Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Children's books

Join in for children's book recommendations.

Original poster

Fantasy book recommendations

42 replies

Hiddeninplainsight · 20/02/2017 22:33

My DD is a big fantasy book fan, and a prolific reader. She has read a lot, and we are looking for ideas about what next! Her favourite is probably all things Rick Riordan, but she has also really enjoyed:

The Hobbit
Harry Potter
Northern lights
Oska Pollock
Diana Wynne Jones (she loved them when she read them but seems to be less interested)
Narnia (she didn't love but she enjoyed them all)
Lloyd Alexander Prydain books
Norse and Greek Myths
Artemis Fowl (liked first three but then got bored)
Who let the gods out

She didn't get into:
Garth Nix
Susan Cooper

She is a good reader, has a very good vocabulary, and is very happy to read complex language/plot. Anyone got any recommendations (nothing YA theme wise)? Is the Earthsea Trilogy suitable? She has looked at the Inkheart books but hasn't been taken by them (not sure why not). Sometimes if I start reading the book to her I can get her hooked (but not with Susan Cooper), so if the Inkheart books are something she might enjoy let me know. Thanks

OP posts:
BlueChampagne · 21/02/2017 14:54

Could also try:

Jules Verne
Prisoner of Zenda
The Scarlet Pimpernel

BlueChampagne · 21/02/2017 14:24

The Edge Chronicles
Witchworld and Witchmyth (Emma Fischel)
Skulduggery Pleasant
How to Train your Dragon
Lemony Snicket?
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
The Children of Green Knowe

mrsmortis · 21/02/2017 13:49

Tamora Peirce is good but I'd stick to the Circle of Magic for now. The others may be too YA and cover aspects of puberty and growing up you might not be happy with (esp. the Lioness books,).

Which Garth Nix did she try? The Mister Monday or the Seventh Tower books are a lot less dense than Sabriel and the other Old Kingdom books. I align them with Rosemary Sutcliffe in my head when it comes to complexity.

Cornelia Funke is good. Try starting with Inkheart.

Anne McCaffery - stick to the Harpers hall books (start with Dragonsinger). The rest of the Pern books have sex, some of it non consensual in places.

Pratchett - Start with Wee Free Men.

How about classics like Five Children and it, the princess and the goblin, etc.?

I started reading LotR at 9 and like your daughter I got swamped down in book two. The other things that I was reading at that age were things like The Little House books, classic Sci Fi such as Islands in the Sky (Authur C Clarke) or I, Robot (Issac Asimov). I also read Dune (Frank Herbert) for for the first time in year 5, though you might want to check that first. I also loved the Belgariad book (David Eddings).

imthelastsplash · 21/02/2017 13:30

Oldies but Alan garner - elidor, the owl service etc

Pinkx3 · 21/02/2017 13:29

Lari Don's Fabled Beast Chronicles are very good. I have read them to/with my DDs and we all enjoyed them. There are 5 books in the series 'First Aid for Faeries' is the first in the series

imnotalpharius · 21/02/2017 13:25

The little white horse, it's a lovely low fantasy story.

Chiliprepper · 21/02/2017 13:23

Have you tried the Tamora Pierce books? There are several different series

Somerville · 21/02/2017 13:22

That's brilliant. Smile

I agree it's tricky with 8 year old's who love complexity. Surronding her with books, as you're doing, and looking up anything you're unsure about is definitely the right strategy. There's nothing unsuitable about LotR, they're just so long and complex - I think it's brilliant that she's tackling it at all.

I think the natural progression from fantasy for kids is historical fiction. Same kind of level of detail and sense of discovering a totally different world. So those might be what to have lying around for when she's next gobbled up all the fantasy on the shelf. A time slip historical might be fun, as it has that bit of fantasy too. One I DD1 enjoyed was Beswitched by Kate Saunders (actually all her books are brilliant) which is basically modern girl goes back in time to 'Malory Towers'!

VeryPunny · 21/02/2017 13:18

David Edding's triologies are good - The Belgariad, Mallorian, and Elenium/Tamuli series.

