Onward with the actual post, however. I'm in the middle of trying to make a list of great middle-grade fantasy books, and find that I'm often looking at my shelf thinking, "What a great book! I'll include it on the list!" only to realize that no, I'm limiting myself to middle-grade, and that chapter book or YA fantasy just won't do. Just for the purposes of the list I'm making, mind you!
So. A little help, please? I'm looking for classics, contemporaries, obvious and not-so-obvious books. I'm only listing series by series rather than all the books, to simplify matters. So far, I've borrowed from Editorial Anonymous's list that we talked about the other day, and also from my grad school syllabi, and from my own personal bookshelves, and previous recommendation lists (which so need to be updated, hence the whole thing today!), but surely even with all of those, I'm forgetting something!
I am including crossover titles. In other words, if it's a book that has teen characters but is commonly read by middle-graders--Madeleine L'Engle comes to mind--even though it's often shelved in YA I'm including it. Or if it's a short chapter book that 7-year-olds might read, but that 9-year-olds enjoy just as much, it's probably borderline, but I'm going to include it on the list at least at first.
Also, my criteria for "great" is dual-fold (tri-fold?): either great literary, Newbery-worthy writing, or popular with kids/bestselling, or both. Or really, who needs such high expectations? Just really great books for middle-grade kids that have magic, adventure, and a story that hooks kids from the beginning. I don't want to leave out a good book simply because it's deemed non-literary or because its sales weren't high enough or something.
So, here's my list so far. Feel free to comment on anything I've missed, because I fully admit that it's highly likely I've forgotten something obvious! Also note that it's in no particular order at this point, not even alphabetical.
Series are marked with an asterisk.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
* The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, Lloyd Alexander
Charlotte's Web, E.B. White
The Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White
Stuart Little, E.B. White
Coraline, Neil Gaiman
* Redwall, Brian Jacques
The Witches, Roald Dahl
* Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling
* The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
* Over Sea, Under Stone, Susan Cooper
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo
* The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett
James & the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl (man, I loved this one in about 3rd or 4th grade)
* Whales on Stilts, M.T. Anderson
* Children of Green Knowe, L.M. Boston
Peter Pan & Wendy, J.M. Barrie
Of Mice and Magic, David Farland
*The Last Apprentice, Joseph Delaney
* Dragon's Milk, Susan Fletcher
Half Magic, Edward Eager
* Red Dragon Codex, R.D. Henham
* Protector of the Small, Tamora Pierce
The Last Dragon, Silvana de Mari
May Bird and the Ever After
The Magic Thief, Sarah Prineas
* Larklight, Philip Reeve
* The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart
* Skulduggery Pleasant, Derek Landy
My Rotten Life: Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie, David Lubar (ARC, to be published this August)
* The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan
* Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, Brandon Sanderson
* The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner (would this be YA or middle grade, really? I'm about to read it so will have a better feeling after, of course)
* The 13th Reality, James Dashner
Standard Hero Behavior, John David Anderson
* The Stink Files, Holm & Hamel
The Power of Three, Diana Wynne Jones
* The Chrestomanci Chronicles, Diana Wynne Jones
* Inkheart, Cornelia Funke
A Ring of Endless Light, Madeleine L’Engle
* A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
* The Sisters Grimm, Michael Buckley (I LOVE this series)
* The Seeing Stone, Kevin Crossley-Holland
* Pendragon, D.J. MacHale
* Warriors, Erin Hunter
* Babymouse, Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
* Dragon Keeper, Carole Wilkinson
* Hugo Pepper, Paul Stewart & Chris Riddel
* Fablehaven, Brandon Mull
* Into the Wild, Sarah Beth Durst
* Vampirates, Justin Somper
Princess Academy, Shannon Hale
Tom's Midnight Garden, Phillippa Pearce
Many Waters, Madeleine L’Engle (part of the Wrinkle in Time series, technically, but far enough forward that I kind of count it separately)
Bedknob and Broomstick, Mary Norton
Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine
Beauty, Robin McKinley
* The Princess Tales (Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep, etc.), Gail Carson Levine
* Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
* Little Sister, Kara Dalkey
The Princess Bride (kinda sorta--perhaps more YA?)
The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, Daniel Pinkwater
The Indian in the Cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks (though perhaps should be phased off any recommendation lists, due to cultural inaccuracies, but it is a title that grabs kids)
The Mouse and His Child, Russell Hoban
* The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Pope (not technically fantasy, and perhaps YA? But oh so good!)
* Mister Monday/Keys to the Kingdom, Garth Nix
The Folk Keeper, Franny Billingsley
The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Babe: The Gallant Pig, Dick King-Smith
* Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers
* The Borrowers, Mary Norton
* Five Children and It, E. Nesbit (and pretty much anything by E. Nesbit)
The Princess and the Goblin/The Princess and Curdie, George MacDonald
The Light Princess, George MacDonald
Well Wished, Franny Billingsley
* Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones (well... more YA, really, but House of Many Ways is more middle grade, so...)
* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
* The Spiderwick Chronicles, Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (that's one that's on the young end, but still enjoyed by 9-10 year olds)
* The Story of the Treasure Seekers, E. Nesbit
* The Dalemark Quintet, Diana Wynne Jones
* Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey
Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure, P.B. Kerr
Recommendations from comments
I've got some reading to do!
Stoneflight, Georgess McHargue
* The Mad Scientists' Club, Bertrand R. Brinley
* Danny Dunn books (?)
