Young teenagers will love the dystopian themes, futuristic settings, and fantastical (at least, it was…) technology.
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- All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury — Nine-year-old Margot hasn’t seen the sun since she left Earth. Will she get to see the sun from Venus when it appears for the first time in 7 years, or will her classmates anger and jealousy get in the way?| Short Story Unit | Learn More…
- A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury — Imagine if you could go back in time to hunt dinosaurs. But there’s a catch. Make one wrong move, and you could change the present forever.
- There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury — Would the world come to an end if we ceased to exist? In this post-apocalyptic story, Bradbury contends that nature — and even some things we have created — may just carry on without us.
- The Veldt by Ray Bradbury — A blend of virtual reality and murder, this story foreshadows our current debate over our children’s reliance on video games.
- Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. — What happens when a teenager takes on a society bent on standardizing everyone?
- The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
- The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury | This one isn’t so far-fetched these days. Just substitute TV with video game consoles or computers.
- The Last Dog by Katherine Paterson — In a future world, a young man’s love for his dog leads him to leave his sheltered life.
Bonus!
- The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster — An RTE reader studied this story when he was in the 8th grade, and mentioned it in the comments below.
- The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street by Rod Sterling
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These are great. I haven’t read all of them but will. My students love science fiction, but I don’t. Having a list to pull from is very helpful.
Thank you, Sunny! I’m glad I was able to help.
I am still searching for more science fiction short stories, so if you find any more, I’d love to see them here.
How about “Nightfall” by Asimov? Great story about people who never experienced darkness until ……
These are all great stories, and I’m not denying Bradbury’s influence, but really, 5 of the 8 are Bradbury?
I’m sure we could do better. For instance, one I read a million years ago as an 8th grade student that stuck with me was The Machine Stops, a 1909 story by, of all people, Howard’s End and A Passage to India author E. M. Forster.
Thank you, Dave! I knew readers like you would come through for us. While I love science fiction, most of what I have read is in novel form, and/or not available for free online.
Thank you for these!
These are helpful to me! Thanks for your help and effort to get them!
I was delighted to find these. I also highly recommend “A Pail of Air,” by Fritz Leiber, “The Ugly Little Boy,” by Isaac Asimov, and “Star Bright,” by Mark Clifton. These are all in “Tomorrow’s Children,” an anthology by Isaac Asimov that is out of print. There are other great ones in there, too. My kids are fifth grade, so some stories are a bit over their heads.
Hi actually I am a middle schooler and I couldn’t find any story that actually helped me sorry but the first four stories were very interesting
Hi Jasan! I’m sorry the stories didn’t help you. Have you tried my list of 40 short stories? Perhaps one there will help.
I once read a short story about a group of space explorers who crashed on a zoo-like planet where all of the animals lived in harmony. They try to fix the spaceship to leave, but some invisible force keeps breaking it while they sleep at night. Also, manna falls from the sky to feed them. They end up trapped there forever. For goodness sake, who wrote it and what is the title?! It’s driving me nuts!
Hmmm… I have searched Google for such a short story, and discovered nothing. You might want to check with a local librarian or try these book finder resources. Good luck!
The Collecting Team.
By Robert Silverberg
Clay,
Thank you so much for sharing the title and author of that story! I will have to read it. You can download a copy of the story here. If your school’s filters are block Weebly, you may need to download the PDF at home and email it to yourself.
Hey there –
what a great list. i have incredibly fond memories of my middle school mind (and some from a great literature teacher in high school) being jumpstarted for science fiction, and dystopian future stories from so many of these great pieces.
i was excited to see Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains,” but was disappointed not to find Stephen Vincent Benét’s “By the Waters of Babylon,” or Stephen King’s “The Jaunt.”
i think some of your readers would appreciate these two choice selections, as well!
Thanks again!
– Carl
Try the story Zoo!! It is awesome!!!
Wow wonderful storylines
Another lovely short story for young readers is Isaac Asimov’s “Robbie”.
Interesting list, I would add Neil Gaiman’s ” Chivalry” and Anne McCaffrey ‘s ” The Smallest Dragonboy” they are both good mixes of sci-fi and fantasy.
I wasn’t a big fan of “The Zoo”, but did enjoy Arthur Porges’ “The Ruum”
Always looking for new and interesting stuff…
Thank you very much for sharing. I’ll check these out!
Thinking about putting together a science fiction short story curriculum for advance rising fifth-graders. This is a useful list. I had forgotten about the Veldt, an amazing story!!