Fantasy for younger readers...looking for recommendations

[temporus]

A good friend's ten year old daughter is looking to start up a middle-grade fantasy-adventure book club.  One of her requirements is that she wants THICK books.   I have to admit, I'm so far out of the loop when it comes to fantasy novels for younger audiences, I figured to open it up.  I welcome all suggestions, and will pass them on.

Frankly, I'm not sure I get the distinction of categories.  Chatper Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult.  I'm sure these marketing brackets existed when I was a kid, but I don't think I paid them terribly much attention, and other than knowing that books were marked in the library as YA on the spine, I don't think I would have understood the difference.

In any case, please do recommend away, it's all in the service of helping to encourage young readers, which is probably the noblest of all causes.  Well, there's true love, but right next to that would be a MLT when the mutton is nice and lean.  And then next to that...would be encouraging young readers.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

chapter books are the ones for real young kids--very short chapters.

Middle grade these days can be long--basically, if there's no sex, it's middle grade.

I'm not that up on middle grade any more--more YA reading--but there are tons and tons of sites online that go into these things.

[temporus.livejournal.com]

So middle-grade today, is pretty much what I would have called YA a good twenty years ago? Because I don't recall YA having much in the way of sex.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I think middle grade is more like the "juveniles" that many of us grew up on in the fifties and sixties. The Problem Novels of the seventies broke the taboo barrier, then Harry Potter broke the strict limitation of 60k words, both of which are regular features of YA now (few taboos and length). Middle grade can be long or short, but is usually pretty g, though will have swashbuckling violence. I think the Redwall series is a good example.

[temporus.livejournal.com]

I totally forgot about Redwall, which I think is a great series for any age, but certainly appropriate to meet the needs. One of these days, when I get my shelves in order, I'm going to have to see where I left off in that series, and start buying them again. I'd love to have them in the house for my sons to enjoy when they get older.

[dqg-neal.livejournal.com]

Middle Grade is what we called Juvenile Fiction. (J or JFIC depending on the library.)

Back when I was in school authors like Mercedes Lackey were in the YA section. She included topics such as child abuse and homosexuality her novels.

Although I think a lot of things that used to be in the JFIC section switched to the YA. Many libraries included anything with high school aged children in the YA section now. I think as a draw for high school readers to be shown they have their own section so they don't have to draw from the adult fiction category to get them out of the "children" section.

[temporus.livejournal.com]

I remember some books having big yellow YA stickers on them in the library. I just don't particularly remember why, or which books I read that had those labels. I read books based upon what I liked, what was recommended to me, or what my father was reading. Which meant I read a fair amount of adult books too. I'm sure I paid more attention as a kid in general, but probably not too terribly much. I liked books. All levels were fun to read, and I'd scour the library for anything that looked good, whether it was age appropriate, too young, or too old.

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

This series rocks....
http://www.airborn.ca/

The books are thick, there's real jeopardy. Sold as YA. Some romance, but no actual swiving.

Would a 10 year old enjoy it? I think so.

[temporus.livejournal.com]

Looks pretty cool. I might put that one on my own list of books to check out!

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

The website is something else as well.

[mepurfield.livejournal.com]

middle grade is not as edgy and has some innocense to the story. Meg Cabot and the likes.

Dude, what books in YA were you reading that didn't have a sex edge to it? Lord of the Flies (homo erotic), Pigman, The Outsiders, Never Promised you a Rose Garden, Go Ask Alice etc.

As far as fantasy, there is tons of stuff to wade through. I would have her start on Dahl, maybe that L'Engle chick.

This site may be able to help you http://www.teenreads.com/

[temporus.livejournal.com]

The only YA on your list that I read, was The Outsiders, and only that one because I think we read it in English class.

Mostly, I don't recall reading much that was labeled YA. Basically, other than in the library, I don't remember books having a YA on the label. I mean, it probably was there, but I wouldn't have noticed it, as I didn't much pay attention to that sort of thing.

I like L'Engle. Love Dahl, was probably one of my favorites as a kid. And Lewis, and Tolkein, and Baum.

Recommendations

[uthoroc.livejournal.com]

I've just recently reread the "The Dark is Rising" sequence by Susan Cooper - very good YA stuff despite being quite old now.

The one I've liked most in recent years is "The Bartimaeus Trilogy" by Jonathan Stroud. It's very intelligent fantasy with a hilariously quirky main character.

For excellent kids' books you can also hardly go wrong with Neil Gaiman - if "a bit scary, but in a good way" is okay for you. I haven't read "The Graveyard Book" yet, but I've listened to the audio version of "Coraline" ready by the author himself. Man, that was good. Forget the movie.

[eimarra]

Rick Riordan's series Percy Jackson and the Olympians! It deals with half-bloods (children of Olympian gods and mortals) and the Titans coming back in modern day New York. Well, and elsewhere, of course. T-Bug loved them -- they started off as bedtime reading, but he read ahead to find out what was happening. I think for the final one, he just sat down and read it the weekend he got it. More info on the author's blog: http://www.rickriordan.com/ The first book, The Lightning Thief has the protagonist accused of stealing Zeus's lightning bolt. Awesome reads.

Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books are good, too. http://www.artemisfowl.com/ http://www.eoincolfer.com/

I think the Ranger's Apprentice series (by John Flanagan) gets shelved in the children's section at Barnes & Noble, which would make it middle-grade. (Teen books are shelved outside it, generally.) However, the MC is 15 at the outset of the first book, and the Website says it's geared for 14- to 18-year-olds. http://www.rickriordan.com/

Then there's the Warriors series, about intelligent cats and magic, by Erin Hunter. http://www.warriorcats.com/warriorshell.html

Oh, and the series I keep trying to get T-Bug to check out so I don't feel conspicuous for reading them: the Alcatraz books (Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians is the first one), by Brandon Sanderson. http://www.brandonsanderson.com/book/Alcatraz/ http://www.evillibrarians.com/

Then there are the Charlie Bone books (Children of the Red King series) by Jenny Nimmo. They have a very similar premise to Harry Potter -- set in England, start when he's 11, private school. However, his entire family has magical talents, most of the kids at the school have talents that have nothing to do with magic, and they have a very different flavor to them. http://www.charlie-bone.com/about.htm http://www.jennynimmo.me.uk/

Chapter books that are fantasy include the Secret of Droon series -- which is a lot of fun. http://www.scholastic.com/droon/start.htm http://www.tonyabbottbooks.com/ But these are thin books (think Boxcar Children for length) geared toward a younger crowd.

Anyway, that's what I've got off the top of my head.