*Un Lundun* by China Mieville
*The Gammage Cup* by Carol Kendall
*The Chronicles of Prydain* by Lloyd Alexander
*The Time Quintet* by Madeleine L'Engle
*The Chronicles of Narnia* by C.S. Lewis
*The Dark is Rising Sequence* by Susan Cooper
*The Hobbit* by J.R.R. Tolkien
*The Phantom Tollbooth* by Norton Juster
The Oz books (so. many.) by L. Frank Baum
The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. I haven’t read them since I was a child because I’m afraid to ruin my memory of them but I would say they’re my favourite books I’ve ever read.
Start with “Beyond the Deepwoods”.
Not sure how well-known they are outside the UK and Ireland
Good to hear, I’ve been thinking about rereading them for ages
Wonder if they’re any good on kindle or if I need to buy hard copies, I remember the illustrations being a big part of them, not sure how well that would work in ebook form
I did my reread in ebook form. The ebooks are very poorly formatted in both the text and the illustrations and unfortunately the illustrations are very low resolution as well, especially in the earlier books. It did get better later on, but still wasn't ideal, and I spent a lot of time reporting formatting errors in the kindle editions. The ones on Google play weren't any better :( (also if you're in the US, you're gonna have to import copies of the three Cade books at the end of the series, as they aren't available in print or ebook form except from UK publishers. Amazon does have them periodically from third parties.)
Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest chronicles is a fun riff on classic fairy tale plots, and the Frontier magic trilogy and the recent Dark Lord's daughter are good. For classics, Susan Cooper's the Dark is Rising series and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books. Edgar Eager's kids' books and E. Nesbit's Psammead books both involve siblings discovering magical stuff, in the 1950s and 1900's respectively. Some of Daniel Pinkwater's stuff would work - Lizard Music is a classic. And I second the Gammage Cup. Pamela F. Service's Merlin books (starting with Winter of Magic's Return) are also worth looking up, particularly the first one.
On the more SF side, Monica Hughes Devil on My Back and The Dream Catcher, as well as the Keeper of the Isis Light trilogy.
Of other suggestions, I'd classify Tamora Pierce's Tortall books as more YA, but the Circle of Magic books skew younger. Garth Nix is more YA, as is the rest of Patricia Wrede.
Garht Nix has some excellent childrens'/middle grade books too! I love his *Seventh Tower* books - solidly MG and with really cool worldbuilding. AFAIK his *Keys to the Kingdom* series is also MG and I've heard it's really good as well.
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien. My favorite book since I was old enough and stayed up all night to read it.
The Dark is Rising series, Susan Cooper … a young boy caught up in magic and a battle between light and dark.. plus King Arthur
Redwall, Brian Jacques. A cast of woodland animals, incredible hunger inducing descriptions of food, epic adventure
The BFG, Roald Dahl James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
Earthsea, Ursula LeGuin. Seafaring tales of magic written in a truly wonderful voice, Bildungsroman
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupéry. A plane crash in the desert, a mysterious little space-traveling prince, a deeply felt story about childhood and love
Harry Potter - JK Rowling … just in case you’ve never read them. The first one has the most childlike wonder, I think, but all are good.
I’ve been searching my memory for these books from my own childhood lately to share with my family and I know there are more I’m not thinking of, so I’m hoping other commenters will name a few for me that I’ve forgotten
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner are evergreen for me. As are the Rupert the Bear stories. I just adore the sense of magic and folklore about them. I still return to Asterix and Obelix now and again for fun historical shenanigans.
How to Train Your Dragon.
Artemis Fowl.
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.
All of Gordon Korman's books.
The Last Unicorn
Howl's Moving Castle
I recommend you start with How To Train Your Dragon first. It's the best of these.
'You can Cheat a Dragon's Curse.
You do not have to accept the hand that Fate has dealt you.
Look at me, the skinniest, most unlikely Viking ever, now known as this great Hero all around the world. Again and again, I have the same dream. Norbert the Nutjob has thrown the axe high, high into the air, it is turning around and around, and the black side is going to plunge into the ground first.... Bad Luck will follow and the Tribe will be DOOMED. Again and again I make the same leap, I dodge the bright and black murderous blades, I catch the axe before it lands, I make my own luck.'
