Fantasy Books
Fantasy is a very fun genre! Fantasy incorporates books that include magic, beasts, and other elements that cannot exist in the real world. The fun part of fantasy is that things need not be explained through science or logic. Animals can talk because that's what the fantasy world calls for. The tricky part is keeping world building consistent. Below are great examples of authors who accomplished this!
Red Queen
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy Reading Level: 7th-12th grade Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Favorite Quote/Aspect: “Oppressing you, trapping you in an endless cycle of poverty and death, just because we think you are different from us? That is not right. And as any student of history can tell you, it will end poorly.” Summary: Red Queen is a science fiction/fantasy novel for young adults. This book follows one girl, Mare Barrow, as she navigates a very unique society. In the story, Mare lives in a world where people are divided by the color of their blood. In this society, people either have red blood or silver blood. Silver-blooded individuals have special powers and abilities. These “Silvers” possess superpowers ranging from fire manipulation to super-strength. Red-blooded people are just your ordinary human beings. Silvers are considered the elite of society, the royal family, the nobles. They live lives of luxury. Reds live in slums, poor cities, and are ruled by the unfair laws placed in order by the Silvers. They have to serve in the military, are subjected to rations and poor housing, and have to work unfair jobs. Mare gets an opportunity to go to the summer palace as a servant, when something strange happens. The prince is having a competition to see who will be his bride. All the Silver ladies compete in the competition, and the strongest silver will get to become the next Queen. Mare falls into the competition and discovers she has powers—an ability to control lightning. Since she is a Red-blooded girl, this should be impossible. The royal family quickly takes her away and disguises her as a long lost silver princess, betrothing her to their second son, and demanding obedience. Mare is trapped in a dangerous world where even a tiny cut could expose her and ruin everything. As Mare’s time in the summer palace progresses, a rebellion begins to form from the Reds. Everything Mare knows changes throughout the story. The truths she thought were genuine become less and less clear, and though she wants to help, she has to be very careful. The book ends with a huge cliffhanger and returns in the second novel, “Glass Sword.” Evaluation: This book was incredible. I was so fascinated by Mare Barrow and her world. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire book. Victoria Aveyard did such a fantastic job with world building and character creation. Despite having super-powers and a court-style fantasy, the book could also be classified as science fiction. The reason behind the superpowers and the differing blood is all in genetics, which is explained throughout the book. Mutations in genetics have given humans special powers, and can be explained with science. Despite having abilities and living in a completely different society, Mare is also very relatable. She’s a scared girl who is trying to understand the world around her, is naïve, and has her heart broken. One of the main themes throughout the novel is trust and truth. Mare is warned to hide her heart, to build walls up, and trust no one. She is unable to do this. Mare feels things very deeply throughout the story, and feels she can trust some of the people around her. When a huge betrayal happens, Mare is left feeling overwhelmed and very hurt. Trust and honesty are things that can be discussed in the classroom very easily. Does truth set us free? Is it better to guard our heart than risk being hurt? These are questions brought up in the story, and would lead to very interesting discussions. Beyond Mare, the other characters are very developed. The prince and his brother, the King and Queen, other nobles at court, the rebels, and even Mare’s family are all given backstories, unique personalities and motives, and are not just background pieces in Mare’s story. This is something I love about the story, as I find myself wanting to know more and more about all of the characters. My criticism of this book is that the world building could have been a bit clearer. Sometimes it was difficult to remember the rules of the society, though they were consistent. With the story being a sort of science-fiction/fantasy, it became difficult at times to decide which things were able to be explained with science, and which things were just there because the author decided to put them there. I would say this story is similar to other Dystopian novels such as The Hunger Games as it creates a plausible society, that contains scientific elements (genetic mutations in Red Queen, technology such as hovercrafts and genetic mutations such as Tracker Jackers in The Hunger Games), and encourages people to stand up for what’s right. In this story, telling the truth is dangerous. Mare discovers there are more like her, Reds with abilities they aren’t supposed to have. She herself is a threat to society. When someone in the royal family discovers the truth—he threatens to find all of the Reds, and destroy them. Mare battles with whether or not it was the right thing to tell the truth throughout the story. Overall, I love this book. It is written at a much higher reading level than The Hunger Games, as the words are more difficult, and the paragraphs more complex, but contains similar themes. I would definitely use this book in an upper-middle school or high school classroom to talk about various themes from truth and trust, to unfair power, to the courage it takes to stand up for what someone believes in. This is by far one of my favorite books I’ve read for this assignment, and definitely deserves a full five stars. |
The Search for Delicious
Author: Natalie Babbitt
Illustrator: Not listed Genre: Fantasy Reading Level: 4th-7th grade Personal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Favorite Quote/Aspect: I loved how original this story was. Even though I didn’t really enjoy the story myself, I know of many children who would love such a quirky yet interesting tale. For me, I just couldn’t get into the book—but it’s also not geared toward my age level. The uniqueness and originality was nice to see despite my overall average rating of the book. Summary: This story follows a young boy named Gaylen as he travels around the kingdom in order to take a poll and hopefully save the kingdom. The prime minister is tasked with creating a dictionary for the kingdom, and is stuck when he comes to the word “delicious.” He defines delicious as being fried fish, whereas the king insists delicious is apples, and the queen insists delicious is Christmas pudding. Everyone seems to have a different definition, and the prime minister insists delicious cannot be left out of the dictionary. To prevent a civil war, Gaylen goes to each of the towns to see what everyone thinks delicious is, and will return in four weeks to bring back his answers. Along the way he meets various characters, and finds out