Why Middle Grade Needs More Sci-Fi, a guest post by Samantha van Leer

“Sorry, but we don’t do aliens.”

This was what my agent heard when she sent my first draft of Extraterrestrial Zoo to potential publishers. 

“Exactly!” I thought. Where were the middle-grade sci-fi books!? I’m not just talking about “aliens,” but the genre as a whole. While there were plenty of sci-fi series for YA and adult readers, the offerings for middle graders were much harder to find.

As a former fourth-grade teacher, I knew what a major oversight this was! My students were always the first people to spoil what happened in the latest Stranger Things episode. They’d tell me about the Alien movies they watched over the weekend, re-enacting creatures bursting from their bellies. When I sought to find middle-grade books that might mirror their favorite movies and TV shows, I found fewer than expected.

When I sat down to write the first book in the Extraterrestrial Zoo series, Finding the Lost One, I was on a mission to create sci-fi stories my students would devour, filled with twists and turns, government conspiracies, space travel, and characters quite literally out of this world, all at an age-appropriate reading level.

The idea for this series came to me a decade ago. While home one weekend from college, I was lying on the floor with my dog, Alvin, pressing my thumb into the perfectly thumb-shaped spot on the top of his head. I asked him, “Is this where the aliens plugged you into your pod before they sent you to Earth?” This silly conversation became the seed for a science fiction tale about a girl, a little like me, with the awesome responsibility of caring for extraterrestrials that had been sent to Earth. Perhaps she was lying on the floor beside one of her aliens, pressing her thumb into its thumb-shaped spot.

This random thought blossomed into a novel that became my college thesis. It wasn’t until I was a few years into teaching, noticing the stories that were missing from my classroom shelf, that I decided to dust off that thesis and transform it into the novel that publishes this March.

The bones are the same. It’s still filled with the same beloved creatures, many of whom are modeled after the dogs I’ve had throughout my life. (The dog who inspired the book, Alvin, is even featured as Pingree, an important character in the story.) I dare you to read this story and not find your own pet in one of the many extraterrestrials.

However, this book has grown to be so much more than an anthology of my pets reimagined as aliens. As I grew up, so did the story I was telling. My time teaching showed me what kids need to see in books. Beyond just wanting to write middle-grade sci-fi, I wanted to write a role model — a perfectly imperfect person in whom my students could find themselves.

Her name is Ava.

Ava’s family runs the Alien Zoo, where extraterrestrials that have been sent to Earth are cared for and kept. Born into a life of extraterrestrial zookeeping, Ava is following in her parents’ footsteps to become a scientist. She is confident, independent, passionate, and unapologetically brilliant. Ava is the thirteen-year-old I wish I had been.

She may not have many friends at school or rank high in the social hierarchy, but she has her extraterrestrials… for her, that’s more than enough. In school she is teased for her nerdiness and boundless science knowledge, but when the aliens break out of the zoo, lost in the woods of Maine, Ava is the only one who can save them. She comes to realize that her brain isn’t just what makes her different from everyone else. It’s her superpower.

Only recently has there been a push to bring women into STEM-related fields, so it’s no wonder that main characters in so many sci-fi novels are men. We rarely see protagonists in this genre who are strong, independent, and female. Although it was vitally important for me to create a character who defied what’s “acceptable” for women, this story is for girls, boys, and every person in between and along the gender spectrum.

Science fiction is fun, curious, and adventurous. It bends the reality of our world and stretches our imaginations to explore all the “what ifs” floating within our universe. I began the Extraterrestrial Zoo series to bring young readers into the realm of sci-fi and inspire them to fall in love with the scientists within themselves. The Extraterrestrial Zoo books are for everyone, even those who “don’t do aliens.”

Meet the author

SAMANTHA VAN LEER is the co-author of the New York Times best-selling novels Between the Lines and Off the Page, which she helped adapt into an off-Broadway musical that premiered in 2022.  A graduate of Vassar College, she also holds a Masters in Education and was previously a fourth grade teacher.  She now writes full time in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, Frankie, their daughter, Stevie, and their chaotic puppy, Obi Juan Kenobi, who is most likely up to no good. The first book in The Extraterrestrial Zoo series will publish in March 2025.

Website: https://samanthavanleer.wixsite.com/website

Instagram: @Samanthavanleer

About The Extraterrestrial Zoo 1: Finding the Lost One

A middle grade debut by New York Times bestselling co-author of Between the Lines stars 13 year old Ava, who helps run her family’s refuge for extraterrestrials. But a sudden attack on the zoo leads to her discovering a government conspiracy that upends everything she believed to be true.

When meteors suddenly dropped to earth containing eggs in which alien babies were growing, the government called in the experts. Ava’s parents hatched, cared for, raised, and researched these unique beings. When Ava was born, she became part of the team. So many extraterrestrial living beings (ELBs) came, that the government funded the Alien Zoo, where visitors could come and see the ELBs. It was a huge success in its day.

But now Ava is 13, and so much has changed. A terrible car accident claimed her mother. And her father, in deep despair, left Ava and the Zoo in the care of his brother, who’s still healing emotional wounds from his wartime. Then the alien babies stopped coming, and so did the public.

So when 15 year old Harley shows up as an intern for the Zoo, Ava feels blindsided. This is her show. And then a terrible storm changes everything. The once beloved ELBs are loose, and being hunted. Ava’s uncle, MIA. All she has is this strange new boy to help her save everything she loves.

ISBN-13: 9781645952930
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication date: 03/04/2025
Age Range: 10 – 14 Years

Filed under: Guest Post