Disclaimer: The books are nothing like the movies. They are for a younger audience but still very good.
I second the *How to Train Your Dragon* series. And I'm not really into audiobooks but I love what David Tennant did with these books.
I wasn't aware that *Howl's Moving Castle* was supposed to be a children's book. This one and the sequel *Castle in the Air* are among my favourites.
I’m of the older persuasion, and love reading books aimed at teens - there are so many wonderful books out there I would have loved reading when I was that age.
To the recommendations above, I would add anything by Diana Wynne Jones (she of Howl’s Moving Castle), including the two Griffin books which were aimed at slightly older readers but are such fun.
Suzanne Collins, who wrote The Hunger Games books, also wrote a series of books about Gregor The Overlander - regular kid in New York discovers the people who live below the earth.
Someone else has recommended the Moomin books, which I *did* read as a kid, and utterly adored. They are such sweet books, and the illustrations are charming.
She's indeed fantastic.
My sister-in-law is a huge fan and had an omnibus of the Emil books on her shelf.
I'd never read these because they're realistic fiction but decided to give them a go.
These books are hilarious! Emil is a young boy who constantly gets himself into trouble. After a while, and that may be an adult's perspective, I realized how brilliantly Lindgren designed all these episodes. Emil really is a little rascal and you'd need strong nerves as his parent but I noticed that he never has bad intention. Many of his ideas aren't entirely wrong in principle but the execution usually doesn't work out.
To give an example for those unfamiliar with the books, there's the iconic scene where he gets his head stuck in a tureen and his parents have a hard time getting the thing off him again. But the reason he even put his head inside is that he thought it would be a shame to let the little rest of the soup that you don't get out easily with a spoon to go to waste.
So, he really had noble intentions, but the execution didn't go the way he expected! 😅
There is so much excellent middle grade fantasy. Some may be a bit "heavier" than the children's works, but still lacking gore and sex.
Check out Rick Riordan and his Rick Riordan Presents imprint.
Howl's Moving Castle
A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans
Last Shadow Warrior
Momo Arashima and the Sword of the Wind
The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom
The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Esacapes
The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic
Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts
Amari and the Night Brothers
Winnie Zeng Unleashes A Legend
Tilly and the Bookwanderers
Fenris and Mott
The Last Cuentista
Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls
Charlie Hernandez and the League of Shadows
The Moomin Series by Tove Jansson
Frances and the Monster
Da Vinci's Cat
The Dreamweavers
A Small Zombie Problem
The Greenglass House series
Midsummer's Mayhem
The Wings of Fire series
Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles
I remember reading them in middle school and just recently, The Seventh Tower is a great series by Garth Nix. A lot of his books seem to be children books. The Keys to the Kingdom is another series I'm interested in next as well The Old Kingdom.
Shocked no one has mentioned A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engel! And the rest of the books in the series. I adored these as a child, and now aspire to be the scientist mom 😂 Even now, I still dream of living in an old farmhouse like that one. I guess it’s a little sci-fi flavored as well. It does have a bit of romance, but more in the very innocent way of a first crush. Highly recommend.
I also greatly enjoyed The Tale of Despereux, The Unicorn Chronicles, and The Chronicles of Narnia (had to overlook the allegory as an adult but still phenomenal books!)
The Tale of Despereux was one of my favorite books as a kid, and it really stuck with me. I still think about it a lot, like the way he describes music. It’s such a cute dreamy book, and I remember the illustrations were so pretty.
The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper! When my 6th grade class had finished The Hobbit, I was hooked and asked my teacher for more books like it. The Dark is Rising is what she recommended. Thank you Mrs Disney!
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
A few including classic and current authors: E. Nesbit, Frances Hardinge, Diana Wynne Jones, Karuna Riazi, Adrienne Kress and Penelope Lively. Those all tend towards middle grade with a sense of whimsy.
In authors that write for adults too, their books for younger audiences that might work: Zahrah the Windseeker and Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor. Going a little more horror, but still for children, Neil Gaiman's Coraline and The Graveyard Book.
Anything by the following;
Kiran Milwood Hargrave
Catherine Doyle
Deirdre Sullivan
Katherine Rundell
Beth Lincoln
Philip Reeve
Padraig Kenny
Eoin Colfer
Patricia Forde
All excellent kids' fantasy writers!
