Ender's Game

Imagine a super-smart kid named Ender who's only 6 years old, but grown-ups think he can save the world from mean bug aliens called Formics who almost beat us before. They take Ender to a space school where kids play zero-gravity laser tag battles to learn how to be army leaders. Ender makes friends, beats bullies, becomes the best commander ever, and wins a huge space war—but then finds out it was all real, not a game, and feels super sad about hurting the bugs. It's a story about being brave, smart, and how being a kid hero is really tough.

In Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game,' young Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin is identified as the humanity's last hope against the Formic alien invasion that nearly eradicated Earth twice. Recruited at age six, Ender is thrust into the grueling Battle School, a space station where gifted children train in zero-gravity combat simulations to become commanders. Through relentless psychological testing, brutal competitions, and strategic brilliance, Ender rises through the ranks, forming uneasy alliances and confronting his own isolation as he outmaneuvers peers like Bonzo Madrid and forges a loyal army, Dragon Army, under Colonel Graff's manipulative oversight. Transferred to Eros for Command School, Ender leads simulated fleets against Formic foes using revolutionary technologies like the Ansible and Dr. Device, unaware that his 'games' are real interstellar warfare. Victorious yet shattered, Ender discovers the horrifying truth: he has committed xenocide, manipulated by adults who isolated him to forge the ultimate weapon. The novel culminates in profound ethical reckonings, exploring the cost of victory as Ender grapples with guilt, identity, and the blurred lines between game and reality in a future where child prodigies bear the weight of survival.