by Isaac Asimov

“Youth” is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the May 1952 issue of Space Science Fiction and was reprinted in the 1955 collection The Martian Way and Other Stories. Youth is one of the rare Asimov stories with alien characters. Youth is unusual in that none of the characters are given names, or physical descriptions until the very end. All the adults, including the two humans, are known by their professions, and the two young aliens are known by their nicknames. This is necessary to preserve the twist at the end, but it has the effect of giving the story a certain artificiality compared to Asimov’s usual style. ~ Wikipedia