitions and launched into space up my alley. Based on a true story (backmatter informs us that in 1995 a crew on the space shuttle Columbia grew five small potatoes in the Microgravity Astroculture Laboratory), we follow Tate. When he’s selected to join a crew headed to a space station, he’s under the misapprehension that he’s a part of the team. When it becomes clear that he’s just a seed potato, his little heart is crushed. Fast forward a couple weeks and Tate has successfully grown four more potatoes. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they’re exactly like him in terms of personality. But when a potential disaster occurs, it’s these little spuds that step up to save the day. With its panels and speech balloons, you could just as easily put this in your graphic novel section as your easy readers. Even so, those comic book elements definitely add to the book’s appeal. And extra points for including more backmatter than I see in some nonfiction titles! 

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To Activate Space Portal: Lift Here by Antoinette Portis

[Previously seen on the Readaloud List]

Before we even get into the contents of this book, I just want to give a little shout-out to the cleverness of its design. Antoinette Portis has always been good at designing her book, after all. That old classic Not a Box (still in print after 19 years) was, after all, a book of design perfectly suited for its storytelling. Here, Portis has placed a large yellow arrow on the cover of her book for the “Lift Here” part of the title. I cannot describe to you how satisfying it feels to obey those words. Inside, the story is a meta interactive story that is meant to be read out loud. I mean, not only do you have fun alien voices that you can make up, but the bold colors and black frame of the “screen” is incredibly easy to see across vast distances in a storytime room. In the tale, two aliens communicate with you through a device that has presumably landed on their planet (one begins to wonder if the instructions of the title are aimed at them and not us). Kids are clearly meant to say and yell things at the book as they answer the aliens’ various questions. It’s pretty darned delightful, honestly. Ideal for a science fiction-powered storytime. 

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Books for Older Readers

FEATURED TITLE

The Forest of a Thousand Eyes, by Frances Hardinge, ill. Emily Gravett

Feather knew it was wrong to steal the spyglass for the stranger she met, but her curiosity about the world beyond her small community has always been outsized. Now she must track him down. Does she have the courage to face the forest on her own? After the 2024 election results, I pointed out to my kids that the pop culture songs on the radio seemed to be separating into two different camps: I’m depressed and The world is ending. Because pop music moves at a rate slightly quicker than that of literature, I guess it hadn’t really occurred to me that I might see similar themes in my books for kids. The Forest of a Thousand Eyes by Frances Hardinge isn’t necessarily an answer to the times in which we live, but it’s not NOT an answer either. It takes place in a future where forces beyond our control have separated humans into different camps and our only salvation is to join with one another, no matter how different we all are, because therein lies our salvation. Hardinge seems to quite fond of these small novellas she’s gotten into recently. Last year her new venture began with Island of Whispers. That was very much within her comfort zone of eerie fantasy. This book is entirely different. It’s still a short little novella, but instead of fantasy this is essentially science fiction. Post-apocalyptic science fiction at that! Her greatest strength has always, to my mind, been her ability to world build in a short amount of time. That’s truly put to the test here, and I’d say it pays off. A story about individual communities learning to come together in a hostile world feels awfully prescient, I must say. And yes, I literally gasped when the inciting incident happened at the beginning of the book (I won’t give it away). Evocative and FILLED with Hardinge’s beautiful language but also sweet and caring. You can’t miss this.

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The Experiment by Rebecca Stead

You know how a first page is supposed to capture a reader’s attention and intrigue them right form the start? That doesn’t always happen with classic kids’ books (I’m looking at you, Watership Down). Of course Charlotte’s Web is a prime example of not only a killer first chapter, but a killer first sentence as well. And considering the degree to which Rebecca Stead’s delightful alien invasion science fiction tale The Experiment owes to Charlotte (extra points to anyone who catches the direct Charlotte reference at the book’s end), it seems fitting that her first chapter is as good as it is. In fact, this book is just pure fun. Our hero, Nathan, isn’t that outgoing a guy. If his best friend Victor is Calvin, then Nathan is Hobbes. But in spite of this fact, there is something special about Nathan: He’s grown up his whole life knowing that he’s an alien. His parents have never been secretive about the fact that they are the Kast. This is why Nathan has to brush his teeth five times a day with a special pink toothpaste, why his mom tracks everything he consumes, and it probably is why recent he started growing a tail. Now the other Kast kids are disappearing and no one will tell him why. I’ve noticed that in 2025 there’s a distinct trend amongst children’s books to discuss what happens when the people you care about refuse to acknowledge that they may have been lied to because it would negate the stories they tell about themselves. Stead throws twist after twist into this clever book, to the point where you can’t stop turning those pages. It’s caring and smart and so incredibly fun. Also? I’m a BIG fan of the kind of aliens you see in this book.

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Higher Ground by Tull Suwannakit

[Previously seen on the Comics & Graphic Novel List]

Welp, I’m not sure what to think about the fact that 2025 is clearly the year that author/illustrators decided to write a bunch of very sweet and affectionate post-apocalyptic tales. I mean, between this book and Oasis (see below), we pretty much have the market cornered, wouldn’t you say? It wasn’t immediately apparent to me by the cover of this book that this even was a graphic novel. And, perhaps, purists would protest the label. Are there panels? Sure. Speech balloons? Well… no. Not exactly. But the whole book inhabits that space between an early chapter book and a graphic novel, and I like to think that the sheer number of (quite frankly) beautiful illustrations in this book tip the balance in favor of comics. The premise of the title is that a natural disaster in the form of rain floods the world. Our child heroes and their grandmother are lucky enough to have an apartment with not only roof access, but a working garden up there as well. As the months pass they tend to the garden, more than a little perturbed that the water levels are only climbing higher and higher. And when the water threatens to flood the garden, big choices must be made. It’s a children’s book, so expect a happy ending, but it rivals How to Say Goodbye in Cuban in terms of beautiful watercolors (to say nothing of the graphite powder, gouache, and acrylic paints) in a graphic novel format). The last words in the book? “Don’t give up.” A message we can all use this year.

