Guide · Space
Space books for girls 10 to 14
Steve DressingUpdated
The best space books for a girl 10 to 14 put her at the center of the mission. Start with The Last Cuentista or A Wrinkle in Time. For a funny one, The True Meaning of Smekday. For graphic novels, Zita the Spacegirl. For the real thing, Hidden Figures. All 12 picks are below, each with its age range.
I spent more than fifteen years as an environmental scientist, and I wrote a space novel for this age about a girl training for a mission to other planets. It's marked below. Every other book on this list is by another author. The age range on each card comes from the publisher or a bookseller, so you can check it against your reader. These books put a girl at the center, and plenty of boys read them too.
For a kid who loved The Wild Robot or A Wrinkle in Time, see books like The Wild Robot and books like A Wrinkle in Time.
Quick picks
- Wants an award winner: The Last Cuentista, ages 10–14
- Wants a classic: A Wrinkle in Time, ages 10–14
- Likes funny books: The True Meaning of Smekday, ages 8–12
- Reads graphic novels: Zita the Spacegirl, ages 8–12
- 12 or older and reads big books: Skyward, ages 12 and up
- Wants the real story: Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition, ages 8–12
Space adventures with a girl in charge
Five stories where a girl leaves Earth, or has to defend it.
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The Last Cuentista
Petra wants to be a storyteller like her grandmother. When a comet destroys Earth, she boards a ship to a new planet and wakes centuries later to find a group called the Collective erasing everyone's memories of the past.
It won the 2022 Newbery Medal and a Pura Belpré Award. Earth is destroyed early on and the Collective is frightening, so it suits a reader ready for a heavier story.
FIC
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A Wrinkle in Time
Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace and their friend Calvin travel across space to the planet Camazotz to rescue Meg's missing father.
It won the 1963 Newbery Medal and is the first of five books.
FIC
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Dragon Pearl
Min, a 13-year-old fox spirit, crosses the planets of a space empire to find her missing brother, running into pirates, ghosts and spirits drawn from Korean folklore.
It won the 2020 Locus Award in the young adult category. Listed for 8 to 12, so it suits the younger end of this list.
FIC
REX
The True Meaning of Smekday
Twelve-year-old Tip's school essay turns into the story of an alien invasion. She teams up with a runaway alien mechanic to find her missing mother.
The funny one on this list, and long at more than 400 pages.
741.5
HAT
Zita the Spacegirl
When aliens kidnap her best friend, Zita follows him to a strange planet and ends up treated as a hero.
The first of three. A good start for a kid who isn't into long novels yet.
My book belongs in this group. In A Complicated Journey, Colleen Freeman is a young genius training for a mission to planets that might hold intelligent life. Then a large object starts heading toward Earth, and she and her companion robots have to save the planet first.
Steve wrote this one
A Complicated Journey
Colleen Freeman is training to visit planets that might hold life. Then something enormous starts heading for Earth.
Novel · Ages 10–14 · By Steve Dressing
For the older end, 12 to 14
Two longer series starters for a reader who wants more.
FIC
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Skyward
Spensa wants to be a pilot defending what's left of humanity, but her father's desertion makes her almost unwelcome at flight school.
More than 500 pages, and the first of four books.
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Cinder
A teenage cyborg mechanic on a future Earth gets caught between a prince and a war with the people of the moon.
A Cinderella retelling and the start of a long series. There's a romance and a plague in the plot, so it fits the top of this age range.
The real women of space
True stories for the kid who wants to know it really happened.
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Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition
Four Black women at NASA, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden, whose math helped launch Americans into space.
629.45
STO
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream
The Mercury 13: women who passed the same tests as NASA's first astronauts in the early 1960s and still weren't allowed to fly.
It won the 2010 Robert F. Sibert Medal.
741.5
OTT
Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier
Mary Cleave, Valentina Tereshkova and NASA's first astronaut class to include women, in comics form.
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Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America's Pioneering Woman in Space
The first American woman in space, in photographs, from her childhood through her two spaceflights and her work getting kids into science.
Sources list different ages for this one. Kirkus puts it at 10 to 13.
Questions parents ask
What's a good space book for a 10 year old girl?
The Last Cuentista and A Wrinkle in Time are both listed for ages 10 to 14, and so is A Complicated Journey. For a reader who prefers pictures, start with Zita the Spacegirl.
Are there space books for girls who love science?
Yes. Hidden Figures and Almost Astronauts are true stories of women in the space program. In A Complicated Journey, the hero is a young scientist training for a mission of her own.
What's a good space book for a 12 year old?
Skyward, listed for 12 and up, or The Last Cuentista. Both deal with harder things than A Wrinkle in Time. For more like it, see books like A Wrinkle in Time.
Where can I find these books?
Each title above links to its publisher or an independent bookseller. Most libraries carry them too. A Complicated Journey ships from this site.
