Fantasy Favorites

 

F Ale             The Book of Three                         Alexander, Lloyd

 

Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper to a famous oracular sow, sets out on a hazardous mission to save Prydain from the forces of evil.

 

F All             City of the Beasts                        Allende, Isabel     

 

When fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold accompanies his individualistic grandmother on an expedition to find a humanoid Beast in the Amazon, he experiences ancient wonders and a supernatural world as he tries to avert disaster for the Indians.

 

F Bar             The Lost Years of Merlin                  Barron, T.A.     

 

A young boy who has no identity nor memory of his past washes ashore on the coast of Wales and finds his true name after a series of fantastic adventures.

 

F Bar             Child of the Dark Prophecy                Barron, T.A.     

 

In accordance with prophecy, Avalon's existence is threatened in the year that stars stop shining and at the time when both the dark child and Merlin's heir are to be revealed.

 

F Bar             Peter & the Starcatchers                  Barry, Dave

 

Soon after Peter, an orphan, sets sail from England on the ship Never Land, he befriends and assists Molly, a young Starcatcher, whose mission is to guard a trunk of magical stardust from a greedy pirate and the native inhabitants of a remote island.

 

F Bas             Sign of the Qin                           Bass, L.G. 

 

In long-ago China, Prince Zong, the mortal young Starlord chosen to save humankind from destruction, joins the twin outlaws, White Streak and Black Whirlwind, to fight the Lord of the Dead and his demon hordes.

 

F Bel             The Goblin Wood                           Bell, Hilari

 

A young Hedgewitch, an idealistic knight, and an army of clever goblins fight against the ruling hierarchy that is trying to rid the land of all magical creatures.

 

F Bel             Flame                                     Bell, Hilari     

 

When the rulers mistakenly believe that they can destroy the evil force approaching Farsala, Jiaan, Soraya, and Kavi must find a way on their own to stop their town from being led into the Flames of Destruction.

 

F Bra             A Great and Terrible Beauty               Bray, Libba

 

After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England after many years in India to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.


F Bro             The Scions of Shannara                   Brooks, Terry     

 

To prevent the Shadowen from destroying all life in the Four Lands, Allanon's spirit orders the scions of Shannara to perform manifestly immpossible tasks.

 

F Car             Dragon's Keep                             Carey, Janet Lee

 

In 1145 A.D., as foretold by Merlin, fourteen-year-old Rosalind, who will be the twenty-first Pendragon Queen of Wilde Island, has much to accomplish to fulfill her destiny, while hiding from her people the dragon's claw she was born with that reflects only one of her mother's dark secrets.

 

F Car             Atherton: The House of Power              Carman, Patrick

 

Edgar, an eleven-year-old orphan, finds a book that reveals significant secrets about Atherton, the strictly divided world on which he lives, even as geological changes threaten to shift the power structure that allows an elite few to live off the labor of others.

 

F Car             The Dark Hills Divide                     Carman, Patrick    

 

When she finds the key to a secret passageway leading out of the walled city of Bridewell, twelve-year-old Alexa realizes her lifelong wish to explore the mysterious forests and mountains that lie beyond the wall.

 

F Cle             Fire Bringer                              Clement-Davies, D.

 

In ancient Scotland, a tyrannical new lord of the herd plans complete dominion over the animal world, but deer lore promises a hero, who has a unique bond with all creatures, including man, and who will ignite an epic battle and free the herd forever.

 

F Con             The Singer of All Songs                   Constable, Kate 

 

Calwyn, a young priestess of ice magic, or "chantment," joins with other chanters who have different magical skills to fight a sorcerer who wants to claim all powers for his own.

 

F Cur             The Named                                 Curley, Marianne

 

The first in a fantasy trilogy about Ethan, a boy whose lives as a regular student struggling with homework, and a Guardian of Time charged with fighting the forces of evil, begin to blur after his classmate Isabel is assigned as his apprentice.

 

F De M            The Last Dragon                           De Mari, Silvana

 

"After his village is ruined by a flood, Yorsh, the world's last elf, reads writing on ancient ruins and realizes that in order to stop the torrential rains, he must find the only remaining dragon."

