While diving headfirst into science fiction may initially seem daunting and overwhelming, ease your tween into the genre with Nancy Farmer’s House of the Scorpion. A Newberry Honor Book, Michael L. Printz Honor Book, and National Book Award Winner, this is a novel both you and your young reader will want to read and talk about afterwards. Farmer’s conceptual future is reflective in many ways of issues facing our world today, and a great starting point for discussions on what kind of future your child envisions for his own generation.