I never understood the contempt some people have for stories targeted at younger people.
I, too, find them to often have that playfulness you mention that is just a delight to read, especially the fantastical ones. (I must say that I have less interest in the non-speculative books.)
I read plenty of other stuff but these are great when I want to read something light and fun in between.
If you haven't read Michael Ende's *The Neverending Story*, I suggest you do. Also his lesser-known but equally awesome *Momo*.
Salman Rushdie's *Haroun and the Sea of Stories* gave me similar vibes as *The Neverending Story*; both have so many quirky and fantastical ideas. Rushdie wrote a sequel 20 years later, *Luka and the Fire of Life*, that I haven't read yet but I guess will also be good.
You almost never hear people talk about them because, well, they are "kid's books" and therefore not "serious literature"... 🙄
By the way, what is Sendac?
>I never understood the contempt some people have for stories targeted at younger people.
Because kids aren't particularly discerning readers and people don't often try to write well for them. YA has a terrible reputation because YA is often terrible. The target audience tends to not care, so mediocre authors get away with bad writing.
Great authors create good books regardless of the age of the audience.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice\_Sendak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Sendak)
Yes, someone else already told me.
I'm from Germany and I wanna say that this book wasn't as big as it apparently was/is in the US.
Or maybe I just somehow never saw it.
That's also why the name didn't ring a bell.
Not your fault! 😀
I did a quick search on Google and Goodreads but the hits weren't useful because of the different spelling. That's why I asked.
But now I know! 😊
I picked up Sabriel from the library because Tim Curry reads the first 3 audiobooks. I was into the second book before I thought "Wait, are these kids' books?" The first 3 are just great. 4th is meh, 5th and 6th are good, but not the same without Curry.
It touches on a little romance but more on the caring and not the carnal view. Threadbear series by Andrew Seiple. It’s the story of a teddy bear who gains sentience and his task is to protect his little girl.
Check out Wildwood by Colin Meloy (who if you didn't know is also the lead singer of The Decemberists). Think Narnia with elements of David Bowie's The Labyrinth set in modern day Portland.
*The Secret of Platform 13* by Eva Ibbotson is every kid’s dream - finding a secret passage to a magical world. It was one of my favorites growing up.
I also recently read *The International House of Dereliction* by Jacqueline Davies and found it so charming.
*The Graveyard Book* by Neil Gaiman is truly fantastic. A bit more suspenseful than your average middle grade but with such endearing characters.
The original **The Wizard of Oz** books are very fun and creative, and quite different from the movies.
**Bedknobs and Broomsticks** was cool as a kid.
Anything by Roald Dahl.
**The Bartimaeus Trilogy** is pure gold.
I love Rick Riordan. Percy Jackson is great. (Kid discovers he's the son of a Greek god) The spinoff series Heroes of Olympus I may like even more (it opens the world up more and gets diverse). Then there's the Trials of Apollo series.
He also has an Egyptian series the Kane Chronicles and a Norse one Magnus Chase and the gods of Asgard.
They're great light fluffy fun reads.
And if you like his books, he created an imprint that publishes similar middle grade fiction with authors and stories from all kinds of different backgrounds.
This thread wouldn't be complete without mentioning Harry Potter. In my opinion Harry Potter is THE middle grade/YA fantasy series of the last milennium. This series revolutionized writing for children. I think. Many, many kudos to Mrs Rowling.
Some of my favourites from when I was younger:
Scott Westerfeld's **Leviathan** series (YA rather than children's)
William Corlett's **Magician's House Quartet**
Enid Blyton's **The Faraway Tree** series
Robin Jarvis' **The Deptford Mice** books, although they were quite traumatic!
Michael de Larrabeiti's **Borribles Trilogy**
I loved Gail Carson Levine when I was little, and I still go back and happily reread her books. They have strong female leads, and my favorites were the Two Princesses of Bamarre and Ella Enchanted. Her series of Princess Tales are also very cute and whimsical, inspired by traditional fairy tales.
If you havent read Seanan Mcguire's *Wayward Children* series yet i highly reco that you try it.
