Heinlein juveniles

Heinlein juveniles are the novels written by Robert A. Heinlein aimed for what would now be known as the "young adult" market. The core group are the twelve Heinlein novels published by Scribner's between 1947 and 1958. A thirteenth, Starship Troopers, was submitted to Scribner's but rejected and instead published by Putnam. A fourteenth novel, Podkayne of Mars, is often listed as a "Heinlein juvenile", although Heinlein himself did not consider it to be one.

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. 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.

The novels do not share any characters and do not form a strict chronological series; the later novels are not sequels to the earlier ones. Yet together they form an expanded story arc of space exploration. The first novel, Rocket Ship Galileo, is about an effort to reach the Moon. The next few (through The Rolling Stones) revolve around interplanetary travel within the solar system. The next few (Starman Jones through Time for the Stars) revolve around various versions of the early phase of interstellar travel. In the next novel (Citizen of the Galaxy), interstellar travel is well-established and easy for humans, and the central problem is one of the maintenance of law and order in the galaxy. The protagonist of the next and last Scribner's juvenile, Have Space Suit—Will Travel, travels to the Lesser Magellanic Cloud and interacts with an intergalactic civilization. The last book submitted to Scribner's, Starship Troopers, portrays an interstellar war between mankind and several other species.

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