Original poster
Hiddeninplainsight · 21/02/2017 13:14

Just looked at the Kate O'Hearn books - the Valkyrie ones feature a Freya (DD's name), and I saw the age range 6-11 and thought great, and then saw that they are in the Amazon YA book lists, including the love and romance one!! How confusing is that Confused! I will do more research into all the recommendations Smile. Please keep them coming people.

OP posts:
SorrelForbes · 21/02/2017 13:07

If you can find a copy, Rebecca's World by Terry Nation is a wonderful read.

Original poster
Hiddeninplainsight · 21/02/2017 13:05

Thanks Somerville. It is exactly the avoiding of teen material that is tricky (but important!). She doesn't need to be reading that now. At the same time, she does like complexity. She has been trying to read Lord of the Rings (she started it because, not being into that sort of thing, I didn't realise that it wasn't roughly the same as the Hobbit, which she really loved, and she was asking to read LoRs), she read book 1, but has not found it so easy to engage with book 2 (although she hasn't been put off totally, she is just reading other stuff too). She has read other stuff too, she liked Anne of Green Gables and has read some Noel Streatfield, and she reads Diary of a Wimpy kid when she wants something light, and will still read a Horrid Henry over breakfast, but her passion is fantasy, and I must admit, I do love the way she will get totally lost in the books she adores.

OP posts:
Somerville · 21/02/2017 12:49

Rosemary Sutcliffe is pretty dense for an 8YO. I'd recommend those for a child who likes Susan Cooper and the like but it doesn't sound like she does yet.
Thinking along the Percy Jackson lines, since that's her favourite, other mythological fantasy series are the Blackwell Pages series by K Armstrong and Kate O'hearn's Pegasus series (also her Valkyrie series but that might be edging towards teen a bit more... not sure)

Somerville · 21/02/2017 12:42

I can see why she went off the later Artemis Fowl's - they definitely get more teen as the series progresses.

There is a lot that is new out. Things my 10 YO fantasy lover has read recently includes The Apprentice Witch, Beetleboy, Scarlet and Ivy series and the School of Good and Evil series. Keep talking to librarians, book sellers or looking on goodreads because so much great 8-12 fantasy is published each year that it's a shame to need to resort to buying teen/adult fiction for her.
Also, with such an amazing reader I'd be subtly trying to encourage her widening her horizons beyond fantasy a little. (Not that there's anything wrong with reading fantasy, just variety is good too.)

Original poster
Hiddeninplainsight · 21/02/2017 12:32

Just to add there are loads of good suggestions there. I will try Rosemary Suttcliffe too (I'm working my way through the list to find out what they all are Smile ).

OP posts:
Original poster
Hiddeninplainsight · 21/02/2017 12:29

Thanks so much for those recommendations, User. She is nearly 8, which is largely what makes it tricky finding good stuff because clearly there is some stuff which isn't suitable. She was desperate to read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar children but I am not letting her. I did hesitate, but I just think it is probably too YA. I was never into Fantasy, and so it is hard for me to know what treads that fine line between complexity but appropriateness! I think that Terry Pratchett might be a good author for her to try. If you have any suggestions for things that aren't suitable, that would be good. Is Good Omens going to be too old? She does actually like things a bit dark, and she likes dry humour, and although she reads well beyond her age (in interest, ability and comprehension), she is still young.

OP posts:
user1471449040 · 20/02/2017 23:17

What age is your DD?
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Douglas Adams
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
more Neil Gaiman e.g. Caroline
Queen series by Nancy McKenzie e.g. Child Queen
Terry Pratchett
Rosemary Sutcliffe maybe?
Mary Stewart - Arthurian series
Quest For A Maid by Frances Mary Hendry.

Was Nix too adult or violent?

These may be too adult:
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Jim Butcher Codex Alera series and Cinders Spires series
Raymond Feist and Trudy Wurst together wrote 3 books
The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin
Anne McCaffery (original ones)

Also, try second hand bookshops for older series from 1970-80s (no longer available).

Google threw up loads of lists like this one: www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/02/the-30-best-fantasy-book-series-of-all-time.html?a=1

Swipe left for the next trending thread