Heinlein juveniles

"Heinlein juveniles" are the 12 novels written by Robert A. Heinlein and published by Scribner's between 1947 and 1958. The intended readership was teenage boys, but the books have been enjoyed by a wide range of readers. Heinlein had great respect for the children who read the books and was eager to present challenging material to them, such as the firearms for teenagers in Red Planet. This led to "annual quarrels over what was suitable for juvenile reading" with Scribner's editors.

The series came to an end when Scribner's rejected Starship Troopers in 1959, ending Heinlein's relationship with the company. He wrote, "I am tired of being known as a 'leading writer of children's books', and nothing else." Putnam soon published Starship Troopers.

In addition to the novels, Heinlein wrote two short stories about Scouting for boys and three short stories with Puddin', a teenage female protagonist, for girls. Another novel, Podkayne of Mars, is often classified as a juvenile, although Heinlein himself did not consider it to be one.

The Scribner's juveniles

1. Rocket Ship Galileo, 1947
2. Space Cadet, 1948
3. Red Planet, 1949
4. Between Planets, 1951
5. The Rolling Stones aka Space Family Stone, 1952
6. Farmer in the Sky, 1953
7. Starman Jones, 1953
8. The Star Beast, 1954
9. Tunnel in the Sky, 1955
10. Time for the Stars, 1956
11. Citizen of the Galaxy, 1957
12. Have Space Suit—Will Travel, 1958

Scouting stories for boys

When he returned to writing after World War II, Heinlein sought to diversify beyond pulp science fiction. The "Boy Scout" stories, originally printed in the Boy Scouts of America magazine Boys' Life, were part of that effort. Farmer in the Sky, which also had a strong connection to Scouting, was serialized in Boys' Life under the title "Satellite Scout". Heinlein considered writing another Boy Scout story called "Polar Scout" in conjunction with a planned trip to Antarctica in early 1964, with the goal of releasing a collection of Scouting-related stories as a juvenile book. The trip did not take place and the author never wrote "Polar Scout".

• "Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon", 1949
• "Tenderfoot in Space", 1958

Puddin' stories for girls

Upon delivery of one of his early juveniles, his editor at Scribner's commented that she wished somebody would write some stories for girls. Heinlein took this as a challenge and wrote a short story for girls. The story, a first-person tale featuring Maureen "Puddin'", appeared under the byline "R. A. Heinlein" in Calling All Girls magazine. He wrote two more, and planned four additional stories with the goal of publishing a collection titled Men Are Exasperating, but he never wrote any more and the Puddin' stories have never been collected in one volume.

• "Poor Daddy", 1949
• "Cliff and the Calories", 1950
• "The Bulletin Board", 1951

Podkayne

Heinlein wrote "I grew so fond of Maureen [Puddin'] that I helped her to get rid of that excess weight, changed her name to "Podkayne," and moved her to Mars (along with her unbearable kid brother)."

Heinlein felt that a particular ending was dramatically necessary to the story, but early readers hated it, and he reluctantly changed it. The book has since been released with both the original published ending and Heinlein's original ending.

• Podkayne of Mars, 1963, re-released 1995 with both endings

The table below does not list most of the collections of short stories by Heinlein that have been published. Besides his many novels, Heinlein also wrote and published a huge number of short stories that were first published in the science fiction magazines and elewhere.

External links

• Heinlein's Juveniles: Still Contemporary After All These Years
• Heinlein's Child
• Works by or about Robert A. Heinlein in libraries (WorldCat catalog)