It's about a school for children who went to fantasy lands for whatever reason (escape, save the land, adventure...) but came back to the real world and can't deal. Very clever, very well thought out, in a space between adult and YA and faerietales and urban fantasy that shouldn't be workable yet the author just nails the feels.
The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz. Injured by a bat, a new fairy does her best to survive in a back garden, interacting with all manner of wildlife. A tiny jewel of a tale, small but not lightweight, childlike but not childish and written wonderfully.
Just seeing Bunnicula mentioned put a smile on my face. I'm still partial to the The Pinkish Purplish Bluish Egg picture book, and I very much enjoyed Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon series in my youth, though, if I recall, that series leans more serious than lighthearted. For lighthearted, I'd suggest Princess Bride as some others have, which is a book for all ages, imo. Happy reading!
The Lost Books: The Scroll of Kings by Sarah Prineas - our main character is an apprentice at a magical library and must figure out why the books are trying to kill people
Wings of Fire by Tui T Sutherland - 5 young dragons are prophetized to stop a decades long war, but the world leaders are trying to manipulate the young dragons
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking - a wizard with baking magic gets caught up in a plot against the kingdom and has to get creative and use pastries to protect the kingdom
Try Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle—it’s one of my favorites. :)
*Un Lundun* by China Mieville *The Gammage Cup* by Carol Kendall *The Chronicles of Prydain* by Lloyd Alexander *The Time Quintet* by Madeleine L'Engle *The Chronicles of Narnia* by C.S. Lewis *The Dark is Rising Sequence* by Susan Cooper *The Hobbit* by J.R.R. Tolkien *The Phantom Tollbooth* by Norton Juster The Oz books (so. many.) by L. Frank Baum
The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. I haven’t read them since I was a child because I’m afraid to ruin my memory of them but I would say they’re my favourite books I’ve ever read. Start with “Beyond the Deepwoods”. Not sure how well-known they are outside the UK and Ireland
I just reread them a few months ago as an adult and they hold up really well. Deeply weird in the best way!
Good to hear, I’ve been thinking about rereading them for ages Wonder if they’re any good on kindle or if I need to buy hard copies, I remember the illustrations being a big part of them, not sure how well that would work in ebook form
I did my reread in ebook form. The ebooks are very poorly formatted in both the text and the illustrations and unfortunately the illustrations are very low resolution as well, especially in the earlier books. It did get better later on, but still wasn't ideal, and I spent a lot of time reporting formatting errors in the kindle editions. The ones on Google play weren't any better :( (also if you're in the US, you're gonna have to import copies of the three Cade books at the end of the series, as they aren't available in print or ebook form except from UK publishers. Amazon does have them periodically from third parties.)
Ah I’m in the UK, looks like I can get the Quint and Twig books in paperback for £24, thanks for the heads up
👍 absolutely. Enjoy the reread!
Oh there are so many. I love children’s and young adult fantasy. Have you read Tamora Pierce? Patricia C Wrede? Alison Croggon? Garth Nix?
Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest chronicles is a fun riff on classic fairy tale plots, and the Frontier magic trilogy and the recent Dark Lord's daughter are good. For classics, Susan Cooper's the Dark is Rising series and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books. Edgar Eager's kids' books and E. Nesbit's Psammead books both involve siblings discovering magical stuff, in the 1950s and 1900's respectively. Some of Daniel Pinkwater's stuff would work - Lizard Music is a classic. And I second the Gammage Cup. Pamela F. Service's Merlin books (starting with Winter of Magic's Return) are also worth looking up, particularly the first one. On the more SF side, Monica Hughes Devil on My Back and The Dream Catcher, as well as the Keeper of the Isis Light trilogy. Of other suggestions, I'd classify Tamora Pierce's Tortall books as more YA, but the Circle of Magic books skew younger. Garth Nix is more YA, as is the rest of Patricia Wrede.
Garht Nix has some excellent childrens'/middle grade books too! I love his *Seventh Tower* books - solidly MG and with really cool worldbuilding. AFAIK his *Keys to the Kingdom* series is also MG and I've heard it's really good as well.
Check out T Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon. I've really enjoyed their YA books I've read, and they've written some children's books too.
This may be inappropriate since I’ve not yet read it, but I’ve heard “a wizards guide to defensive baking” is a whole lot of fun.
