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It's We Recommend, where (when?) you request book recommendations, and we attempt to reach our hands into the rushing river of children's literature and yank out the right book for you (or yours). Want a recommendation? Just email us at thediamondinthewindow (at) gmail (dot) com, with the reader's likes, dislikes, loves, interests, reading habits, and anything else you think might be helpful, and we'll do our best. And always, always look in the comments on these: it's where the very best suggestions are.
Now let's not think about this next one as difficult. Let's think about it as challenging
My son is turning six in one week. We are a homeschool family and so he has absorbed a LOT of chapter books through his older sister (nine years old, horse and fantasy lover). He likes fantasy well enough, but I think the genre that is truly going to set him on fire is science fiction, because he is a natural-born inventor, he loves anything scientific, and he's crazy about anything mechanical. He "invents" a different kind of robot every single day. The problem is that I didn't get into science fiction until high school, so my knowledge of the genre starts with A Wrinkle in Time and Ender's Game. The only book we've read lately that falls into the sci-fi category is Tony DeTerlizzi's A Search for Wondla, which should have been perfect for us, but which missed the mark for reasons I cannot identify. Is there anything at this age that will gratify a future tech-head who doesn't yet have much real-world
grounding in science?
Wow, so here is my theory: Perhaps what the young gentleman is looking for is not science fiction so much as, well, science? You know, like, good old, nonfiction, science stuff?
I say this because many young excellent gentlemen (and women!) of my acquaintance lately have been seeming like they're yearning for, well, information, for want of a better word. And I think that with a lot of kids, and (not to be sexist, but probably sexist anyway) a lot of boys especially, the desire for narrative is less strong for a while.
So. I can prattle on about various theories all I want, but theories alone don't give this person anything to read, do they? They do not. In my mind there is some perfect kid's version of Thomas Edison's life, except it'a not a biography exactly, more like a history of each invention, and then also it would have big pictures of the inventions, and....
OK. Focus. I can focus, I swear I can. What's a science-based, engrossing book that has robots in it? Or at least, science?
And I think it's time that I admit failure: I don't know a book. So I looked and looked till I found something that looked right. Is it right, though? I do not know.
I read a few pages, it looks good, but...I don't know. I mean, I think 6 years old is too little for I, Robot, right? But are their other sci-fi books for little kids? Am I barking up the wrong tree?
Help me, readers! I bet you guys know what he should read. Put it in the comments!