Customer Reviews

Tomorrow's Children

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I read and re-read this book during my teenage years and, although I have read hundreds of books since then, stories like The Father Thing and the Ugly Little Boy remain among my favourites. I also remember a haunting story about a community of people living in a place disconnected from the earth because of the telekinetic Will of a small boy who turns his disgruntled seniors into unspeakable things and buries them in a field and, being a child, has no conception of the consequences of his actions. His parents, in an attempt to influence his temper, keep telling him it's a good day. (I think I've got the gist of this right; it's been fifteen years since I read it. I lent it to my then boyfriend... he broke up with me and kept the book. If I ever get my hands on another copy I'm keeping it under lock and key.) It takes a particular talent to write well about children, and many writers in the science fiction genre steer well clear. This book affords refreshing and occasionally spine-chilling perspectives on the often dark and incomprehensible world of the child. I can't believe it's out of print.

I read this book when I was in elementary school almost 30 years ago. I must have checked it out of the library ten times. I remember imagining that I was the character in the stories. I wanted to be Holly Jones and design spaceships. Today I design communication satellites. About ten years ago, I was fortunate enough to find a copy published in Great Britain. It's still as good a read now as 30 years ago.

I also checked out this book 10,000 times from my elementary school library (Ridgeview Elementary, Vancouver BC), and to this day am haunted by the stories. I can see that garish purple-and-yellow cover as clearly as if it was yesterday. I am not sure there is a book from my youth that stays with me as clearly as this one. I wish they would re-publish it.

Looking for this book, I stumbled across these reviews and HAD to jump on the bandwagon!!! This book is the one that ignited a love of science fiction in me years ago. I was in the ninth grade at an "experimental" school, which basically meant we were unsupervised and untaught most of the time. Most of the kids smoked pot and necked; I stayed in the library and read this book over and over and over. As I recall, it had a purple dust jacket. All of my early attempts at writing were in one way or another inspired and influenced by the stories in TOMORROW'S CHILDREN. I have often wished I had a copy, but the title only just came back to me today!

What can I say that the above reviewers haven't already touched upon? I, too, found this in my Junior High School library, and the garish purple and yellow hardbound book appealed to me. This was my introduction to science fiction, and for the first time, I realized that sci fi WASN'T just about SCIENCE.. but about imagination and fiction!

How delightful to discover the short story by Jerome Bixby that inspired BOTH the original Twilight Zone episode with Billy Mummy as the little terror, and the Movie episode in which Mummy has a cameo..."It's a GOOD day..."

What a shock to discover in High School when assigned to read "The Place of the Gods" (By the Waters of Babaloyn) that I had already read it as a child but COMPLETELY missed the symbolism of WHERE it takes place...the god "ASHING ON" being the key!

Or the discovery that "Cabin Boy" is the same story written from two points of view... that each species is finding the other disgusting and filled with possibilities... to teach other species to count through perfume and smells! Amazing concepts!

What a delight to discover A Bucket Full of Air is actually A PAIL Full of Air and was televised recently in some Amazing Stories collection! (My faulty memory slipped the details, but remebmers the plots!)

Or Gilead's desperate plea to help his sister..."She's a (what was the word?) ...a Sensative!"

Or to find that "All Summer in A Day" by Ray Bradbury about the endless rain on Venus was actually part of The Illustrated Man" and visualized in the classic movie of the same name!

Good science fiction never dies...it simply transcends its medium to entertain and facinate more and more!

Now, as a parent at a ripe old age, the story "Star Bright" by Mark Clifton about the little girl and the Moebius Strip calls to me over the years, and finding an orignal copy through the interlibrary loan, I am now reading it for my two children.. my own "Star Bright" and her younger brother. I'm only four pages in, and already she's guessed that Star called to Robert and that she may become "Jean Grey" from the Xmen.... (Never underestimate a child's immagination and ability to link concepts!)

I also would like to urge the publisher Doubleday to reprint this classic volume... but we are preaching to the choir here... we have already discovered this treasure.. we need to TELL OTHERS.. we need to TELL THE PUBLISHER! (Interlibrary loan is a wonderful thing, for those who cannot find or afford a $150 copy of this child's book. )

But don't wish that you had stolen it from the library all those years ago... think of the generations who have discovered and read that volume since you did...you would have deprived them of the wonder!

PS: There is a british paperback produced in 1972 or so that has a totally different cover, but the same internal illustration and typeset. Somehow, that strange cover just doesn't do it for me... but it would be the cheaper way to get the book.

(...)

I would like to reaffirm that this book is definately a treasure for those that own it or find it. I'm looking for it, but as my hopes wan of finding it I have begun hunting books that have one or more of the stories from it in them. In particular, for those that want to find "Star Bright" the story of the two genius children, the story is by Mark Clifton. It can be found in the book "The Science Fiction of Mark Clifton" and can be found here at Amazon.com

If I manage to locate "Tomorrow's Children" anywhere I shall definately let you all know where to find it.

I've been looking for this book for years!! I read it over and over while in junior high (Lincoln Sr. Elementary, Stockton, CA). I want to read these stories again so badly - it would be like walking through my childhood home again! The memories...I especially liked the story about the genius little girl who makes a Mobius strip. Interestingly, I found it in our local library system and put a hold on it, and just as I became the next in line to check it out, the ONE copy they had has gone missing! I imagine it stuffed under a young kid's mattress to be read over and over by flashlight under the covers (but I wouldn't put it past myself to wrestle him for it!). I'm not quite ready to fork out $150 for it, but I did see a copy for $120 a few years ago, so maybe...but then, why can't they just republish the darn thing!!! Good luck to the unofficial Tomorrow's Children Fan Club members! May the 18 tales be in your hands once again!

Like everyone else who's commented on this book, I first read this collection of great sci-fi stories when I was in elementary school and haven't been able to forget it. Stories that particularly stayed with me were "Star Bright," about two genius children who learn to transport themselves; one whose title escapes me about children who live on a perpetually rainy planet that only experiences sun once in a lifetime; and Asimov's own "The Ugly Little Boy," a story about a Neanderthal boy transported from the past who finds a mother, which is still one of the most touching stories of the bond between child and mother I've ever read. Hope Amazon.com can find this one for me, and if not, hope some publisher out there reads all these comments and decides to re-print it!

This was an extremely significant book for me. It started me on my love of fantasy/sci-fi. I must've checked this one out of the library 10,000 times! (Did anyone else read this as a child and lie in bed at night trying to teleport themselves like Star and Robert did?) This book will always hold a real magic for me. I'm amazed to discover that other people feel the same way. If so many people covet this book, I wonder what it would take to get this one re-released by the publisher...

I first read this book when I was around nine or ten (it was in my mom's collection), and it awakened in me a lifelong love of reading and science fiction. I reread the book and individual stories many times over the next five years of my life, and it certainly left a lasting impression. I remember best the stories by Asimov, Heinlein and Bradbury, but even the vague recollections of the other stories bring back fond memories.

I don't know what happened to the copy I read, and that's sad, because I'd really love to reread it. From reading the other reviews of Tomorrow's Children, I'm happy to realize that I wasn't the only one who loved this book. I only wish it was more widely available, I'd certainly recommend it to anyone, of any age.