 

F DiT             The Field Guide                           DiTerlizzi, Tony 

 

When the Grace children go to stay at their Great Aunt Lucinda's worn Victorian house, they discover a field guide to fairies and other creatures and begin to have some unusual experiences.

 

F Dua             So You Want to Be a Wizard                Duane, Diane

 

Thirteen-year-old Nita, tormented by a gang of bullies because she won't fight back, finds the help she needs in a library book on wizardry which guides her into another dimension.

 

F Dun             The Hollow Kingdom                        Dunkle, Clare B.   

 

In nineteenth-century England, a powerful sorcerer and King of the Goblins chooses Kate, the elder of two orphan girls recently arrived at their ancestral home, Hallow Hill, to become his bride and queen.

 

F Far             The Sea of Trolls                         Farmer, Nancy     

 

After Jack becomes apprenticed to a Druid bard, he and his little sister Lucy are captured by Viking Berserkers and taken to the home of King Ivar the Boneless and his half-troll queen, leading Jack to undertake a vital quest to Jotunheim, home of the trolls.

 

F Fle             Flight of the Dragon Kyn                  Fletcher, Susan

 

Fifteen-year-old Kara is summoned by King Orrik, who believes she has the power to call down the dragons that have been plundering his realm, and she is caught up in the fierce rivalry between Orrik and his jealous brother Rog.

 

F Fle             Dragon's Milk                             Fletcher, Susan

 

Kaeldra, an outsider adopted by an Elythian family as a baby, possesses the power to understand dragons and uses this power to try to save her younger sister, who needs dragon's milk to recover from an illness.

 

F Fun             Inkheart                                  Funke, Cornelia   

 

Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.

 

F Fun             Dragon Rider                              Funke, Cornelia   

 

After learning that humans are headed toward his hidden home, Firedrake, a silver dragon, is joined by a brownie and an orphan boy in a quest to find the legendary valley known as the Rim of Heaven, encountering friendly and unfriendly creatures along the way, and struggling to evade the relentless pursuit of an old enemy.

 

F Fun             The Thief Lord                            Funke, Cornelia

     

Two brothers, having run away from the aunt who plans to adopt the younger one, are sought by a detective hired by their aunt, but they have found shelter with--and protection from--Venice's "Thief Lord."

 

F Le G            Gifts                                     Le Guin, Ursula K.  

When a young man in the Uplands blinds himself rather than use his gift of "unmaking"--a violent talent shared by members of his family -- he upsets the precarious balance of power among rival, feuding families, each of which has a strange and deadly talent of its own.

 

F Hal             The Goose Girl                            Hale, Shannon     

 

Princess Anidori, on her way to marry a prince she has never met, is betrayed by her guards and her lady-in-waiting and must become a goose girl to survive until she can reveal her true identity and reclaim the crown that is rightfully hers.

 

F Han             The Healer's Keep                         Hanley, Victoria   

 

When the Healer's Keep is attacked by dark forces, Princess Sara and the foreigner Dorjan join forces with the slave girl Maeve and freeman Jasper to defend it.

 

F Hil             The Cry of the Icemark                    Hill, Stuart     

 

Princess Thirrin, a teenager, becomes the queen of Icemark after her father is killed and must take over the country's defense against the Polypontian Empire, relying on help from Oskan, a witch's son, in order to save her people.

 

F Hof             Stravaganza: City of Masks                Hoffman, Mary

 

While sick in bed with cancer, Lucien begins making journeys to a place in a parallel world that resembles Venice, Italy, and he becomes caught up in the political intrigues surrounding the Duchessa who rules the city.

 

F Jac             Redwall                                   Jacques, Brian     

 

When the peaceful life of ancient Redwall Abbey is shattered by the arrival of the evil rat Cluny and his villainous hordes, Matthias, a young mouse, determines to find the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior which, he is convinced, will help Redwall's inhabitants destroy the enemy.

 

F Jor             From the Two Rivers: Part One of the Eye of the World

                                                            Jordan, Robert                 

Rand encounters the Dark One, the most powerful source of evil in the universe.