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Oasis by Guojing

[Previously seen on the Comics & Graphic Novel List]

In a barren desert, two children strive to survive while their mother works in the city. But when they discover an abandoned robot and fix it up, they find a new kind of mother. Knowing, as I do, how long graphic novels take to make, I know that Guojing didn’t write this to almost coincide with The Wild Robot movie, but whatta tie-in! Mom robots, man. They’re very “in” right now. Of course, the entire reason this (or really any Guojing book) works is because she ties the plot in so completely to the reality of children left behind by their parents on their own (Guojing’s first book in America The Only Child was based on that concept along with her own childhood experiences). She’s done so many lovely books over the years that I didn’t really expect “dystopian hellscape” to be in the cards for her, but that’s what I like about Guojing. She always keeps you guessing. And as dystopian hellscapes go, this is probably one of the sweetest and gentlest you’ll find, though there are plenty of dark scary corners here and there. Still, the idea of finding a substitute mom when you can’t reach your real one? That felt right to me. Gorgeously illustrated and beautifully written. I adore this. Would pair weirdly well with The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan too.

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Space Chasers by Leland Melvin, Joe Caramagna, and Alison Acton

Okay, so to call this “science fiction” means that this book is far more on the The Martian side of the science fiction spectrum than, say, Star Trek. The concept is realistic, even when there are times that it strains a bit of credulity. The focus is primarily on Tia Valor who takes a test for an exclusive NASA program on a whim. She cheats on the test by copying another girl’s answers, a fact that wouldn’t mean much except that Tia is chosen and the other girl is not. So with some serious imposter syndrome in place, Tia and her fellow cadets train to go to space as kids. And then everything goes really really REALLY wrong. Now you could argue that the likelihood of people sending a ship full of kids into space without an adult on board is just the tiniest bit convenient from a narrative perspective, but if you can get around that then the story is pretty gripping. Melvin employs some serious Apollo 13 methodologies and solutions when problems arise. The true strength, of course, lies in Tia’s story and overcoming her fears and doubts, but alongside great art and coloring and an original story, this is one science fiction tale that’ll give kids a taste for space. 

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Starstuff: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Celebrate New Possibilities, edited by William Alexander and Wade Roush

Take a trip to the distant, and not so distant, future! From miracle drugs that keep you young to clones, alternate universes, aliens, space-crazed billionaires, and more, these are stories to make you think and wonder. I don’t think I mentioned this before, but my new year’s resolution for 2025 was to read more science fiction. It’s the genre I love so dearly, and it just gets completely ignored sometimes by the rest of children’s literature. This book is pure, unapologetic, unfiltered science fiction in the best sense. The ten stories collected in this title include some particularly good tales. Are they all 100% the best? Not exactly, but at the same time I wouldn’t say that any of them are duds. The connecting thread is that they all incorporate real science in some way (which is the best kind of science fiction). I was particularly keen on “The Traveler and A Proposal to the Animal Congress” (though it is weeeeeird). “The Most Epic Nap in the Universe” reminded me a little of Stephen King’s “The Jaunt”, though without the creepiness. All told, I really enjoyed this. 

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Stitch by Pádraig Kenny

If we consider the fact that Frankenstein really was the first science fiction story, then it makes perfect sense to include Stitch on this list (and it is NOT to be confused with the somewhat similar Stitch Head). Wide-eyed Stitch looks for the good in everybody, which can be hard to do when people see him as a monster. A Frankensteinian tale and the sweetest little undead guy you ever will meet. It can be difficult to say how much of the pleasure of this book comes from recognizing all the Frankenstein Easter eggs that Kenny drops in his writing, but I’d wager that even a kid who had never even heard of Frankenstein would get a kick out of this book. There’s just so much humanity at work on these pages. Do I think the ending where the villagers accept the weirdo monster family into their midst is a bit of a stretch? Oh, absolutely. But as a found family narrative I really enjoyed this thoroughly. I thought it nailed the characterizations, the villain was nicely complicated, and it stuck the landing.

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That’s it for today! Be sure to stay tuned for more lists on 2025 titles. The full roster is here:

December 1 – Great Board Books

December 2 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 3 – Simple Picture Book Texts

December 4 – Transcendent Holiday Children’s Books

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Funny Picture Books

December 7 – Caldenotts

December 8 – Wordless Picture Books

December 9 – Bilingual Books for Kids

December 10 – Math Books for Kids

December 11 – Books with a Message / Social Emotional Learning

December 12 – Easy Books

December 13 – Translated Children’s Books

December 14 – Fairy Tales / Folktales / Religious Tales

December 15 – Gross Books

December 16 – Poetry Books

December 17 – Unconventional Children’s Books

December 18 – Early Chapter Books

December 19 – Comics & Graphic Novels

December 20 – Older Funny Books

December 21 – Science Fiction Books

December 22 – Fantasy Books

December 23 – Informational Fiction

December 24 – American History

December 25 – Science & Nature Books

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Blueberry Award Contenders (Celebrating the Environment)

December 28 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 29 – Nonfiction Books for Older Readers

December 30 – Middle Grade Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

Filed under: 31 Days 31 Lists, Best Books, Best Books of 2025