Children's fantasy classics - Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, Robert Westall, Ursula le Guin, and more...

I am enjoying this thread so much! I devoured so many of these novels but there are a few here I never came across so I might hunt them down for my dd.

On a slightly different tack, dd anyone else read Duncton Wood by William Horwood? A doorstop of a book about moles, I adored it. Started reading it to DD when she was 10 but she was terrified. I might get her to give it another go.

Yes, A Face Like Glass is absolutely brilliant. I loved the inventiveness of it and the writing was excellent.

I think Frances Hardinge is as good as any of the classic fantasy writers. She has a brilliant imagination.

I can remember reading the belgariad at summer camp when I was a teenager and loving it. I think I still have my original books and will have to dig them out.

More often than not a book I reread as an adult can be less than what it is in my head but Grinny is still a fabulously creepy read.

Some of Ruth Park's 'adult' novels have lots of magical realism - The Witches Thorn and Dear Hearts and Gentle People particularly. They might appeal to teenage girls.

One of Paul Gallico's short novels, 'The Love of Seven Dolls' is a proper fairy tale. He was an amazing writer.

@AmadeustheAlpaca Yes, The Black Cauldron was an absolute travesty (Wasn't a fan of Howl's Moving Castle either tbh - another adaptation which takes the characters and basic premise then does something else, but obviously in a much more acomplished way than BC).

I remember Grinny! 😁Nicholas Fisk! I was always more about the Fantasy than Sci Fi though.

Anyone remember Grinny? God, that scared me so much!

@ditalini I read two of the other novels in the Prydain series, didn’t enjoy them as much as The Book of Three but still liked them. Disappointed that the Disney version of it The Black Cauldron did it no justice as the basic plot is so good. I tried to get the children into the Prydain books but only one of them likes reading novels and she wasn’t particularly taken with it.
I also loved Joan Aitken particularly Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Nightbirds in Nantucket

Ds1 really enjoyed the Belgariad in his late tweens/early teens which made me v happy. I tried to get him interested in Anne McCaffrey's dragons of Pern books, which was my other teen obsession series, but they weren't for him.

This was my favourite

I was obsessed with the Belgariad in my teens. Persevered with the Malloreon which had a lot of good bits, and then realised that David Eddings just kept writing the same characters over and over again really. The books in the original series are definitely still a comfort read though.

I've never read any Tamora Pierce so maybe will look at rectifying that.

Beverly Nicols / The Tree that sat down,

Amazing story of witches shape changing and spitting toads

Tamora Pierce!

David Eddings’ Belgariad.

Terry Pratchett

I’ve lots of reading to do: Hexwood, Treacle Walker and a new Paul Gallico.

@AmadeustheAlpaca Grimbold’s Other World is fantastic. I think Mainly in Moonlight has stories set in the same world. If you haven’t read it (and can get a copy for a reasonable price), The Stone Cage by Nicholas Stuart Gray retells the story of Rapunzel from the point of view of the witch’s cat. The Seventh Swan is also good. There are other stories by him which I want to read but I can’t afford £350 for a copy.

Oh thanks for reminding me about The Book of Three! Yes, it took me ages to realise that Prydain was basically Wales so that was great to have that extra layer of finding out that some of the stories were based on myths or real people and places.

A friend of my mum's brought the whole set for me over from America back in the 80s - Arrgh! Hope they survived the cull so I can bring them home after Christmas! They would be a great series to read to DS2.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius I hadn't realised that either.

Same with the Chrestomanci books. Read and reread the first one as a child, till the book fell apart, but only found out recently that there are others!

I remember enjoying Grimbold’s Other World by Nicholas Stuart Gray about an orphan boy and a powerful magical cat. Can’t remember much about the plot but the title has stuck in my memory. Not sure how well it would have aged if I reread it now. Also loved The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander, one of my favourite books when I was 10, I got totally into British mythology as a result of reading this. Eilonwy (think that’s the correct spelling), one of the main characters, is an early version of Hermione. I’m pretty sure that JKR must have read this as there are some other parallels with The Book of Three and HP. Elidor was also a favourite. Reading this thread has brought back lots of happy childhood memories as I was a huge fantasy novel fan as a child.

I didn’t realise until recently that A Wrinkle in Time is the first of a five book series, @Reasonablereasonableness - I bought the set and read it, but didn’t enjoy the other books as much as the first.

Great thread! I also loved A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle). Has a really strong female protagonist.

Although it was great to see Garner on the Booker list, for me Treacle Walker doesn’t work as a novel. There are some brilliant pieces of writing in it as you’d expect, but it’s essentially a series of puzzles liberally sprinkled with references to his other books. Characterisation is missing. This I think is Garner’s great weakness: he’s not that interested in people. In Weirdstone, for example, the use of landscape and myth is outstanding, but Colin and Susan are sadly one dimensional.

So glad to be here! I just joined the alan garner Facebook page, it’s great ! I read his biography-ish book recently - it was fabulous !!!!

I didn't warm that much to it when I read it originally in the early 90s, but that was when I had discovered that lo! I had grown older but DWJ hadn't stopped writing (joy!) and I had catching up to do. I think because I was in my early 20s I was outside the age for just devouring it, but not old enough to feel the nostalgia I did for her earlier work.

I read it again last year and really liked it. Yes, it's very complex and some bits don't quite come off (cf Homeward Bounders for me - love it, but there are loose ends and fudges. DWJ does sometimes do a bit of elegant handwaving over explaining things towards the end of books), but it's another brilliant story.

This was very much my genre as a child - The Snow Spider Trilogy was one of my absolute favourites. I enjoyed anything with myth, magic and spookiness.

I still do as an adult although there isn’t that much in the Adult fantasy genre which I’ve loved in the same way.

I am fond of Hexwood because it has some great bits in it though the plot is possibly a bit over complicated. I like the whole magic wood thing.