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36 responses total.

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        I'm not sure what age of kids you're aiming for.
        As a 7-8 year old, I read a book called "Black and Blue Magic".  I
don't remember who the author was.  Somewhere I still have a copy of the
book.  It was about a kid in a one-parent family, whose mother ran a
boarding house.  A tenant gives the boy a magic potion which grows wings,
allowing the boy to fly.
        I also read a book along the lines of the movie, "Secret of Witch
Mountain" (I guess it was, from the ads I saw from the movie when it came
out a couple of years ago).
        I have copies of two books I liked when I was about 10: "Stranger
from the Depths", by a man named Turner (Gene?), and "Secrets of Stardeep"
by John Jakes.
        As a kid I read everything I could get my hands on; westerns,
biographies, fantasy, science fiction, history... I never paid any
attention to what genre it belonged to.  And I didn't pay any attention to
authors, except Dr. Seuss when I was learning how to read.

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  Madeleine L'Engle
  Norton Juster
  John Bellairs

  The "Witch Mountain" books were written by (I think) Alexander Key.
He had a number of pretty decent books (or at least I really liked them
at the time), most of which were considerably better than the Witch
Mountain series.

 Let's see..  upon further reflection, I'd also nominate a lot of 
Ray Bradbury's stories, and, for that matter, a great percentage
of the stories by any number of science fiction authors.

 I read a fair bit of Kurt Vonnegut when I was a young kid but on
the whole I really wouldn't recommend people give it to their own
kids.

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Nope.  I read his Welsh mythology rip-off series, which would have been
better if I hadn't been such a mythology fiend as a kid.  By the time I
got to them I'd already read most of the stories in the Mabinogeon that
he borrows from.

I think I got started on Arthur C. Clarke when I was around 11.  Clarke 
is particularly interesting, from a didactic point of view, because there
are usually no villains in Clarke's stories. 
Peter Dickinson's "Changes" trilogy might over well; they were written
as young adult fantasies, set in an England which for mysterious reasons
becomes irrationally afraid of machines; the English smash all post-1700
technology and cut themselves off from the world.

  I also liked Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" series.  Somewhat 
oddly the first book is written for a much younger reader than the
remaining books.   The books are (as far as I can remember..)
"Over Sea, Under Stone", "The Dark is Rising", "Greenwitch", "The Grey
King", and "Silver on the Tree".

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  I'm virtually certain there weren't two more (7) books in that series.
There may have been one more (6), though.

Barker's new novel _Imajica_ is very good.  It's what he was trying to
do in _Weaveworld_, only he got it right this time.

For children, I'd definately recommend the Lloyd Alexander series.  The books
are: hmm...The Black Cauldren, The High King, The Castle of Llyr, Taran
Wanderer, The Book of Three, and I think thats it...A great series. I loved
these when I was younger, and i still love em.  

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The Chronicles of Narnia Series by C. S. Lewis.
I think the best known of which is _The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe._

 re #13:  I wasn't really wild about the Alexander books as a kid but
I might have been too "old" by the time I read them (actually, I doubt
I was any older than the target audience, but I had pretty odd literary
taste for a kid..)  Another factor was probably that I was a big
mythology and folklore fan as a kid and had read most or all of the 
Mabinogeon by the time I came across the Alexander books.

 One author that I did like that didn't really seem to get much attention
was John Bellairs.  Also, the Susan Cooper "Dark is Rising" books were
pretty cool.

Diane Duane has a really terrific triliogy of science fiction for young
people.  It has been published under the title _So You Want To Be A Wizard_.
My kids are nuts about it and are on the lookout for a fourth and fifth
book to come out.  (Maybe a good 'home work' assignment to have them
write to Ms. Duane and ask about that.   Hm...

I'll have to browse our shelves.  I know there are lots more.

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  Why does that bother you?  It wasn't preachy or dogmatic, nor did
it make value judgements concerning real-world non-Christian religions
(unless you worship Tash..)  From what I know about Lewis (admittedly
I'm not an expert) I'd say that the Narnia series wasn't intended to
be any sort of Christian propoganda but was presumably intended to
express Lewis's beliefs through an allegory that children could understand
and enjoy.  How does the fact that Lewis's story echoed his strong Christian
beliefs differ significantly from any writer's expression of personal
opinion through their writings?

  Should I be offended when I read Isaac Bashevis Singer's stories 
because many of them are based on traditional Judaic folklore and echo
the teachings and value system of Judaism?

  (if it makes you feel any better, there are a lot of Christian
fundamentalist groups who would like to do away with the Narnia books:
they're just chock full of witches and other Satanic stuff.)

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Okay, so at the age of 10 I didn't recognize the religious content until
I got to the Last Battle and worked backwards.  I did however know full
well what I was reading when I picked up The Screwtape Letters and I enjoyed
that as well.

I couldn't even begin the Perlandra series.  You can't read it as SF after
you'll already started reading Heinlein.  And you can't read it as enjoyable
religious allegory because it's neither.

  Yeah, I never got far in that series either..

  I still don't understand your feelings about the Narnia series,
Valerie, but then I don't understand why Christmas carols offend
you, either..

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        BINGO!

        "Unless you hate your father and mother and wife and brothers and 
         sisters and, yes, even your own life, you can't be my disciple."

(if you take that at face value, then you've been had, which was precisely
the point of his saying it...)

"Luke 14:26, use the Force Luke 14:26"

(please refrain from ridiculing active religions)

Getting back to SF for kids -- I was brought up on the Heinlein
juveniles:  "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet", "Red Planet", "Between Planets",
etc. etc.  Got all my moral, ethical, and sexual values from those
books.  Explains a lot, eh?

Yes.

I'll make an effort to keep from ridiculing Father Bongo's Church of the
Ring-Ding, Daniel, if it makes you happy.
My quoting was purely in fun. No offense intended.
No need to be so jumpy, either. 
If your religion cannot stand a little ridicule, perhaps you should 
re-think your beliefs.

While I wasn't exactly a kid at the time, I got some of my clothing 
tendencies from "Star Trek". You may make of that what you will.
 
Most of what my brother learned of science and the working of the world 
was from me, and largely fiction. Several teachers had difficulty 
debunking the myths.
(What? You mean to say that the Earth actually circles the sun?! But 
Ruth said we'd fall off!)

(i don't want to drift, but i was referring to #27...and "outings" should
be done on pseudo...)

to help get back on track, i'll note that this summer i'm tutoring a young
fellow headed into sixth grade for reading skills. we'll be reading the 
alexander series. i'll periodically drop notes here about what he thinks
of the books and what kind of teaching tools i find them to be.

You can't be serious?  It wasn't ridicule in any case, it was just 
amusing.

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The Zero Stone by Andre Norton

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