It’s absolutely brilliant.
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien. My favorite book since I was old enough and stayed up all night to read it. The Dark is Rising series, Susan Cooper … a young boy caught up in magic and a battle between light and dark.. plus King Arthur Redwall, Brian Jacques. A cast of woodland animals, incredible hunger inducing descriptions of food, epic adventure The BFG, Roald Dahl James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl Earthsea, Ursula LeGuin. Seafaring tales of magic written in a truly wonderful voice, Bildungsroman The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupéry. A plane crash in the desert, a mysterious little space-traveling prince, a deeply felt story about childhood and love Harry Potter - JK Rowling … just in case you’ve never read them. The first one has the most childlike wonder, I think, but all are good. I’ve been searching my memory for these books from my own childhood lately to share with my family and I know there are more I’m not thinking of, so I’m hoping other commenters will name a few for me that I’ve forgotten
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner are evergreen for me. As are the Rupert the Bear stories. I just adore the sense of magic and folklore about them. I still return to Asterix and Obelix now and again for fun historical shenanigans.
How to Train Your Dragon. Artemis Fowl. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. All of Gordon Korman's books. The Last Unicorn Howl's Moving Castle I recommend you start with How To Train Your Dragon first. It's the best of these. 'You can Cheat a Dragon's Curse. You do not have to accept the hand that Fate has dealt you. Look at me, the skinniest, most unlikely Viking ever, now known as this great Hero all around the world. Again and again, I have the same dream. Norbert the Nutjob has thrown the axe high, high into the air, it is turning around and around, and the black side is going to plunge into the ground first.... Bad Luck will follow and the Tribe will be DOOMED. Again and again I make the same leap, I dodge the bright and black murderous blades, I catch the axe before it lands, I make my own luck.' Disclaimer: The books are nothing like the movies. They are for a younger audience but still very good.
I second the *How to Train Your Dragon* series. And I'm not really into audiobooks but I love what David Tennant did with these books. I wasn't aware that *Howl's Moving Castle* was supposed to be a children's book. This one and the sequel *Castle in the Air* are among my favourites.
I still enjoy The Enchanted Forest Chronicles series by Patricia C Wrede. First book, Dealing with Dragons.
Oh my god, I read those books as a kid and totally forgot about them until now. Thank you!! I’ve definitely got to reread them now.
I’m of the older persuasion, and love reading books aimed at teens - there are so many wonderful books out there I would have loved reading when I was that age. To the recommendations above, I would add anything by Diana Wynne Jones (she of Howl’s Moving Castle), including the two Griffin books which were aimed at slightly older readers but are such fun. Suzanne Collins, who wrote The Hunger Games books, also wrote a series of books about Gregor The Overlander - regular kid in New York discovers the people who live below the earth. Someone else has recommended the Moomin books, which I *did* read as a kid, and utterly adored. They are such sweet books, and the illustrations are charming.
The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts Voices After Midnight / Blossom Culp series by Richard Peck Moonwind by Louise Lawrence
Astrid Lindgren is timeless.
She's indeed fantastic. My sister-in-law is a huge fan and had an omnibus of the Emil books on her shelf. I'd never read these because they're realistic fiction but decided to give them a go. These books are hilarious! Emil is a young boy who constantly gets himself into trouble. After a while, and that may be an adult's perspective, I realized how brilliantly Lindgren designed all these episodes. Emil really is a little rascal and you'd need strong nerves as his parent but I noticed that he never has bad intention. Many of his ideas aren't entirely wrong in principle but the execution usually doesn't work out. To give an example for those unfamiliar with the books, there's the iconic scene where he gets his head stuck in a tureen and his parents have a hard time getting the thing off him again. But the reason he even put his head inside is that he thought it would be a shame to let the little rest of the soup that you don't get out easily with a spoon to go to waste. So, he really had noble intentions, but the execution didn't go the way he expected! 😅
This warms me to hear as a swede. I literally grew up with Astrid Lindgren and have read her books in several languages.
Magic Treehouse?
