Fantasy Literature Recommendations
If you haven’t read my post on why my family reads fantasy literature, you can check it out here. So where do we find books that are good, true, and beautiful? I have two lists.
The first ten authors are men and women whom I trust with my children’s souls, meaning that I have interacted enough with them and their work to know that they are determined to write stories that fit my criteria. I don’t have to preview their work for my kids anymore, but I actually enjoy it enough myself that I want to read it.
Andrew Peterson
His Wingfeather Saga series starts with silly footnotes that have kids laughing as Dad reads them at the dinner table, but I know several dads (and moms and kids!) who have found themselves weeping by the end of this thrilling series centered around two brothers and a sister raised by their mother and ex-pirate grandfather in a fantastical world.
ND Wilson
I love how Wilson commits to writing fantastical adventures set in the United States. My oldest started with the 100 Cupboards series, but to his great delight, all of Wilson’s series end up being interconnected!
SD Smith
If your kids love the idea of rabbits with swords, Smith’s prolific Green Ember world may be just what they are looking for. He truly understands what appeals to kids.
Christine Cohen
Cohen is near the beginning of her writing career, with a middle grade novel with a Nordic setting, The Winter King, and a second novel set in Venice, The Sinking City, that skews more YA. Her female protagonists are strong and feminine, and she deftly explores family, love, and sacrifice in fresh and richly-imagined fantasy settings.
WR Gingell
My daughters can’t get enough of this Tasmanian indie author’s feisty heroines and hilarious sidekicks. A prolific writer, her Two Monarchies series features fairy tale reimaginings in the tradition of Howl’s Moving Castle, and each of my girls has a different favorite installment. We love her City Between series (and the related spin-off series set in the same world) featuring an orphaned teenage heroine who finds herself in the middle of murder investigations that lead her into a world populated by just about every other fantasy creature you can imagine, but with none of the raunchy content or foul language that usually taint the urban fantasy genre. Like ND Wilson, Gingell uses scary situations and thrilling battles to explore themes of courage, love, and self-sacrifice.
Beth Brower
While probably better-known in our circles for her beloved Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion series, I tell everyone that The Books of Imirillia series is that rare fantasy trilogy that features a strong feminine heroine whose strength is not in just being like the men, a devout hero whose integrity is just as important as his military prowess, a love story that doesn’t overwhelm the international intrigue, and lovely prose and world-building. Her Beast of Ten takes inspiration from Beauty and the Beast but ends up being a thoughtful exploration of the battle of light versus darkness. Anything she writes is an auto-purchase for us.
Christina Baehr
The Secrets of Ormdale series combines so many things that my family loves. Victorian setting! Dragons! Close-knit family! All the literary references! My daughter commented after inhaling the five-book series that she felt like the author loves all the same sorts of books that we do. Indeed, it turns out that, like us, her family homeschools using a literature-rich approach.
Katherin Nolte
Back to the Bright Before, her first novel, is a delightful kids' adventure, with chickens, Latin phrases, and a wonderful big sister protagonist who is determined to save her impoverished family. This is everything my middle schoolers loved!
Jonathan Rogers
As the author of the Wilderking Trilogy, a retelling of the Bibical story of King David set in Florida swamp country, Rogers has created a wonderful, boy-centric fantasy world that many of my friends with sons have deeply appreciated. But it is actually his online community, The Habit: Student Edition, where my children have sat under his teaching and mentorship and learned to develop their own literary muscles. He is the insightful and wise mentor I want teaching my children how to think about reading and writing stories.
India Johnson
She’s the youngest author on the list, still a teenager whom my teenagers met through the creative writing community hosted by Jonathan Rogers. But that only means that my kids have decades ahead of them to enjoy this American indie writer whose middle grade adventure series, Freedom through Fire, is so addicting that my girls disappear into their rooms to inhale each new book as it comes out.
My second list contains a dozen more fantasy books and series that meet my criteria. I either haven’t read all their work or don’t know enough about these authors to approve everything they’ve written sight-unseen, but I have handed the books in this list off to my kids.
