January 2nd is National Science Fiction Day! Science fiction books are fun and inventive, perfect for adventurous readers. They can include robots, dystopian worlds, space and time travel, and even superpowers! Here is a list of fun middle-grade books that will get you in the spirit of the day. 

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9781481447041

Insert Coin to Continue by John David Anderson

Middle-schooler Bryan wakes up to find that his life has become a video game, with bullies to beat, races to run, puzzles to solve, and much more at stake. 

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9781324030775

Children of Stardust by Edudzi Adodo

After stumbling upon a strange, golden pyramid that imbues him with a legendary power, Zero is recruited to take part in a dangerous, intergalactic quest to track down the infamous mask of the Shaman King.

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9781524773007

Bloom by Kenneth Oppel 

The invasion begins–but not as you’d expect. It begins with rain. Rain that carries seeds. Seeds that sprout–overnight, everywhere. These new plants take over crop fields, twine up houses, and burrow below streets. They bloom–and release toxic pollens. They bloom–and form venus-fly-trap-like pods that swallow animals and people. They bloom–everywhere, unstoppable. Or are they? Three kids on a remote island seem immune to the toxic plants. Anaya, Petra, Seth. They each have strange allergies–and yet not to these plants. What’s their secret? Can they somehow be the key to fighting back this invasion? They’d better figure it out fast because it’s starting to rain again…

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9780062306715

Last Day on Mars by Kevin Emerson 

While waiting to leave Mars before it burns up just like the Earth before it, Liam and his friend Phoebe discover some facts about time and space and realize that the human race is just one of the races trying to survive in space. 

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9780375822735

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9781541528109

7th Grade vs. the Galaxy by Joshua S. Levy 

In 2299, seventh-grader Jack and his classmates find themselves in hostile alien territory after Jack accidentally launches their rickety public schoolship light years away from home. 

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9780593350393

If Hana Hsu can beat out half her classmates at Start-Up, a tech school for the city’s most talented twelve-year-olds, she’ll be meshed to the multiweb through a neural implant, just like her mom and sister. The competition is fierce, and tinkering with bots gets her mixed up with dangerous junkyard rebels. Hana starts to notice that something is not right at Start-Up: some of her friends are getting sick, and her tech never seems to work right. Hana and her friends find themselves spying on one of the most powerful corporations in the country. Will she be able to save her friends– and herself– from a conspiracy that threatens everything she knows?

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9781646140893

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

A girl named Petra Pena, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller like her Abuelita. But Petra’s world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race. Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet– and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity’s past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether. Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9780823449095

Jadie in Five Dimensions by Dianne K. Salerni

Thirteen-year-old Jadie lives in 4-space and works as an Agent for the four-dimensional beings who adopted her after being abandoned as an infant, but when Jadie learns her origin story is a lie she works to uncover the truth. 

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9781643753812

Boy 2.0 by Tracey Baptiste 

When thirteen-year-old African American Coal discovers he can turn invisible, he searches for answers about his past with the help of his friends and his new foster family.

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9780063337312

The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly

Michael Rosario, an eleven-year-old Filipino boy living with his single mother in an apartment complex in Delaware, meets a mysterious boy from the future in this suspenseful stand-alone novel.

https://catalog.somd.lib.md.us/polaris/view.aspx?ISBN=9780765334282

The Planet Thieves by Dan Krokos

On a routine voyage aboard an Academy spaceship, thirteen-year-old Mason Stark and his fellow cadets are attacked by the Tremist, an alien race who have been at war with humanity for the last sixty years.