Tag: fantasy

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

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By L. Frank Baum

Everyone knows about Wicked. Literally everyone. (Except me!!! I haven’t seen the movie.) But does everyone know about The Wizard of Oz? I hope so. If not, this is your wake-up call to read it.

You probably know the general plot already. Dorothy gets caught in a tornado in Kansas with her little dog Toto and gets transported to the magical land of Oz. She meets up with the Scarecrow, the Tin-Man, and the Cowardly Lion to find the Wizard and go home. It’s a wonderful story.

But did you know that the Wizard of Oz is the start of a 15 book series? Did you know that you can keep reading, and keep reading, and keep reading? Did you know that a lot of the sequels are way better than the first original book?

Well now you do. You’re welcome. So if you’re looking for some books to finish off your summer break with, check out the Wizard of Oz series. You might be pleasantly surprised.

General Stats:

  • Genre: Fantasy
  • Book 1 of 15
  • Age: 5th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★☆☆

East

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By Edith Pattou

As fairy tale retellings go, this is a good one. East is a more modern version of the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Other traditional versions are called Eros and Psyche and Beauty and the Beast.

The general synopsis of the fairy tale is that a white bear comes to a poor man’s house and offers him riches in exchange for his youngest daughter. The daughter agrees to the trade, and she is carried off into the mountains where she has to live with the bear for a year. If you don’t know the story, I won’t spoil it here, but not everything goes according to plan.

This is probably the best retelling I’ve read of this fairy tale, which is one of my favorite ever. Others include Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer and Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George. This one may not be the most faithful to the tale, per se, but it has the best plot overall.

My main problem with this book that knocked it down from five stars to four stars was the family. As it usually is with these stories, the family is horrible. You’re supposed to hate them. But usually, they go away within the first thirty pages. This family came back. Especially when the main character, Rose, was just getting into something good, then we would go back to the family’s POV. Which I hated.

My only content warning here is that the romance is more upped in this fairy tale than in others. It’s clean, but there is romance. Which is why I’m saying that this book is more geared towards older middle school and early high school (that’s when I read it).

General Stats:

  • Genre: Fantasy (fairytale)
  • Book 1 of 2
  • Age: 8th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★☆

Dragon Slippers

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By Jessica Day George

I loved Tuesdays at the Castle when I was a little kid. So of course I read almost everything else by Jessica Day George. This series was probably top three by her (even though I’ve only read three lol). I would say it reads similarly to the Castle Glower series, but for a quite older audience. (Yes, my sister read this series in 3rd grade. I was a bit shocked. No, you should not do that.)

Dragon Slippers follows Creel, who, instead of staying away from dragons as one ought to, is sent to the dragon by her family so that she can be saved by a heroic knight. Instead, Creel decides to save herself and set off to the capital city to seek her fortune as a seamstress. But in the process of saving herself, Creel also ends up with a pair of shoes.

As Creel continues on her journey, she soon learns that her shoes aren’t as simple as she thinks they are. The might actually be very special. But she has more important things to focus on, things like dealing with her slightly evil boss and figuring out why Prince Luka keeps showing up around her.

I really liked this book not only because it’s fantasy and has dragons and a strong main character, but also because there’s so much that deals with Creel’s sewing. That was really cool and honestly made me wish that I could make dresses like she could. The plot was interesting and the stakes were high.

It’s also a trilogy! The first and third books are probably the best, but don’t read the third book until you’re a bit older. Please just trust me on that. I was a bit scandalized in eighth grade 😬

Here’s my one content warning. In the first book in the series, and even in the second book, the romance is mild. But in the third book, all the characters are adults, so the romance has progressed quite a lot beyond what shows up in the first book. I would not have anyone read the third book until they’re probably 13-14 because the end is a bit….let’s just say there’s a lot implied.

General Stats:

  • Genre: Fantasy
  • Book 1 of 3
  • Age: 7th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★☆

Over Sea, Under Stone

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By Susan Cooper

Do you like Arthurian fiction?

The answer should be yes.

And if the answer is yes, then you will like this book.

Think about it this way. Imagine that you went on holiday to an old house in Cornwall. In this house, you and your siblings proceeded to find a map – an ancient map – that revealed the location of an ancient Arthurian artifact. And as you and your siblings set out to recover this artifact, you realized that you had become caught up in the fight against the Dark itself, which is as old as time itself.

Pretty epic, right?

This is one of my favorite retellings of the King Arthur legend because it creates a world I desperately wish I could inhabit. It takes place in the real world (probably 30-40 years ago) and the characters are ordinary kids. But they get to participate in the world of this legend that goes back hundreds of years. How cool is that? As someone who has always loved King Arthur legends and wants to go into the field of medieval studies, I love this book.