that there’s even more to the kingdom than simply disagreeing about what is delicious. In the end, it almost seems as if nobody has learned their lesson, as when Gaylen says he’s getting a breath of fresh air, the king agrees the air is fresh as a daisy, and the queen mutters that the air is fresh as a daffodil. Evaluation: Unfortunately, I didn’t really love this story. It was very difficult for me to get into the story, and I thought it was just kind of silly. I really wanted to enjoy the story, because I really love fantasy, but this book wasn’t for me. Despite not being for me, I do love how original the story was. I’ve never read a book about a kingdom where something as small as deciding what “delicious” means could start a war. I also did like Gaylen, as he was a clever and unique boy. I didn’t think the other characters were very well developed though, and would have liked to have seen them more developed. Something else that made this story difficult for me to get through was that there are no chapters. The story is broken into sections with a small picture starting each new section, but everything sort of flows together. The pacing was good though, as it matched the adventure and the hurry to finish the quest. I just wished things were separated a bit more. Even though I didn’t like the plot of the story, I did like the writing style. Babbitt has a great way of writing that draws readers in. She is very descriptive. I think the appropriate age level based on the vocabulary use and the writing style would be about 4th to 7th grade. For example, most of her writing is easy enough to understand while also being a bit more difficult than earlier elementary reading levels. “And when he couldn’t sleep, he got overtired and caught colds and went about snuffling, with his beard wrapped around his throat to keep it warm” (Babbitt 18). Sentences like these only contain a few words that are more difficult (snuffling, for example) but are a bit long winded and more complex. I do think this story could be used in the classroom, as it would be easy to create activities with it. One activity that could be used is to create a mini dictionary of their own. In this world, things are not defined as we define in our own dictionaries, but rather by descriptions. For instance, my definition of delicious would be “delicious is chicken strips.” Children could then compare their definitions to words, and see if anyone has the same definitions, or different ones. The story also teaches about being aware of others and respecting others, as the humans did not respect the dwarves, mermaids, and other creatures who lived in the kingdom first. Overall, I would say that while this story didn’t win me over, it is well-written and could be used very easily in the classroom. |
Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer
Author: Rick Riordan
Genre: Fantasy Reading Level: 5th-12th grade Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Favorite Quote/Aspect: Something I love about Rick Riordan is his love for mythology. I really enjoy his Percy Jackson series and his other series. The action, adventure, humor, and mythology are what makes Riordan such a fantastic children’s author. He incorporates real mythology from various cultures with realistic characters and humor. Even his chapter titles are hilarious, ranging from “Hey, I Know You’re Dead, But Call Me Maybe” to “Thou Shalt Not Poop on the Head of Art.” I also just love Magnus. He’s such a funny and wonderful guy. I have too many favorite quotes, but here’s one: “Myths are simply stories about truths we've forgotten.” Summary: This is the first book in Rick Riordan’s new series, “Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.” The story follows sixteen-year-old Magnus Chase as he celebrates his birthday and is whisked away into an unknown world. Magnus discovers that he is the son of a Norse God, and is sent to Valhalla because he died an honorable death, one filled with sacrifice and courage. When Magnus gets to Valhalla, he realizes he’s there by accident, until a prophecy comes to fruition about him. Magnus is sent on a quest with his friends to stop the Norse God Sur from wreaking havoc. Along the way he encounters many dangers, new friends (and enemies) and learns about the Sword of Summer. Like the Percy Jackson series, the story will continue in the next book with more adventures and dangers. Evaluation: I absolutely love Magnus Chase. I’ve not read a character that was so funny in quite some time. On almost every page I was laughing. The story is told from Magnus’ point of view, so the reader gets to witness a lot of his thoughts. This is fantastic, because Magnus is such an interesting character. Despite being a demigod (a son of a god), he is relatable. He’s sometimes clumsy, makes dumb choices, and complains a lot. I also loved that this book is very inclusive. One of Magnus’ friends and guardians is deaf. I’ve not read many books with deaf characters, so I was glad that Riordan included a character like this. All of the characters were well-rounded and complex, though readers knew Magnus more than anyone since the story was told from his point of view. The story is incredibly fast paced as the adventure unfolds in each chapter, and keeps readers engaged from the very start. Within the humor and silliness of the story, there are also very deep elements. One of my other favorite quotes is “Such is human memory... you forget the truth and believe what makes you feel better.” Moments like these are seen throughout the story almost as often as the humor and the puns. I really liked that because it made the story more well-rounded. One of the main themes of the story was all about destiny. Often times it feels as though our future is out of our own hands and that we have little control to change what will happen. Magnus himself struggles with this idea, as the prophecy says much about his own destiny. Magnus learns that even if destiny is something we cannot change, we can make choices and decisions, and we get to play a part in who we are and who we plan to be. Sometimes admitting the truth about ourselves can be difficult, but he learns that being honest with himself will help him to really grasp who he is as a person. No one is perfect, and I love that Riordan talked about this. This theme is great for middle schoolers and high schoolers, as that is a time period of self-discovery, and sometimes the future is very scary, especially with pressures (like teachers and parents) guiding them. While I adore this book and very much enjoyed Magnus, I wouldn’t use it in the classroom because it could be seen as controversial. Since this is a story about mythology, it may be difficult to use in the classroom, as much as I wish I could. I love that the mythology is included and real facts from Norse mythology and culture are included while also referencing pop culture (like Marvel’s Thor). I think preteens and teens may find a new interest in mythology after reading the book, and will come to learn about real history at the same time. I also think reading about inclusiveness and diversity (like Magnus’ friend who is deaf), will encourage tolerance and acceptance. Overall, I loved this book and cannot wait to get my hands on the sequel. |