ANALOG'S CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE

Kids have always been an ambivalent proposition in sf--but this fine ten-piece collection (1943-80), accenting the positive and inspirational, should go far towards redressing the balance. Two are acknowledged, oft-collected classics: Lewis Padgett's mind-stretching ""Mimsy Were the Borogroves,"" where a couple of ordinary youngsters have their thought patterns radically altered by a box of toys from the fourth dimension; and James H. Schmitz's droll masterpiece, ""The Witches of Karres,"" about a mischievous trio of psi-powered sisters hitching a ride with a roguish starship captain. Elsewhere, Theodore Sturgeon writes charmingly of a silver-skinned castaway who loves airplanes and gets drunk on aspirin; P. J. Plauger describes, tellingly, a girl who prefers to remain an immortal child rather than become a mortal adult; and David R. Palmer's contribution features a mutant super-genius who may be the only survivor of a nuclear holocaust. The other goodies: a chillingly accurate account of a boy hiding his genius for fear of adult non-comprehension (Wilmar Shiras); a xenotelepathic girl with a most unusual pet (Schmitz); a genius song-maker-turned-brainwashed assassin (Orson Scott Card); a tale from Anne McCaffrey's famous Dragonrider cycle; and a three-year-old who's acquired a fearsome set of alien memories (Ted Reynolds). An excellent anthology from the Analog archives.