Top Ten Tuesday, a lovely book meme put together
by the ladies at The Broke and the Bookish.
Trying to settle on only one title proved quite difficult, so I wound up giving suggestions on two separate titles, because once I got going I didn't want to stop. Since the goal is to try pointing out new books for people, I've stayed away (mostly) from the series everybody's heard of and focused on some really great, but sadly lesser known, titles.
If you like The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis...
The Dream Keeper by Mikey Brooks
This is about two kids who are tasked to save the land of Dreams. With how often they jumped from our world to another, it had a strong sense of The Wood Between the Worlds from The Magician's Nephew.
Half Magic by Edward Eager
This is such a clever, clever story. It has the same distinct English nostalgia in its telling as Narnia and playing with the magic is so fun.
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards
Yes. That Julie Andrews. Again, this has the same distinct feel as a Narnia book -kids being pulled into a magical place and having fantastic adventures.
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
Seriously, it's that feeling again. There's just this quintessentially English essence oozing from certain books, especially great children's fantasies, that inextricably link them across time and space.
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
This is considered a classic, but it's also old enough I'm not certain many people read it. I adore this book. I discovered the audio version when I was about twelve and listened to it probably a dozen times before I was fourteen.
Larklight by Phillip Reeve
This series doesn't have tons in common with Narnia -except the whole quintessential English thing and kids going off on adventures- but I think readers will still like it. Plus it has space ships. Like, ships with masts and sails and riggings in space. Think Treasure Planet in Victorian England. So maybe some parallels with the Dawn Treader after all...
Goblin Secrets by William Alexander
This is another great fantasy to introduce kids to the genre and to good stories in general. It has goblins and sentient rivers and magic in the form of acting, along with child-size bites of love, loss, and the powerful bonds of family.
If you like the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer...
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathon Stroud
This possess the same kind of snark in the narration, an equally rich and incredibly developed magical parallel to the real world, and a too-smart-for-his-own-good child anti-hero who must invariably rely on his own captive for assistance and winds up butting heads with a stubborn and strong-willed young woman from an underground organization.
Okay, I didn't actually realize how many similarities it had until I wrote that paragraph. Weird.
(They're totally different though, I promise.)
Simon Bloom, Gravity Keeper by Michael Reisman
Science. Is. MAGIC.
Last, but certainly not least,
The Crystal Bridge by Charlie Pulsipher
Much like Colfer does, Pulsipher has a fantastic and fascinating way of interweaving magic and science. It's hard to pinpoint this as either a fantasy or a sci-fi, because it is literally both. It has dragons and an AI, elves and wormholes.
Thanks for stopping by this week! Do you have any suggestions to add?
