FantasticalFiction

suggested by Vicki Palmquist, children's literature enthusiast

When you've finished the four Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, what's next? Where do you find books that offer as many thrills, plot twists, and old-fashioned "turn-the-page" reading excitement? Here are ten of my favorite fantasy novels for middle grade and young adult readers. Not surprisingly, adults will enjoy each of these books as well, for they are written by some of the very best storytelling authors.

Reading List menu




		Arm of the Starfish — Madeleine L'Engle It might be argued whether this is fantasy or science fiction, but when I first read the book it seemed like fantasy. Based in sound science, this is one of the O'Keefe stories, featuring Polyhymnia and her father, the enigmatic Canon Tallis, Adam Eddington, and the dazzling Carolyn Cutter. Plump with international intrigue and tense situations, it explores a potential biological future and the moral questions raised by that future.



		Black Hearts in Battersea — Joan Aiken The second in Ms. Aiken's series of Regency fantasy novels finds Simon (the foundling from The Wolves of Willoughby Chase) heading to London to pursue his art education with Dr. Furnace. When he arrives, he is confounded by mystery after bewildering mystery. He, Sophie, and the amusing Dido Twite soon find themselves tumbling through a complicated, wildly imaginative, vexing series of adventures.



		Book of Three — Lloyd Alexander Based on the mythology from the Welsh Mabinogian, Lloyd Alexander captures the perfect lighthearted, yet serious, fantasy adventure with memorable characters, fascinating cultures, and cliffhanging escapades. Wonderful when read aloud, it's also a great "where's the next book?" read. This is the first of five novels in the Prydain Chronicles.



		Court of the Stone Children — Eleanor Cameron This was the book that drew me into museums, wondering if the statues would transport me into the past or the future. Ms. Cameron had a fluid concept of time which she expresses through this enchanting story. As Nina visits the French Museum in San Francisco, she is befriended by Dominique, a young woman — but of what century? This book won the National Book Award in 1973.



		Dark is Rising — Susan Cooper I re-read this book regularly because it fills me with awe. Ms. Cooper's powerful writing and fertile imagination create a book that engenders absorbed, hushed-breath reading. It worked that way when I was twenty and it still works twenty years later. As Will prepares for his eleventh birthday, our world draws perilously close to being taken over by the Dark powers. Will and his newly found companions bring the forces of the Light to battle the Dark. Merriman Lyon, Miss Greythorne, The Walker, the Black Rider—the characters who walk these pages are large with myth and close to our hearts and fears. Particularly watch for the scene on Christmas Eve as Will and his brother sing in the choir at church. The sounds, the images, the cold, the overwhelming sense of something out of control — this book is well worth reading.



		Howl's Moving Castle — Diane Wynne Jones In all of fantasy writing, there is nothing to compare to the Wizard Howl and his castle which moves about the countryside. The characters are fresh, funny, and good-hearted, despite their propensity for secrets, lies, and misdirection. Recently recommended to me by a ten-year-old reader, it's one of my newest favorites. I can't think of one other book that has a character who's a hearth fire.



		Red Moon and Black Mountain — Joy Chant A traditional fantasy in which three children from Essex, Penelope, Nicholas, and Oliver Powell, find themselves magically transported to Kedrinh, the Starlit Land. Each child has a special prophecy to fulfill in the battle between the Enchanter of the Star Magic and the Lord of the Black Mountain. The scene in which the earth mother heals the battlefield is particularly memorable.



		Riddlemaster of Hed — Patricia McKillip I just finished reading all three of these books again, wondering if they would still hold their fascination for me. They do. They grow more powerful with each reading. Of all the books listed here, this is easily my favorite. Only Tolkien and Lewis come close to writing about a world with the same scope of imagination. Morgon is the King of Hed and its chief farmer. He's also a Riddlemaster with three unique stars on his forehead, stars that are prophesied in the oldest whispers of the lands. In this and the subsequent volumes, Heir of Sea and Fire and Harpist in the Wind, the reader follows Morgon and Raederle on an incredible journey as they try to understand what they were meant to do.



		Tuck Everlasting — Natalie Babbitt The extraordinary secret of the Tuck Family, the spare, clean prose with nary a wasted word, and the taut suspense as the reader races to understand what is going on—these are the reasons this book is used in grade school and college-level classes alike. It's a thought-provoking book for the ages, one which is difficult to summarize without giving away the best surprises In the text.



		Wizard of Earthsea — Ursula K. LeGuin The young Sparrowhawk moves through the islands of Earthsea, seeking the answers to questions raised by a powerful wizard. Who is he? What is the meaning of his true name? What is his destiny? As Sparrowhawk learns that words have power, he must also deal with having made a terrible mistake that changes his world. One of four books about Earthsea, this is my favorite. It's an introspective book and a page-turner all at once—an impressively written young adult fantasy.



		From Lise Lunge-Larson: The Golden Compass — Philip Pullman In a landmark epic of fantasy and storytelling, Philip Pullman invites readers into a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, or Redwall. Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.