Back in the Spaceship Again: Juvenile Science Fiction Series Since 1945 (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy)

166 Pages·1999·7.86 MB·English

by  Karen Sands

Back in the
Spaceship Again
Recent Titles in Contributions to the
Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy
Dracula in the Dark: The Dracula Film Adaptations
James Craig Holte
Offensive Films: Toward an Anthropology of Cinema Vomitif
Mikita Brottman
Into Darkness Peering: Race and Color in the Fantastic
Elisabeth Anne Leonard
Trajectories of the Fantastic: Selected Essays from the Fourteenth International Conference
on the Fantastic in the Arts
Michael A. Morrison, editor
Transformations of Language in Modern Dystopias
David W. Sisk
Folklore and the Fantastic in Twelve Modern Irish Novels
Marguerite Quintelli-Neary
A Century of Welsh Myth in Children's Literature
Donna R. White
Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction
Russell Blackford
Immortal Monster: The Mythological Evolution of the Fantastic Beast in Modern Fiction
and Film
Joseph D. Andriano
Young Adult Science Fiction
C. W Sullivan 111, editor
Spiritual Exploration in the Works of Doris Lessing
Phyllis Sternberg Perrakis, editor
The Road to Castle Mount: The Science Fiction of Robert Silverberg
Edgar L. Chapman
Back in the
Spaceship Again
Juvenile Science Fiction
Series Since 1945
Karen Sands and Marietta Frank
Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Number 84
C. W. Sullivan III, Series Adviser
GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sands, Karen.
Back in the spaceship again : juvenile science fiction series
since 1945 / Karen Sands and Marietta Frank.
p. cm.—(Contributions to the study of science fiction and
fantasy, ISSN 0193-6875 ; no. 84)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-313-30192-1 (alk. paper)
1. Children's stories, American—Bibliography. 2. Science
fiction, American—Bibliography. I. Frank, Marietta. II. Title.
III. Series.
Z1232.S26 1999
IPS374.S35]
016.813,08762089282—dc21 99-17848
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 1999 by Karen Sands and Marietta Frank
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-17848
ISBN: 0-313-30192-1
ISSN: 0193-6875
First published in 1999
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.greenwood.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 32
Copyright Acknowledgments
The authors and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission for use of the following material:
Chapter 4 is reprinted from Karen Sands, "No Business in Space? The Female Presence in Series
Science Fiction for Children," Foundation 70 (Spring 1997): 15-24.
For Chip, Dennis, Eric, with thanks.
K. S. and M. F.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface xi
1 Introduction 1
2 That Spark of Subversion: Robots, Androids, and Artificial
Intelligence 13
3 The Celestial Barnyard: The Familiar and the Strange 23
4 No Business in Space?: The Female Presence 35
5 Science Is Serious Business: The Role of Humor 49
6 But What Is a Superconductor, Anyway?: The Absence and
Presence of Science 63
7 The City of Gold and the City of Lead: Utopias and Dystopias 77
8 We Must Learn to Get Along: Aliens and Others 91
9 Juvenile Science Fiction Series and the Coming of Age 101
Appendix: Annotated Bibliography of Juvenile Science Fiction Series 109
Bibliography 131
Index 149
This page intentionally left blank
Preface
Like a vacationer who returns to a beloved summer house year after year, the ad
dicted reader opens book three or four or eleven in a given series and is thoroughly
at home in the locale—its now familiar native characters, the verbal shrubbery and
the narrative floorboards that occasionally creak.
—Lanes, "A Series Is a Series" (128)
When browsing the shelves in any bookstore or public library, it becomes ap
parent that series books for children account for a large portion of what is
available in the fiction section. The existence of series books for children can
be traced back to the middle of the nineteenth century, when such series as The
Fairchild Family and Elsie Dinsmore appeared. Juvenile science fiction series
followed soon after, originating in "the dime novels, penny dreadfuls, and sto-
rypapers of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America" (Sullivan,
Science 1). These eventually gave birth to the Great Marvel and Tom Swift
series as well. Much has been written about these early series books for chil
dren, particularly the Tom Swift books, but comparatively little has been writ
ten specifically about the wide variety of juvenile science fiction series of the
second half of this century. To fill this void, this book will take a critical look
at juvenile science fiction series since 1945 through their history, themes, set
tings, characters, and construction.
Identifying series and then locating them turned into a bigger challenge
than we anticipated. To begin with, there did not appear to be a bibliography of
only juvenile science fiction series. We did locate bibliographies of juvenile
series that included science fiction, as well as reference book articles on science
fiction that listed some series. We acknowledge the following sources: Young
People's Literature in Series: Fiction, by Judith K. Rosenberg and Kenyon C.
Rosenberg; Young People's Books in Series: Fiction and Non-Fiction, 1975-
1991 by Judith K. Rosenberg, with the assistance of C. Allen Nichols; and Sci-
y