The time has come to push your students’ discussion and critical thinking skills through literature. What better genre than Science Fiction? Robots and moral quandaries, space-travel and inequity, experiments and ethics. The options are many, and the stories are often frightening or heart-breaking or somewhere in between the two. So, I decided to throw together a list of 16 solid stories (that you can access for free) that I have used with success in my classroom before.

I hope you find the following Science Fiction stories useful. This is by no means a comprehensive list or even “the best” Sci-fi stories out there in the world. This is, however, a diverse list of stories with varying lengths, topics, forms, and possibilities. Enjoy!

The Shortlist

(In order of complexity/expected maturity)

The Homesick Chicken by Edward D. Hoch

They’re Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson

Actually Naneen by Malka Older

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

Examination Day by Henry Slesar

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Africanfuturist 419 by Nnedi Okorafor

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Book of Martha by Octavia Butler

Contagion by Katherine MacLean

Inspiration by Ben Bova

The Greatest Asset by Isaac Asimov

A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka

PG-Material and Discussion-Ready for Any Aged Classroom

The Homesick Chicken by Edward D. Hoch

Synopsis: A quirky mix between gumshoe detective fiction and sci-fi mystery, the plot follows a security consultant tasked with answering the age-old question: “Why did the (genetically modified) chicken cross the road?”

Read time: <10 minutes

Teacher take: 7th grade reading level, fairly entertaining and light on substance, good for textual evidence

They’re Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson

Synopsis: A pair of aliens discuss the newfound race (humans) and the confusing material out of which they are made. Funny in an off-beat sort of way.

Read time: <10 minutes

Teacher take: 7th-8th grade reading level, available on Common Lit, great for inference work but also light on substance, good read-aloud story

Actually Naneen by Malka Older

Synopsis: A mother debates whether or not to replace her children’s robot nanny.

Reading Time: 15-20 minutes

Teacher take: 7th-8th grade reading level, an interesting story that could spark creative writing, useful for building stamina since it’s readable for most middle schoolers without being too short

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury

Synopsis: A classroom of children living on a Venus colony prepares for the first rain on the planet in seven years. One child, the only Earthling, is bullied due to her excitement for the event.

Read time: 10 minutes

Teacher take: Late 7th grade reading level, the first true sci-fi moral quandary on this list but still simple enough to be tackled by the average 7th or 8th grader, good for author’s purpose or descriptive language

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

Synopsis: One of the Sci-fi genre’s most popular stories, the story follows a time travel safari to the time of dinosaurs. The hunters are seeking out history’s greatest predator: the T-Rex. But their actions have greater reverberations than they could have ever dreamed of.

Read time: 20-30 minutes

Teacher take: 8th grade+ reading level, a great read-aloud candidate, good for textual evidence

PG-13 Material and/or a Little Too Weighty for Your Typical 7th Grader

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Synopsis: A man with very low intelligence becomes involved in an experiment that quickly accelerates his mental abilities. His transformation is presented as a series of increasingly self-aware and critical diary entries until he eventually begins to return to his original mental state.

Read time: 60 minutes to 90 minutes

Teacher take: Late 8th grade reading level (advanced students, only?) though probably best for high school, good for stamina and textual evidence, this is our first story to leap up into the category of “moderate maturity” since it involves a man with an intellectual disability and a lot of potential hazards for a class discussion

Examination Day by Henry Slesar

Synopsis: A boy and his mother and father prepare for a mysterious examination administered by the government–with incredibly high stakes.

Read time: 10 minutes

Teacher take: 8th grade reading level, main character is killed at the end, so it’s a bit of a tough read for any grade below 8th, solid choice for a textual evidence lesson or using evidence to make predictions

Africanfuturist 419 by Nnedi Okorafor

Synopsis: A quirky story about an African man who is left abandoned in space, and his cousin’s unusual attempt to get him returned to Earth.

Reading time: 10 minutes

Teacher take: 9th grade reading level due to so much inference skill being required, a bit too sardonic to be really appreciated in the middle school

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

Synopsis: In a world with mandated equality among all members of the society, an exceptionally talented and strong young man rises up against the government. His rebellion is witnessed by his parents as they mindlessly watch his transformation on TV.

Read time: 10-20 minutes

Teacher take: 9th grade reading level, great for comparison or structural analysis, the ending is a bit intense for the middle school crowd and it will likely fail to land with many younger high schoolers too so know your class

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Synopsis: A winged old man falls into a town one night. The entire town is fascinated by his appearance, and they react in various ways to his arrival while he recovers from the fall.

Read time: 15-25 minutes

Teacher take: Late 9th grade reading level, one of those stories where they’ll either say: “I don’t get it” or “Wow. That was great,” maybe a good candidate for central idea because it’s hard to exactly drill down what it’s meaning is

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Synopsis: You probably know the basic gist of things: a respected doctor is involved in some medical shenanigans that result in an extreme split between a benevolent and evil version of himself.

Read time: 2-4 hours

Teacher take: 10th grade reading level, more of a week-long undertaking than a two-day sprint, great choice for selective read-aloud , character analysis and summary, tons of online resources to make the older language less intimidating

The Book of Martha by Octavia Butler

Synopsis: A writer is transported into a conversation with God who asks her to return to Earth in order to solve humanity’s problems. A light-hearted but powerful read.

Read time: 30-35+ minutes

Teacher take: 9th grade level, 10th if you expect them to read it entirely independently and in one sitting (which is probably its best reading mode), it’s really beautiful and is a prime candidate for structural analysis

Highly Complicated and/or Requiring Great Levels of Maturity

Contagion by Katherine MacLean

Synopsis: A group of space travelers arrive on a planet hoping to create a new colony there. One problem: they find another group of colonists already live there.

Reading Time: 60-90 minutes

Teacher take: 9th-10th grade reading level, probably a bit heavy for most early high schoolers but fine for a mature high school class

Inspiration by Ben Bova

Synopsis: A time traveler coordinates a lunch between H.G. Wells and Albert Einstein as they discuss what the future might hold. A thought-piece more than a true “story.”

Read time: 15-20 minutes

Teacher take: 10th grade+ reading level, heavy inferencing required, though you might view it as a “challenge piece” since it’s so unlike what 98% of what your students have read before

The Greatest Asset by Isaac Asimov

Synopsis: A science writer is invited to an ecologically balanced and tightly controlled planet Earth. While there, he witnesses an interaction between the leader of the planet’s systems and a medical researcher who advises the leader to create experimental areas on the planet rather than settling for balance in every area. Tending slightly toward the esoteric end of the Sci-fi pool…

Read time: 30 minutes+

Teacher take: 9th grade+ reading level, great for really pushing the boundaries of your class’s open discussion abilities since it’s so layered with atypical themes

A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka

Synopsis: A hunger artist has fallen into disrepute, and he slowly wastes away as his crowds thin over time.

Read time: 20-30 minutes

Teacher take: Is it sci-fi? I don’t know. I guess not. But it’s the “stretch text” of this list, combining the oddity of Garcia Marquez and Asimov’s lack of hand-holding for the reader