Dave Itzkoff and YA Martian SF

Last Sunday, Dave Itzkoff, a reviewer for The New York Times, published a controversial column titled “Elsewhere’s Children,” which has sparked a heated debate over the quality of Young Adult (YA) science fiction and the merit of reading it.

Controversy aside, we ran some searches in WorldCat and compiled a list of YA Martian science fiction books. The list is based upon Worldcat’s subject headings and is limited to books whose lengths exceed 125 pages. Note that three of the books are available in full-text or audio format at ManyBooks.net.

• The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells (1898)

• Through Space to Mars, or, The Longest Journey on Record, by Roy Rockwood (1910)

• To Mars Via the Moon: an Astronomical Story, by Mark Wicks (1911)

• The Mystery Men of Mars, by C. H. Claudy (1933)

• Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1940)

• The Angry Planet: an Authentic First-Hand Account of a Journey to Mars in the Space-Ship Albatross, Compiled from Notes and Records by Various Members of the Expedition, by John Keir Cross (1945)

• Red Planet: a Colonial Boy on Mars, by Robert A Heinlein (1949)

• Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars, by Ellen MacGregor (1951)

• Stand By for Mars!, by Carey Rockwell (1952)

• Freddy and the Men from Mars, by Walter R. Brooks (1954)

• Freddy and the Baseball Team from Mars, by Walter R. Brooks (1955)

• The Green Man from Space, by Lewis Zarem (1955)

• Rocket Man, by Lee Correy, a pseudonym of G. Harry Stine (1955)

• Podkayne of Mars: Her Life and Times, by Robert A. Heinlein (1963)

• Journey Between Worlds, by Sylvia Engdahl (1970)

• Orvis, by H. M. Hoover (1987)

• Kipton & the Caves of Mars, by Charles L. Fontenay (1998)

• Samir and Yonatan, by Daniella Carmi (2000)

• Bad Dog and Those Crazee Martians!, by Martin Chatterton (2002)