Book Talk: Elementary Fiction--Fantasy and Fairy Tales

Elementary fiction is a rather ridiculously large category. As we discussed last week, "elementary" spans a big range of ages and reading levels. And "fiction" has so many sub-categories, you could drive yourself crazy trying to classify everything.

So I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'm going to highlight a few more-specific categories of fiction first, and then have a more general list later.

I'm starting with fantasy because that is a HUGE segment of fiction now. I noticed this when I was looking at books for our elementary library. I was never a fan of the fantasy genre, but I really didn't remember them being such a big part of fiction for kids. A. does like fantasy, so I asked him about it, and he said he had noticed something similar. 

My theory is that fantasy is a "safe" genre for children's adventure stories now. The authors can send their characters on these highly entertaining adventures that are entertaining precisely because they are dangerous. But the danger is okay, because it's not real. It's not so upsetting if it's, say, a dragon getting killed rather than a beloved dog, because no kid has ever had a dragon.

I have one kid who is Very Into fantasy, so we tried a lot of books in this category. These are the ones that the other kid who is not so into fantasy read, too, which I take as an endorsement. Almost all of these are series, which is great if you have a voracious reader. 

Most of these are meant for the older end of the "elementary" spectrum. I would say mostly grades 3-6.

Full disclosure: I haven't personally read most of these, because, as I mentioned above, fantasy is not my favorite.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling--People have many, many opinions about Harry Potter. Criticisms may be valid, but so is the praise. It's just an incredibly imagined, carefully plotted series of books, with the whole arc of an epic adventure that makes for a satisfying story. It is also very satisfying for kids to read these giant books--and so many of them! Especially for what are generally termed "reluctant readers," finishing something like this series leads to a great feeling of pride, and might very well overcome that self-identification some kids have of being "not readers." 

Our set was given to me by my mother when the whole series was first released all together in hardcover. I think I was in college. They now live on top of the bookcases on my son's desk, very appropriately topped by these gargoyle bookends he received for Christmas.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins--By the same author as The Hunger Games series, but this series is geared toward a slightly younger audience. I have read these, and I thought they were fantastic books for kids. Very well-written and entertaining on the surface, but with some impressively sophisticated themes under that entertaining surface. I don't necessarily agree with all of the author's ideas, but within reason, I think it's healthy to sometimes read things that don't reinforce my own views. If you're into reading the same books as your kids and having discussions about those books, this would be a good series for that.

Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland--This is one of those never-ending series of what I suspect is kind of boilerplate characters and plots. They're pushed hard by Scholastic, which always makes me wary, but my older boys love them. I haven't read them, but have glanced through them and I would say the writing isn't great, but the story seems to be captivating. Despite the simplistic writing that seems more appropriate for younger readers, there is quite a lot of dragon violence in them. This doesn't bother my boys at all, but is something to keep in mind if you have sensitive readers. 

City of Orphans Trilogy by Catherine Jinks--I'm not sure how we ended up with this series, though I don't think I would have bought it myself if I had looked into it very closely. The story sounds frankly creepy. It's about children who work as Boglers in Victorian London. Boglers catch Bogles, which are monsters that, um, eat children. Yeah. However! The writing seems pretty good (again, haven't read them myself), and it's an original setting and period for a modern children's series. My older boys loved them and still re-read them, but be aware that the premise might be too much for some kids.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis--I had one child who LOVED these books, and one who didn't so much. They can be found in almost every library system--or even school library--so it's worth letting your kids read it and see what they think.

And in the fairy tale category . . .

The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech--My boys have re-read this book many times. They haven't much liked the other books by this author, but there's something about this one that they really loved. It's a fairy tale, but not so much in the vein of, say, Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella. There are multiple characters' viewpoints represented, and the story is not driven by romance, which pleases my romance-averse boys. 

Beauty by Robin McKinley--My older sister is a huge Robin McKinley fan, and although I was introduced to many authors by my sister whom I still read, I have never cared for Robin McKinley. Except for this book. It's a re-telling of Beauty and the Beast, and I just love it. It's very well-written. The characterization and relationships between characters are great. If you have elementary kids at a higher reading level who want to read more complicated books, but still need content that isn't inappropriate for them, this would be a good candidate. (I will be unforgivably old-fashioned here and say that those kids will probably be girls. Not that boys won't read it, but more girls will probably love it. Because of that romance thing again. As a general rule, stories featuring romance are not so appealing to young boys.)

What would you add to this list of elementary fantasy and fairy tales?