I love the fantasy genre. I think I always have. I can remember being a kid, tucked away with a great book, swept into a story of knights and princesses and magic and castles. As I got older, I held on to my love of fantasy and read about elves and hobbits and wizards and dragons. I also found myself terribly in love with the legends of King Arthur.
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But I would agree that not all fantasy is created equal. As parents we want to introduce our children to good fantasy, fantasy that presents the battle of good versus evil and allows good to win, fantasy that will inspire them to good and not to evil. We also want fantasy that’s well-written and not what Charlotte Mason would consider as “twaddle.”
The book series here are some of our favorites as well as some I’ve heard recommended again and again. They are books that most middle grade readers- upper elementary and middle school- can read independently. But I also recommend them as awesome read alouds. Fantasy books make great read alouds because they give so many opportunities for discussion. (
And, yes, you should be reading aloud to your older kids!)I’ve loved the Redwall books as much as the kids have. Redwall is the name of the first book as well as the name of the series, written by Brian Jacques. He’s also authored other books of the same genre but not part of the series. Redwall features animals from Redwall Abbey as the primary characters. The “good guys” are always the cute critters like mice and bunnies, and the “bad guys” are always weasels, foxes, rats, and the like.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a series featuring a boy from the ordinary world who finds himself caught up in the world of Greek gods and goddesses. The first book of the five book series is
The Lightning Thief.
I read the entire series when my son had picked up and was reading the first book, and I loved them. Although they’re written for middle grade kids, I was caught up in the story myself. The theme of Greek gods and goddesses made the books especially good for us, as we had been studying ancient Greece.
No list of middle grade fantasy would be complete without the Harry Potter series. The first book is
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. There are seven books in the complete series. Although the first three are definitely middle grade kids’ reads, the last books get progressively more “grown up” as they go along. By the end I would classify the books as young adult- or even adult.
I have to admit that, for many reasons, I only read the complete series recently. Never fear, though. I’ve become a complete Potter fanatic even in my old age. Kids who can begin the series as middle grade readers and continue on as they grow older like Harry are fortunate indeed.
A Wrinkle in Time is the first of five books in the Time Quintet by Madeleine L’Engle. I read it as a kid and again many times to my own children. I haven’t read the others aloud to the kids, hoping that they might be spurred on to read them for themselves. But
A Wrinkle in Time is definitely an awesome one to read aloud because it can spur some great discussions.
The Giver is the first and most well-known of Lois Lowry’s four books in the Giver Quartet series. Until recently I had only ever read this one. But I’ve now listened to all four as audiobooks. I love this dystopian society/fantasy book. It’s another one that gives some great discussion points.
These are a few of our favorites. Do you have any favorite fantasy series for this age group?
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