The best part is that this book is also a part of series, The Dark is Rising Sequence. I believe that there are five books in total and I think I have most, if not all of them. Each of the other books takes spin in a slightly different direction, and though on the surface they might not all seem connected, they definitely are.

One of my favorite parts of this book, and really in the series in general, is that the overall conflict is between Dark and light, good and evil. While there may not be a real villain, all the “bad guys” are serving the same forces of evil, and that is a literary device that I particularly love. It’s definitely a theme rooted heavily in ancient Celtic and British myths.

Overall, I wouldn’t say this book has any content to watch out for. The only thing I would note is that it can be a bit creepy at times, as some of the plot features the main characters (who are children) coming into conflict with adults who are working for the Dark.

General Stats:

  • Genre: Fantasy (Arthurian)
  • Book 1 of 5
  • Age: 5th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★☆

Mark of the Thief

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By Jennifer A Nielsen

A lot of people know Jennifer A Nielsen for her historical fiction. A lot of people know her for her fantasy. But did you know that she writes historical fantasy? 🤯 Shocking, right? Or maybe not…..

Anyway, this book is fantasy, but, it takes place in ancient Rome. So basically, it’s just twice as great!

If you have read and liked the Ascendance Series, I am almost completely positive that you will like this book, and the subsequent series. For one, the main character (Nic) does read almost identically to the main character of the Ascendance books (to the point where I would regularly have to do a double take when another character said Nic because I was thinking something else in my mind). But we love Sage here, so it’s fine. Honestly, Nic is basically Sage, but better. Sage 2.0.

If you haven’t read Ascendance, ignore all that stuff I just said, you’ll just be confused. Sorry. Here’s the basic premise.

Nic is a slave outside Rome. He works in the quarry where he spends his time digging, being sassy, arguing with the overseer, being sassy, protecting his little sister, not actually getting any work done, and being sassy. So basically, we already love him.

Then he finds a golden bulla that belonged to Caesar. Wow! If that’s not special enough, it also is filled with divine magic. Maybe now he can finally be free! But the cherry on top? Everyone wants Nic’s new magic and he gets involved in a dangerous conspiracy.

So now Nic doesn’t only have to worry about getting free, he also has to stop the conspiracy and save Rome. Oh, and let’s not forget dealing with the dangerous magic he now possesses. Sounds like a lot for one guy to handle, right? It’s a good thing that he ends up with some awesome allies.

For any Jennifer A Nielsen fan, I’m sure that you will love this book. Especially if you liked her other fantasy series. It’s funny at times, witty, and generally just keeps you invested. And the best part is that it’s a trilogy. My favorite of the series was probably the 3rd one (the end is spectacular!!!) but there are some really great moments in the 1st and 2nd as well (don’t ask me about how my parents bought me the 2nd book and then it was printed wrong so the entire best scene in the book was taken out and I had to wait like a week to read it).

Only content warning is romance, but it’s pretty mild. It’s very cute though.

General Stats:

  • Genre: Historical Fantasy
  • Book 1 of 3
  • Age: 6th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★☆

Half Upon a Time

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By James Riley

This has got to be another of my favorite books of all time, at least, it was in middle school. My parents got it for my younger brother for Christmas and I stole it as soon as possible and probably finished the series before he did. It’s one of the best fairytale mashup/retellings I’ve ever read, and this is coming from someone who read all of the Sisters Grimm books (this is ten times better I’m sorry).

Jack has spent the majority of his life training to rescue a princess. What else is a guy going to do if he lives in the world of fairytales? Unfortunately, he’s kind of a failure at that. But luckily, an opportunity drops right into his lap when a princess falls from the sky practically on top of him. At least, Jack thinks she’s a princess. What else would her Punk Princess shirt mean? (You have no idea how hard I tried to get my hands on a shirt that said that and failed 😭) So Jack decides to rescue the princess (and we all know how we wake up sleeping princesses).

As one would expect, the “princess” is none to pleased at her situation. She’s even less pleased when she realizes that the only person who can help her escape from the huntsman who is chasing her and rescue her grandmother is……..Jack! Yay!

So Jack and the princess set off on their quest, in which they meet up with countless other fairytale characters who I’m sure you will recognize. It’s ridiculously funny and you will fall in love with the characters – they’re so well written. You will find yourself wanting more, which is great because it’s a trilogy!

