It's not sci-fi or fantasy, but I'd highly recommend Persepolis. A graphic novel about an Iranian woman growing up during the overthrow of the Shah in Iran, the

It's not sci-fi or fantasy, but I'd highly recommend Persepolis. A graphic novel about an Iranian woman growing up during the overthrow of the Shah in Iran, the Islamic Revolution, and the effects of their war with Iraq. It's very readable, has humor, but also talks about quite a few atrocities that happened (without really showing it, a lot of it is her talking to her family about what they've seen or certain people in her life leaving and never coming back, presumably because something terrible happened to them). It was eventually made into an animated movie also, but I liked the comic a lot better. You might want to give it a read yourself before reading it with your kids, though, to make sure you think it's appropriate. But personally I could see myself introducing it to my kid when they turned like.... 10 or 11 probably, if/when I have one. It should be noted the woman is telling her story from the ages of 6 to 14 in the first book, so she had no choice but to be exposed to these things at a very young age.