What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

A small group of ethnically diverse people are selected to be shot into space to preserve humanity. It seems the world is going to end somehow, disease or war, I don't remember. The sister of one of the men on board stows away, and since they plan to repopulate the world some day, and her genetics are close to her brother's, they aren't too happy with her. I think they figured out how to make the whole space ship self-sustaining with composting clothes and drinking urine...They eventually come back to Earth for some reason or another and find a few people have survived the disaster in caves.

I read this in the early 1980s and based on where I remember finding it in the library, the author's name was in the first few letters of the alphabet. It would maybe be a YA or upper gradeschool level novel.

Bump

Sherry Beth, does anything look familiar in this list of Interstellar Ark ("generation ship") novels? Some books have multiple cover images.

Kris, Thanks for the information. I didn't find my book, but you have given a name to the genre I was looking for.

Bump

Could it be The 100 by Kass Morgan?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Sherry Beth, still looking or did you find this?

I have not. Do you have any ideas? I would have read it in the 1980s.

Sherry wrote: "Could it be The 100 by Kass Morgan?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..."

That's the right kind of book, but I read it when I was an early teen in the 1980s, so it's too new.

Earthseed byPamela Sargent sounds similar. The stowaways are adults who are genetically related to the children.

Wikipedia's plot summary (with Spoilers) of Earthseed (1983) by Pamela Sargent - Kristina's suggestion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthse...

Kristina Marie wrote: "Earthseed byPamela Sargent sounds similar. The stowaways are adults who are genetically related to the children."

Thank you for coming up with this book. It does seem very similar. What I am remembering from...40 some years ago...so who knows if I remember correctly is that most of the book took place on the spaceship and that they were teens rather than adults (or very young adults) and that the two I am thinking of were of Native American heritage, which is why the brother was selected.

I recently read The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera and it was probably the most similar to what I remember this book being like, but without parents. It probably scratched the itch I had from wondering about this book.

But I will add Earthseed to my to-read list, because it sounds interesting.

Google Books preview of Earthseed by Pamela Sargent - Kristina's suggestion:

https://books.google.com/books?id=pMb... There are different cover images.

Does anything on the 20th Century YA and Middle Grade Science Fiction list look familiar?

This more-or-less fits the description so I'll suggest it:
Regenesis