Twice Upon a Time and Once Upon the End (the rest of the trilogy) are both amazing books as well. The writing, the humor, and the plot are so consistently high quality, which is why James Riley is one of my favorite middle grade authors. If you decide to read the entire series (which you totally should) you will love the ending. Does anyone else love prophecies/ultimatums, even if they’re a bit cliche? Chapter 22 of Once Upon the End, anyone? IYKYK 😊

Only “content warning” is hilarious romance, but I would say that it is appropriate for everyone!

General Stats:

  • Genre: Fantasy (fairytale)
  • Book 1 of 3
  • Age: 6th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★★

The False Prince

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By Jennifer A Nielsen

You have no idea how many times I’ve read this book. Frankly, neither do I. All I know is that I read it for the first time for Battle of the Books in eight grade, and then again in ninth grade, where I finally finished the series.

This book is so good. There’s practically nothing else I can say about it. If you like sassy main characters who don’t take anything from anyone, you will like this book. If you’re a fan of books where the main characters are participating in something a bit underhand, you will like this book. If you like unreliable narrators – read this book!

Here’s the basic plot overview. Sage is a normal orphan who does normal orphan things, like stealing, getting into trouble, and escaping from people who want to catch him. One day, he gets caught (as you could probably have expected). But he doesn’t get caught by the authorities and prosecuted for his petty crimes. He is caught by a nobleman named Conner, who is looking for a boy who resembles the long-missing dead prince to play the part. Sage, along with three other boys, foots the bill. So he and the others compete for the role of the puppet prince. Sage has his doubts about the plan, both its success and its morality, but he doesn’t have another choice. Because Conner is a patriot, and will do whatever it takes to keep his country out of civil war.

Now when picking up this book, you may think to yourself that the plot line looks overdone, it looks familiar, it looks like your run-of-the-mill fantasy book about a fifteen-year-old boy in a competition, if he doesn’t win he’ll be killed, blah blah blah….

But wait. There’s so much more to this book than you realize. Yes, it can be a bit slow at the beginning, and from a distance, it may seem normal. But this book will hook you by the end. This was one of my favorite books of late middle-school and early high-school because of how good the plot twists are. And it has an unreliable narrator, which I love.

If you’ve read The Mark of the Thief by Nielsen, you’ll like this one. You may, like me, think that the main characters are the same person because they sound so similar and start calling them by the same name (but in my case I read The False Prince first).

So I encourage you to give this book a try. Pick it up, read it through (it should go fast like other Nielsen books), and I am confident that you will love it.

And if you like this book, there’s far more where it came from. This series (called Ascendance) has 5 books. The best one (in my opinion) is the third book (iykyk), but the 2th one was fun as well. I do have to say, it was originally going to a trilogy, but Nielson then wrote the 4th and 5th books several years later. To me, they feel a bit redundant and aren’t my favorite, but there are still some good parts. Read the whole series, but really read the first 3 because those are the great ones.

Almost forgot this, but the only content warning I have is that there is mild romance. It’s nothing explicit, but it is there, and it increases as the books go along, but is always very family friendly.

General Stats:

  • Genre: Fantasy
  • Book 1 of 5
  • Age: 6th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★☆

The Islands of the Blessed

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The Sea of Trolls Book 3

By Nancy Farmer

Are you ready for the culmination of this epic series? Well, you’re going to have to make it through four hundred more pages, because this book throws you right back into the adventure. You’re going to have to work for that ending.

Jack and Thorgil embark on yet another adventure when their village is threatened by a Draugr (the restless spirit of a dead creature). Searching for a solution, they travel with the Bard back up north towards St. Filian’s, hoping to prevent anyone from dying. Along they way, they encounter many of old characters and even meet some new ones. They are led on what I would describe as a mix of a wild goose chase and an epic quest until they reach their final destination – Notland, the dangerous and wild land of strange creatures that is, unfortunately, not always there.

Why should you read this book?

To finish the series, of course! Surely by now you’re quite committed to the characters and are dying to know what happens in the end. If that’s not enough to convince you, the author ups the mythology and legends that are worked in (there were some that even I didn’t recognize). The characters are, as usual, superb, and really bring the story to light with witty lines and lots of humor. Worldbuilding increases/new places are added as well as old ones are reinforced. Also, if you’ve been following Jack’s struggle between the different worldviews that he is presented with, that culminates in this book (as it should).

And finally, if, like me, you’re a die hard Thorgil fan, this book truly finishes the character arc she started all the way back in The Sea of Trolls. She’s not a sullen little girl now – she’s growing up. She’s faced struggles and trials and gotten back up on her feet every time. She has also become a much more caring, compassionate (at times), and loving character. Some might debate me on this, but read the book! I promise you will enjoy it, and if not, you can fight me with your comments.

Who should read this book?