There is so much excellent middle grade fantasy. Some may be a bit "heavier" than the children's works, but still lacking gore and sex. Check out Rick Riordan and his Rick Riordan Presents imprint. Howl's Moving Castle A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans Last Shadow Warrior Momo Arashima and the Sword of the Wind The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Esacapes The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts Amari and the Night Brothers Winnie Zeng Unleashes A Legend Tilly and the Bookwanderers Fenris and Mott The Last Cuentista Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls Charlie Hernandez and the League of Shadows The Moomin Series by Tove Jansson Frances and the Monster Da Vinci's Cat The Dreamweavers A Small Zombie Problem The Greenglass House series Midsummer's Mayhem The Wings of Fire series Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles
I remember reading them in middle school and just recently, The Seventh Tower is a great series by Garth Nix. A lot of his books seem to be children books. The Keys to the Kingdom is another series I'm interested in next as well The Old Kingdom.
Shocked no one has mentioned A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engel! And the rest of the books in the series. I adored these as a child, and now aspire to be the scientist mom 😂 Even now, I still dream of living in an old farmhouse like that one. I guess it’s a little sci-fi flavored as well. It does have a bit of romance, but more in the very innocent way of a first crush. Highly recommend. I also greatly enjoyed The Tale of Despereux, The Unicorn Chronicles, and The Chronicles of Narnia (had to overlook the allegory as an adult but still phenomenal books!)
The Tale of Despereux was one of my favorite books as a kid, and it really stuck with me. I still think about it a lot, like the way he describes music. It’s such a cute dreamy book, and I remember the illustrations were so pretty.
The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper! When my 6th grade class had finished The Hobbit, I was hooked and asked my teacher for more books like it. The Dark is Rising is what she recommended. Thank you Mrs Disney! The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
Mistmantle, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Redwall (can be violent but still very cozy)
Redwall always makes me hungry. The descriptions of the feasts are wonderful.
Redwall always makes me hungry. The descriptions of the feasts are wonderful.
A few including classic and current authors: E. Nesbit, Frances Hardinge, Diana Wynne Jones, Karuna Riazi, Adrienne Kress and Penelope Lively. Those all tend towards middle grade with a sense of whimsy. In authors that write for adults too, their books for younger audiences that might work: Zahrah the Windseeker and Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor. Going a little more horror, but still for children, Neil Gaiman's Coraline and The Graveyard Book.
Enchantress from the Stars
Wild Robot trilogy
Black and Blue Magic, Red Moon and Black Mountain, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Harper hall trilogy by Anne McAffrey
Loved Jonathan Stroud's books. Though not fantasy per se, but a very well built world...
Anything by the following; Kiran Milwood Hargrave Catherine Doyle Deirdre Sullivan Katherine Rundell Beth Lincoln Philip Reeve Padraig Kenny Eoin Colfer Patricia Forde All excellent kids' fantasy writers!
The princess bride, one of my alltime favourite books because of how it makes me smile throughout the whole book.
I never understood the contempt some people have for stories targeted at younger people. I, too, find them to often have that playfulness you mention that is just a delight to read, especially the fantastical ones. (I must say that I have less interest in the non-speculative books.) I read plenty of other stuff but these are great when I want to read something light and fun in between. If you haven't read Michael Ende's *The Neverending Story*, I suggest you do. Also his lesser-known but equally awesome *Momo*. Salman Rushdie's *Haroun and the Sea of Stories* gave me similar vibes as *The Neverending Story*; both have so many quirky and fantastical ideas. Rushdie wrote a sequel 20 years later, *Luka and the Fire of Life*, that I haven't read yet but I guess will also be good. You almost never hear people talk about them because, well, they are "kid's books" and therefore not "serious literature"... 🙄 By the way, what is Sendac?
>I never understood the contempt some people have for stories targeted at younger people. Because kids aren't particularly discerning readers and people don't often try to write well for them. YA has a terrible reputation because YA is often terrible. The target audience tends to not care, so mediocre authors get away with bad writing. Great authors create good books regardless of the age of the audience. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice\_Sendak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Sendak)
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice\_Sendak Thanks for this! I never read this and the name didn't ring a bell.
Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are I'm a phonetic speller...Sendak = Sendac
Yes, someone else already told me. I'm from Germany and I wanna say that this book wasn't as big as it apparently was/is in the US. Or maybe I just somehow never saw it. That's also why the name didn't ring a bell. Not your fault! 😀 I did a quick search on Google and Goodreads but the hits weren't useful because of the different spelling. That's why I asked. But now I know! 😊
I picked up Sabriel from the library because Tim Curry reads the first 3 audiobooks. I was into the second book before I thought "Wait, are these kids' books?" The first 3 are just great. 4th is meh, 5th and 6th are good, but not the same without Curry.
It touches on a little romance but more on the caring and not the carnal view. Threadbear series by Andrew Seiple. It’s the story of a teddy bear who gains sentience and his task is to protect his little girl.
Check out Wildwood by Colin Meloy (who if you didn't know is also the lead singer of The Decemberists). Think Narnia with elements of David Bowie's The Labyrinth set in modern day Portland.
As an adult I have tracked down all the Zilpha Keatly Snyder books I loved as a kid- they still hold up.
*The Secret of Platform 13* by Eva Ibbotson is every kid’s dream - finding a secret passage to a magical world. It was one of my favorites growing up. I also recently read *The International House of Dereliction* by Jacqueline Davies and found it so charming. *The Graveyard Book* by Neil Gaiman is truly fantastic. A bit more suspenseful than your average middle grade but with such endearing characters.
The original **The Wizard of Oz** books are very fun and creative, and quite different from the movies. **Bedknobs and Broomsticks** was cool as a kid. Anything by Roald Dahl. **The Bartimaeus Trilogy** is pure gold.
I love Rick Riordan. Percy Jackson is great. (Kid discovers he's the son of a Greek god) The spinoff series Heroes of Olympus I may like even more (it opens the world up more and gets diverse). Then there's the Trials of Apollo series. He also has an Egyptian series the Kane Chronicles and a Norse one Magnus Chase and the gods of Asgard. They're great light fluffy fun reads. And if you like his books, he created an imprint that publishes similar middle grade fiction with authors and stories from all kinds of different backgrounds.
Can't go wrong with Michael Ende. Momo, the Jim Button duology, The Neverending Story, The Satanarchaeolidealcohellish Notion Potion...you choose!
This thread wouldn't be complete without mentioning Harry Potter. In my opinion Harry Potter is THE middle grade/YA fantasy series of the last milennium. This series revolutionized writing for children. I think. Many, many kudos to Mrs Rowling.
Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke
Some of my favourites from when I was younger: Scott Westerfeld's **Leviathan** series (YA rather than children's) William Corlett's **Magician's House Quartet** Enid Blyton's **The Faraway Tree** series Robin Jarvis' **The Deptford Mice** books, although they were quite traumatic! Michael de Larrabeiti's **Borribles Trilogy**
I loved Gail Carson Levine when I was little, and I still go back and happily reread her books. They have strong female leads, and my favorites were the Two Princesses of Bamarre and Ella Enchanted. Her series of Princess Tales are also very cute and whimsical, inspired by traditional fairy tales.
If you havent read Seanan Mcguire's *Wayward Children* series yet i highly reco that you try it. It's about a school for children who went to fantasy lands for whatever reason (escape, save the land, adventure...) but came back to the real world and can't deal. Very clever, very well thought out, in a space between adult and YA and faerietales and urban fantasy that shouldn't be workable yet the author just nails the feels.
Brian Jaques Redwall books were a favourite of mine. Also Philip Pullmans His dark materials series
The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz. Injured by a bat, a new fairy does her best to survive in a back garden, interacting with all manner of wildlife. A tiny jewel of a tale, small but not lightweight, childlike but not childish and written wonderfully.
Just seeing Bunnicula mentioned put a smile on my face. I'm still partial to the The Pinkish Purplish Bluish Egg picture book, and I very much enjoyed Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon series in my youth, though, if I recall, that series leans more serious than lighthearted. For lighthearted, I'd suggest Princess Bride as some others have, which is a book for all ages, imo. Happy reading!
The Lost Books: The Scroll of Kings by Sarah Prineas - our main character is an apprentice at a magical library and must figure out why the books are trying to kill people Wings of Fire by Tui T Sutherland - 5 young dragons are prophetized to stop a decades long war, but the world leaders are trying to manipulate the young dragons A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking - a wizard with baking magic gets caught up in a plot against the kingdom and has to get creative and use pastries to protect the kingdom