* Ranger's Apprentice
The Name of This Book Is Secret, Pseudonymous Bosch
* Hall Family Chronicles, Jane Langton
Matilda, Roald Dahl
Darkside, Tom Becker
Savvy, Ingrid Law
Eva Ibbotson's books (I've meant to read her stuff for years but haven't ever gotten around to it)
The True Meaning of Smekday, Adam Rex
The Neverending Story, Michael Ende
A Gift of Magic, Lois Duncan
* What the Witch Left, The Wednesday Witch, The Secret Tree House, Ruth Chew
* Charlie Bone
Nightmare Academy, Dean Lorey (I've got this ARC around here somewhere. This is the problem with not having my office finished--I'm not quite sure *where* it is. And not having read it yet, I'd thought it was YA, but hadn't looked at it hard yet.)
Billy Bones, Christopher Lincoln
* The 39th Clue, Rick Riordan et al.
A Wolf at the Door, Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow (also in The Dark of the Woods)
Swan Sister, Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
Dreamhunter/Dreamquake, Elizabeth Knox
The Last Unicorn
* The Gammage Cup
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Comments
by Bertrand R. Brinley
These were some of my favourites when I was a kid. I read it over and over as well as all the Oz books. Oh and all the Danny Dunn books.
Edited at 2009-01-04 04:36 am (UTC)
I also have to give a shout out to The Name of This Book Is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch, which I worked on with my boss. It is more of a mystery but crosses over into fantasy with things like the search for immortality and a homonculus in the second book.
Also, I thought I had Ranger's Apprentice, but maybe I don't, because I'm always getting it confused with another one... Yep! Got it confused with The Last Apprentice! So similar, I always get them confused.
(Edited to delete reference to non-fantasy MG books.)
Edited at 2009-01-04 04:42 am (UTC)
I've only seen the movie Matilda, and not read the book the way I devoured Dahl's Charlie and James as a kid, so I wasn't sure if the book itself would be considered fantasy. Noted!
Penderwicks is not a fantasy. It's good, but not fantasy in the slightest.
Back to series, Wee Free Men and Whales on Stilts are both series books. (Wintersmith follows WFM, and I think there is one in between, and The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen--love that title!--follows Whales.)
The Magic Thief is also the first of a series (more coming soon!) Chasing Vermeer is a series, but I don't remember it being fantasy--maybe I'm remembering wrong.
For ones to add: Savvy by Ingrid Law is great, Eva Ibbotson has some nice ones (although I prefer her historicals, strangely), and my MG sons CANNOT get enough of The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex. The Neverending Story (and others by Michael Ende), Lois Duncan's A Gift of Magic, and of course Narnia!
LOVE Perilous Gard!
I'll strike Penderwicks from the list, then--thanks for the heads-up, and on the series notes, too. Funny how such a large percentage of the list is series of at least three books.
As to series, MG readers love them. I know my boys are always wanting to know if there is more once they've finished a book. When they find a good "world," they want to crawl inside and stay there for a few years. :)
And I have to add Hilari Bell to your list, if it isn't there already. I just downed the first two books of her Shield, Sword, and Crown trilogy and it's just what I would have loved as a MG reader. (And still do.)
charlie bone series
the nightmare academy by dean lorey
billy bones by christopher lincoln
i'm a huge fan of skulldugery pleasant !
the 39th clue
but i haven't read it yet
James (Dashner)
Wolf seems to be OP as a standalone although it should still be available as a hc from B&N called THE DARK OF THE WOODS (with Swan Sister--although SS is still in print from S&S)--confusing, I know :-).
I'm on the fence about McCaffrey, myself, because I can't remember if she was published for YA or middle grade (but she *was* published for kids in this particular instance, same as Wizard of Earthsea/LeGuin, which I'd put solidly in YA. She's listed here because I don't want to exclude her from the list quite yet, but it's one I want to investigate, as it seems either a crossover or fully YA. It's been a while since I've looked at the book.
Work in progress! :)
Oh! My favorite fantasy book in sixth grade! "The Last Unicorn" by Peter Beagle! You can't beat a wizard named Schmendrick!
And reading level is kind of iffy, though of course obvious--but I was one of those advanced readers, too (I imagine most of us now involved with books professionally probably were!). I was into Shakespear in the 4th grade (at the same time that I was devouring Trixie Belden over and over).
I generally go more by story structure (if there's obvious romance as opposed to "puppy love," it's more YA), intended audience (i.e., if it's published as a teen book or says 8-12 or 10 and up on the back of the book, that kind of thing), maturity of topic, graphicness of violence, that sort of thing. So many books for older readers are written at a 4th or 5th grade level, vocabulary-wise, but that doesn't mean they're written for 4th and 5th graders, which is more what I'm looking for.
While you were reading Shakespeare and Trixie Belden, I was reading Sherlock Holmes and Alfred Hitchcock's "The Three Investigators". I've always been heavy (and painfully embarrassed of it at that age), so the overweight Jupiter Jones really appealed to me. (Oops, sorry, off-topic.)
Is "The Gammage Cup" and "The Whisper of Glocken" by Carol Kendall considered fantasy? They are abut an imaginary race of 'little people' who live in an isolated valley and are threatened by goblin-like invaders. If so, those are about the same reading level. "The Gammage Cup" is a Newbery Honor Book, as well. (I just did a google search, and a number of websites do refer to it as a children's fantasy book) It's a great read (and the first book I ever bought with my own money, I loved it so!)
Edited at 2009-01-05 06:41 am (UTC)
And why isn't Dreamhunter/Dreamquake on your list? If you haven't read those, holy cow you have to.
--Editorial Anonymous
Thanks for including my book on there (The Magic Thief) and for the Twitter add. I'm very boring on Twitter; all I talk about is food...
One can only hope the landlord is boring...
I posted a formatted version here (http://daljeanis.blogspot.com/2009/01/stacy-whitman-sorted-midgrade-fantasy.html) for your convenience.