Like I said last time, if you’ve read the other books in the series, you’re going to be fine. It’s written in the same style with the same type of content. If you haven’t read the other books – what are you doing here? Go read them!

General Stats:

  • Genre: Historical Fantasy/Mythology
  • Book 3 of 3
  • Age: 6th grade or above
  • My rating: ★★★★☆

The Land of the Silver Apples

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The Sea of Trolls Book 2

By Nancy Farmer

Did you like The Sea of Trolls? If you, then you need to read the sequel. From criminal monks to soulless elves to mushroom-addicted hogboons, this book expands the world of the first book to include so much more.

It had only been a year since Jack and Lucy returned to their village, and they are right in the middle of another problem. When Lucy disobeys the rules of a sacred ceremony, potentially bringing doom and destruction on the village, Jack sets out on another adventure, this time not just to save his sister, but to save his entire community. With the help of Pega, a “froggy” slave he has picked up along the way and a certain saucy shield maiden who turns up in the last place to be expected, Jack journeys underground to a land full of extraordinary creatures. From elves to kelpies to hogboons to yarthkins, you never know what to expect next.

Why should you read this book?

It continues the story laid out in The Sea of Trolls. There is so much more worldbuilding and so many more characters that you feel like you are seeing an entire different side of the world. Aside from new characters, old ones who played smaller roles in the first book (such as the Bard and Jack’s family) are brought more to center stage and given more dynamic roles. Jack also continues to grow as a Bard.

All of the tensions present in book one that make it such a interesting story are present here. In fact, tension between Christianity and other worldviews is heightened as a new perspective is revealed through the monastery. This book continues to make you answer hard questions.

As usual, it’s funny. The hogboons were especially amusing and made me laugh a lot.

Who should read this book?

If you read The Sea of Trolls, then I’m assuming you’re capable of reading this book and dealing with the themes. If you didn’t read The Sea of Trolls, why are you reading this? As in the previous book, there is a decent amount of violence but not in a disturbing way. Practically no romance.

Being completely honest here, I did have one problem with this book that I feel like I have to mention. Some of the characters were really obnoxious to me. I won’t say who here (*cough* Goodreads review *cough*) but there were times when I was so frustrated by characters that it detracted from my general enjoyment of the book. None of these were main characters, and most of this was very necessary to the success of the story, but it still annoyed me.

General Stats:

  • Genre: Historical Fantasy/Mythology
  • Book 2 of 3
  • Age: 6th grade and above
  • My rating: ★★★★☆

The Sea of Trolls

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By Nancy Farmer

Do you like fantasy? Do you like medieval history? Do you like England? Do you like really funny characters? Then this is the book for you!

The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer follows the young Anglo-Saxon apprentice bard Jack and his sister Lucy as they are kidnapped by Vikings and taken to Scandinavia. Soon after they arrive, Jack finds himself on a quest seeking the fabled Mimir’s Well. If he succeeds, he will earn his freedom and save his sister’s life. If he fails…well, things won’t turn out so well for everyone involved. With him, he brings the enormous captain Olaf, the voiceless skald Rune, and the surly shield maiden Thorgil. Along the way, they encounter a plethora of creatures and figures that will be familiar to avid readers of Norse mythology.

Why should you read this book?

There is a lot of character growth. Most of the main characters experience dramatic shifts in who they are from the beginning of the book to the end which is always fun to read.

The characters are witty. My favorite line in the book was “Just say no to pillaging”. You’ll find yourself laughing over plenty of funny parts.

Though this is a fun adventure story, a lot of deeper themes are explored. Notably, Jack struggles to define people as good and evil and grows to understand that people are nuanced. He also faces the tension between his own Christian beliefs, the Norse gods, and the Bard’s magic. Both of these areas of tension continues throughout the series and at times they force you, the reader, to think about and struggle with the same questions.

Who should read this book?

There’s nothing extremely objectional about it but it does deal with violence and its aftermath. There is no gore or gruesome scenes, but remember, the Vikings were a violent society who killed a lot of people, and this is a book that heavily features them and their culture. Different religions/worldviews play a large role in the story. There is no romance.

I would say that this is a 6th grade and above level book because of the role violence plays in the story. The text itself isn’t difficult, there are just some themes that are better for older readers. It’s possible that a mature 5th grader would be ok with it, as long as they were used to reading books that dealt with similar themes.

General Stats:

  • Genre: Historical Fantasy (by this I mean that while it technically takes place in 793 AD and you can recognize a lot of historical facts, magic, trolls, and Viking gods are all real).
  • It’s part of a series! There are three books total and each one is over 400 pages (but the font is large) so you’ll be busy for a while.
  • Level: 6th grade and above.
  • My rating: ★★★★☆