Kids in Space Part II: 8 Great Books for Older Middle Grade Readers

Space Case, by Stuart Gibbs
Science fiction meets mystery when there’s a murder on the moon! 12-year old Dash hadn’t wanted to leave Hawaii for the moon, even though the Official Residents’ Guide to Moon Base Alpha reassures the “lunernauts” that everything will be just peachy keen and full of “pleasant surprises!” (It says nothing about murder.) When one of the lunernauts dies under mysterious circumstances, only Dash suspects it wasn’t an accident. When he starts investigating, not only does he find himself surrounded by suspects, but he finds himself in the killer’s cross-hairs! He has to find the murderer before he is the next victim…and on the moon, there are many ways that people can die. Life on the moon base is brought vividly to life, and Dash comes vividly close to death in this page-turner full of kid appeal, with a twist to the ending that begs for a sequel.

Jupiter Pirates: Hunt for the Hydra and its sequel,  The Curse of the Iris, by Jason Fry
Centuries from now, humanity has sprawled through the solar system, colonizing the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The Hashoone family are privateers of the Jovian Union, capturing Earth ships in true 18th-century piratic fashion, complete with salty nautical language. Young Tycho and his siblings have spent most of their lives on board the Shadow Comet, learning the family business, and competing with each other—only one of them can inherit the captaincy. Both the adventures in this series mix action and excitement with mystery, as this family of space pirates fights competitors and hostile governments for treasure out in the far reaches of the galaxy.

Mars Evacuees, by Sophia McDougall
A top notch adventure on a terraformed Mars. Aliens have invaded Earth, and although Earth’s armies are fighting back, it’s going badly. A group of kids are evacuated to a partly terraformed Mars, which now has some oxygen…..just not quite enough for it to be Home. There they’ll be trained to be the next generation of soldiers. One is an English girl, Alice, whose mom has become a legend fighting the aliens. Alice would rather live peacefully with both her parents, but Mars it is. There she’s at the mercy of not just military instructors, but determined robots (including a large goldfish robot, flying around like a helium shark balloon), who take their mission to Educate very seriously indeed. When the kids wake up one day to find themselves alone with their robot instructors, with no way back to earth, and no communication with any grownups in the galaxy, they must make hard decisions about how to stay alive on a hostile planet. Unexpected alien encounters test the intelligence and courage of the kids, with the fates of both Earth and Mars at stake!

The Lost Planet and its sequel, The Stolen Moon, by Rachel Searles
These novels are great choices for kids who make starships with their Legos; they’re full of rousing adventures in space with a generous helping of alien planets, and plenty of tense brushes with death.
A boy named Chase wakes on an alien planet with no memory of who he is, with a blaster wound that was no accident—someone was trying to kill him. Soon the planet itself is attacked, and that’s no accident either. Chase is caught up in conspiracies and plots that could rock the stability of the interplanetary league…and he has no choice about it. He not the ordinary child of ordinary parents, and must learn who he is, and who he can trust, as quickly as possible. The second book in the series takes Chase and the little sister he can’t remember to the center of a new conflict, and continues the science fiction fun both on board a Fleet starship that comes under attack, and on a terraformed moon inhabited by hostile aliens. The stakes are high, loyalties are tested, and lives hang in the balance.

The Planet Thieves and The Black Stars, by Dan Krokos
This series is an excellent introduction to military sci fi for young readers. Cool technology, cunning plotting, interesting aliens, and neat character interactions make this series a great one for kids who enjoy high stakes action and can tolerate pretty grim violence. 13-year-old Earth kid Mason Stark is a cadet peacefully logging his required time in space when his ship is attacked by the alien Tremist. Mason, appointed acting captain by the one injured officer still on board, must rally his fellow cadets to take back the ship, warn Earth, and try, desperately, to stop the Tremist from using the powerful secret weapon the ship is carrying. But things are not exactly what they seem…and just when Mason thinks there’s hope, the dice are rolled again. It’s lovely twisty (somewhat violent) fun.
The second book, The Black Star, takes place after an uneasy peace has been established between the Tremist and Earth, and Mason is sent to the Tremist’s own military academy as both student and spy.  There he discovers that an even more powerful enemy wants to destroy both civilizations…and only he can stop it!
What science fiction space adventure books are your middle graders reading?