For younger readers:
The Growly books by Philip and Erin Ulrich
We discovered these books when my big girls were in elementary school, and my freshman just pulled them out again to read aloud to her kindergartner sister. Both are enjoying themselves greatly! When I describe this series as sweet and wholesome, I’m not saying it’s saccharine (though my kids say it took them a couple chapters to see how a tale can be gentle and adventurous), but rather that the authors have created a world of wonder and adventure without adding in violence.
For middle grade readers:
The Train to Impossible Places by PG Bell
This adventure novel reminds us of The Phantom Tollbooth, as it’s another wonderful celebration of imagination and the written word. Quirky and fun, with a delightful heroine, this novel should be better-known!
The Dragon and the Stone by Kathryn Butler
A Narnia-inspired adventure featuring a tween heroine, talking dragons, and fun fantasy magic. This is a good one for younger readers who loved Narnia but aren’t ready to hit the really scary Lord of the Rings-type stories quite yet.
The Silver Bowl by Diane Stanley
A good, old-fashioned historical fantasy adventure, with a handsome prince, curses, and evil villains.
The Underland Chronicles series by Suzanne Collins
My kids love the family love and self-sacrifice in these Gregor the Overlander books by the Hunger Games author. (The content and writing style is more middle grade than her more famous YA dystopian novels.)
The Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan
I will straight-up admit that this series is derivative of The Lord of the Rings and Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles, but when my son was in the phase of reading over a dozen books a week, this was a welcome fantasy series for him to plough through. (He appreciated that at least in the first few installments there was no dumb kissing stuff.)
For teen readers:
The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner
To my mind, Turner is one of the best living wordsmiths writing for children and teenagers. A loveable unreliable narrator introduces us into a fantasy world where ancient gods sometimes still interact with thieves and queens, and big empires try to swallow up smaller ones. There is some language by characters whom you would expect to say damn, and the final book includes a same-sex kiss by side characters, so I always have to recommend these with a caveat. But friendship, loyalty, and courage are upheld, and the writing rightfully earned her a Newbery Honor.
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Elizabethan England meets the Welsh myth of Tam Lin, with some extremely satisfying character development for the heroine and hero. I adored this book as a teen, and my entire view of Faerie was shaped by the evil fair folk of this tale!
Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund
The Scarlet Pimpernel retold in a post-apocalyptic Pacific island setting. (And while the author’s Omega City series isn’t exactly fantasy, those books are such fun middle grade adventures for quirky kids.)
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
I love the fairy tale of the six swan brothers, and I've read a couple lovely retellings, but this one is my new favorite. While the author integrates many of the standard fairy tale tropes, from the princess resisting an arranged marriage to the magical evil stepmother, there's nothing tired or predictable here. Yes, there's a romance, but our hero is thoughtful, kind, and creative without being a pushover, and there’s no raunchy content. The real moral heart of the story is family.
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
An oldie but a goodie! You can take your "feisty" but really interchangeable Mary Sue female fantasy leads (with the requisite two hot guys who instalove her); I'll stick with Harry (a truly strong heroine) and her extraordinary companions, not to mention the rich world building, well-paced plot, and enjoyable prose. This just goes to show that you can write scintillating literature for teenagers without a hint of raunch, foul language, or gratuitous hormonal romance (though I found the ending deeply romantic in the best way). (NOTE–I feel like the rest of McKinley’s writing, both in quality and clean content, is quite hit or miss.)
Deathmark by Kate Stradling
A clean fantasy reimagining of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s The Blue Castle? It's like this author knew exactly what my teen girls and I like in a cozy read and delivered it to us. My girls love how this author retells familiar fairy tales in a new way–Maid and Minstrel retells King Thrushbeard, and Brine and Bone tackles the Little Mermaid.
(As with all book lists on this blog, I’ve provided Amazon links through my Affiliates account. Purchasing through them helps offset blog hosting fees, but feel free to purchase elsewhere, ideally from an independent bookshop!)