 

F Kay             The Divide                                Kay, Elizabeth     

 

While hiking on the Continental Divide of Costa Rica, a young boy with a heart condition falls into a magical otherworld full of fantastical creatures.

 

F Ker             The Akhenaten Adventure                   Kerr, Philip     

 

When twelve-year-old twins Philippa and John discover that they are descended from a long line of djinn, their mother sends them away to their Uncle Nimrod, who takes them to Cairo where he starts to teach them about their extraordinary powers.

 

F D'La            The Fire Within                           D'Lacey, Chris     

 

When college student David Rain rents a room in an unusual boardinghouse full of clay dragons, he has no idea that they, along with some lively squirrels, will help jumpstart his writing career.


F Lan             Troll Fell                                Langrish, Katherine

 

Forced to live with his evil identical-twin uncles after his father's death, twelve-year-old Peer tries to find a way to stop their plan to sell the neighbor's children to the trolls.

 

F Lar             Magic or Madness                          Larbalestier, J.   

 

From the Sydney, Australia, home of a grandmother she believes is a witch, fifteen-year-old Reason Cansino is magically transported to New York City, where she discovers that friends and foes can be hard to distinguish.

 

F Lee             Wolf Tower                                Lee, Tanith

 

When a stranger is captured by the Guards of the House and Garden where she has worked all her life as a slave and maid, sixteen-year-old Claidi helps him escape and sets out with him to journey to his home city through the dangerous Waste.

 

F Lev             Ella Enchanted                            Levine, Gail Carson     

In this novel based on the story of Cinderella, Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces her to obey any order given to her.

 

F Lew             The Magician's Nephew                     Lewis, C.S.

 

When Digory and Polly try to return the wicked witch Jadis to her own world, the magic gets mixed up and they all land in Narnia where they witness Aslan blessing the animals with human speech.

 

F Mac             The Merchant of Death                     MacHale, D.J.     

 

Fourteen-year-old Bobby Pendragon, having learned he is a Traveler--someone who can ride "flumes" through time and space, is soon off to the alternative dimension of Denduron where he teams up with Loor, a girl his age from the warrior-territory of Zadaa, in an attempt to save the gentle Milago people from slavery.

 

F Mly             Bras & Broomsticks                        Mlynowski, Sarah

 

Living in New York City with her mother and her younger sister, Miri, fourteen-year-old Rachel tries to persuade Miri, who has recently become a witch, to help her become popular at school and to try to stop their divorced father's wedding.

 

F Nim             Midnight for Charlie Bone                 Nimmo, Jenny     

 

Charlie Bone's life with his widowed mother and two grandmothers undergoes a dramatic change when he discovers that he can hear people in photographs talking.

 

F Nix             Sabriel                                   Nix, Garth

 

Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead.


F Nix             Mister Monday                             Nix, Garth 

 

Arthur's life is saved by a key shaped like the minute hand of a clock, but bizarre creatures from another realm are determined to take the key even if it means killing him.

 

F Nix             The Fall                                  Nix, Garth

 

Although Tal has never left his mysterious castle home, when danger strikes, he climbs the Red Tower and falls to enter a strange, unknown world.

 

F Opp             Airborn                                   Oppel, Kenneth

 

Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface.

 

F Pao             Eragon                                    Paolini, Christopher

In Alagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and monsters.

 

F Pie             Sandry's Book                             Pierce, Tamora     

 

Four young misfits find themselves living in a strictly disciplined temple community where they become friends while also learning to do crafts and to use their powers, especially magic.

 

F Pie             Trickster's Choice                        Pierce, Tamora     

 

Alianne must call forth her mother's courage and her father's wit in order to survive on the Copper Isles in a royal court rife with political intrigue and murderous conspiracy.

 

F Pie             Alanna: The First Adventure               Pierce, Tamora     

 

Eleven-year-old Alanna, who aspires to be a knight even though she is a girl, disguises herself as a boy to become a royal page, learning many hard lessons along her path to high adventure.

