Help me find this childrens Sci Fi novel from 70's or 80's

[Prince Hal]

Need help with identifying a book I read from the library at school a whole ago. The book I remember had two stories, you actually flipped the book over to read the second story, had front covers on both sides.

In terms of the plot is was basically set on a different planet which humans had crash landed on or colonized. The man character was the kid of the human captain. There was a race of alien humanoids who lived on the planet, they had very fine gold fuzzy fur on their bodies and lived in huts. After some misunderstanding in which the human kid lives with the aliens and makes friends with the son of the alien chief, the two races start getting along.

The second story involved the two friends encountering a long, red grass that drains the water from the soil, animals and other plants. The grass is threatening an alien species of bipedal creatures with armoured carapaces and large claws, which were kind of the big bad bears of the forest in the first book. In this second book though they are treated as a species to save via conservation efforts as thought they are dangerous, they are part of the delicate eco-structure of the planet.

Anyone remember the titles and author?

[admin]

The back to back double book sounds like an Ace Double. The Ace publishing company (Don Wolheim, editor) published these from the 1950s through the 1970s. Since most Ace doubles had different authors back to back, and this one apparently had the same author on both sides, that narrows it down quite a bit.

The golden skinned aliens sound like the Fuzzys, created by H. Beam Piper in the novel Little Fuzzy and its sequels. And Piper did write for Ace books. But I think the Fuzzy novels were from a different publisher.

You can find a list of all the Ace doubles here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Double

[Hellblazer286]

I remember reading that book quite a few times when I was a kid! The book was The Humans of Ziax 11/ Drought on Ziax 11 by John Morressy.

[Prince Hal]

Thanks, Hellblazer!

Now to see if I can secure a copy from somewhere so I can introduce my kids to Sci Fi when I get some!