Fantasy Books for Young Readers

[Purplecat]

Tad Williams series that starts with The Dragonbone Chair is what got me started with fantasy books. Believe it or not, I’m just now getting to read the Harry Potter books and I’m enjoying them alot. I’m on The Goblet of Fire right now. 😀

[Purplecat]

Oh, I’ve had the Series of Unfortunate Events books by Lemony Snicket recommended to me by the 10 year old who stays with us alot. Has anyone here read them? How are they?

[Jasmine]

I read anything that came to hand when I was younger. Loved Piers Anthony…both Incarnations and Xanth (though I think he’s pushing it with 30 odd books in the series), David Eddings is one of my favorites still, Anne McCafferey, C.S. Lewis . Of course, for non-fantasy there was none better than Judy Blume.

Unfortunately, my mother didn’t like me reading fantasy. In fact, she blames all my problems (much too long to explain) on my reading. She’s told me many times that I should stop reading and watch TV instead…how bizarre is that?

And she’s out and out told me that she hates the way my hunney and I have decorated our house. It’s much too dark and depressing was her view. My hunney and I both love fantasy, so there are Windstones everywhere, I have over 1200 books so the shelves are full. And a couple of years ago I purchased all the Lord of the Rings weapons for my hunney. Those are all out and mounted on the walls. All I said was, “Well, it’s a good thing you don’t have to live here then.” I’m used to my mother’s views, I just ignore them but my hunney was quite rightly insulted since he rather likes the colours we’ve chosen.

Okay, sorry…rant over

[Nightcrow]

Everyone else seems to be saying “yes,” but I don’t actually think so. (Granted, I don’t know how old you are, so “when I was a kid” might be two very different eras between us.)

I think maybe the category is larger, but not necessarily the volume of books. When I was a young-adult reader, most of the stuff I read wasn’t labelled “YA Fantasy” — it was just “YA” or children’s lit. But the fantastical elements were there, nonetheless. Roald Dahl’s Matilda and The Witches, Langton’s The Fledgling, Roberts’ The Girl With Silver Eyes, C.S. Lewis’s Narnia…

So I think that the books have always been there, it’s just that lately people have started sorting out the genres within the YA section, and being surprised at how many can be categorized as “fantasy” novels.

Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).

[Nightcrow]

Mine doesn’t hate it, though she’s both skeptical and noncomprehending — she’s said more than once she doesn’t understand how I can read that stuff, and I think she suspects that it’s leading me into witchcraft or something.

(Seriously, I once explained the plot of the movie “Spirited Away” to her, and she was distressed that it had spirits in it; she made vague warnings about it being occult.)

And O.o at the “watch TV” thing. At least my mother’s consistent — I doubt she’d approve of my TV choices, either. (I was a huge X-Files fan, way back when.)

I don’t really say anything to her about the reading, though. Personally, I don’t see how anyone can enjoy Cold Sassy Tree — I gave up at thirty pages or so — so I don’t do much more than shrug and offer the equivalent of “no accounting for taste.”

Jasmine wrote:

Unfortunately, my mother didn’t like me reading fantasy. In fact, she blames all my problems (much too long to explain) on my reading.

Hee, that’s what my eventual house will look like, too! Though maybe not the “dark part, since I yearn for bright and sunny climes. (What colors did you use?) But billions of books, fantasy artwork, Windstone critters, and fantastic weaponry? You bet. 🙂

My mom will probably just shake her head privately and assume I’m refusing to grow up, or maybe she’ll be too upset over the lack of husband-and-kids to even notice the decor, but anyway, much sympathy for ya here!

Whenever discussions of heredity come up, I’m always forced to opine that clearly there’s a third factor involved somewhere, because both my genes and my upbringing came from two through-and-through Mundanes! 🙂 Even my little brother is pretty “normal” (in a grow-up-already-dude) way.

Jasmine wrote:

And she’s out and out told me that she hates the way my hunney and I have decorated our house. It’s much too dark and depressing was her view. My hunney and I both love fantasy, so there are Windstones everywhere, I have over 1200 books so the shelves are full. And a couple of years ago I purchased all the Lord of the Rings weapons for my hunney. Those are all out and mounted on the walls.

[/u]

Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).

[lamortefille]

Good for you Jasmine….your house sounds awesome! Don’t feel alone, my husband wanted and painted our living room walls black… 😀 To thine own self be true….

[Jasmine]

Thanks guys 🙂 Our living room is gray with burgandy. My bathroom is almost forest green and the bedroom is dark red with black accents. I don’t care, I like it. 🙂

[twindragonsmum]

When I was young (a million and a half years ago 😯 ) some of my favorites were as follows:

“No Flying in the House” – Betty Brock
“Octagon Magic” – Andre Norton
“Lavender Green Magic” – Andre Norton
“Court of the Stone Children” – Eleanor Cameron
“The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet” – Eleanor Cameron
“Narnia” Series – C.S. Lewis
“Gulliver’s Travel” – Jonathan Swift

Basically I read anything I could get my hands on and kept our local librarian busy with interlibrary loans. Once I latched onto a subject or author I read everything I could find. Lots of good stuff out there, then and now 😀

twindragonsmum

tdm

[Author]

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