 

F Pie             Magic Steps                               Pierce, Tamora     

 

When drawn into the investigation of murders perpetrated on a powerful family in Summersea, Sandy and her student Pasco undertake the dangerous mission of entrapping the invisible killers.

 

F Pul             The Golden Compass                        Pullman, Philip     

 

Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.


F Ree             Mortal Engines: A Novel                   Reeve, Philip     

 

In the distant future, when cities move about and consume smaller towns, a fifteen-year-old apprentice is pushed out of London by the man he most admires and must seek answers in the perilous Out-Country, aided by one girl and the memory of another.

 

F Row             Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone     Rowling, J.K.     

 

Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches.

 

F Rus             Undine                                    Russon, Penni     

 

Sixteen-year-old Undine, hearing her presumably deceased father calling to her and feeling a strange force growing inside her, travels to the sea to discover the depths of her magical powers.

 

F Sag             Magyk                                     Sage, Angie

 

Jenna learns that she is a princess found as a baby by the man she believed was her father and now she and Septimus, who was taken at birth by the midwife, are being threatened by the evil wizard, DomDaniel who intends to finish off the entire royal line.

 

F Sco             The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel                                                                  Scott, Michael Dylan         

Fifteen-year-old twins, Sophie and Josh, find themselves caught up in the deadly struggle between rival alchemists, Nicholas Flamel and John Dee, over the possession of an ancient book that holds the secret formulas for alchemy and everlasting life.

 

F Shu             Everlost                                  Shusterman, Neal

 

When Nick and Allie are killed in a car crash, they end up in Everlost, or limbo for lost souls, where, although Nick is satisfied, Allie will stop at nothing -- even skinjacking -- to break free.

 

F Ske             Endymion Spring                           Skelton, Matthew    

 

Having reluctantly accompanied his academic mother and pesky younger sister to Oxford, twelve-year-old Blake Winters is at loose ends until he stumbles across an ancient and magical book, secretly brought to England in 1453 by Gutenberg's mute apprentice to save it from evil forces, and which now draws Blake into a dangerous and life-threatening quest.

 

F Sni             The Fallen: Book One                      Sniegoski, Tom     

 

Aaron, an eighteen-year-old orphan, discovers that he has supernatural powers and that he is to be a liaison between the good and evil powers.


F Ste             Beyond the Deepwoods                      Stewart, Paul     

 

Thirteen-year-old Twig, having always looked and felt different from his woodtroll family, learns that he is adopted and travels out of his Deepwoods home to find the place where he belongs.

 

F Str             The Amulet of Samarkand                   Stroud, Jonathan   

 

Nathaniel, a young magician's apprentice, becomes caught in a web of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion, after he summons the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Loveland.

 

F Tay             Shadowmancer                              Taylor, G.P.     

 

When Obadiah Demurral, the power-hungry Vicar of Thorpe, attempts to become a god by dabbling in magic, Raphah (who has come from Africa to get back the artifact stolen from his Temple and sold to Demurral) joins forces with Kate and Thomas to stop him.

 

F Tho             The New Policeman                         Thompson, Kate     

 

Irish teenager JJ Liddy discovers that time is leaking from his world into Tir na nOg, the land of the fairies, and when he attempts to stop the leak he finds out a lot about his family history, the music that he loves, and a crime his great-grandfather may or may not have committed.

 

F Tol             The Lord of the Rings                     Tolkien, J.R.R.

     

Contains the fiftieth anniversary edition of all three volumes of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic "Lord of the Rings," and includes textual notes, reference materials, and index.

 

F Wes             The Secret Hour                           Westerfeld, Scott

 

Upon moving to Bixby, Oklahoma, fifteen-year-old Jessica Day learns that she is one of a group of people who have special abilities that help them fight ancient creatures living in an hour hidden at midnight; creatures that seem determined to destroy Jess.

 

F Wre             Dealing with Dragons                      Wrede, Patricia C.

 

Bored with traditional palace life, a princess goes off to live with a group of dragons and soon becomes involved with fighting against some disreputable wizards who want to steal away the dragons' kingdom.