BEYOND HARRY POTTER: FANTASY NOVELS for TEENS
Allende, Isabel. The
City of the Beasts.
Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold has the chance of a lifetime to take a trip down the Amazon with a team searching for the legendary Yeti. Along the way he befriends Nadia Santos. Together they go on a shamanic journey, evade the increasing dangers of the jungle and encounter the mystical “Mist People’.
Also recommended:
Almond, David. Skellig.
Michael and his family have just moved into their new home but a pall of fear haunts them. His new-born sister is gravely ill. When he explores the dilapidated shed, Michael discovers a strange creature who seems to be part man, part owl and part angel. Michael enlists the aid of his neighbor, Mina, and together they are determined to nurse the ailing, mysterious Skellig back to health.
Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. Hawksong.
In a world of shape-shifters, the avians who shift from human to bird, and the serpiente who shift from human to serpent, have been at war for generations. The last remaining heir to the throne on each side decides to pursue peace through a royal marriage, but enemies abound and the course of true love never did run smooth.
Beagle, Peter. Unicorn Sonata.
Thirteen-year-old Joey cannot forget the ethereal music she heard in the store that afternoon played by an unusual young man named Indigo. She follows the music down an ordinary street and crosses an unsees border into Shei’rah, where satyrs, dragons and phoenixes live with the Eldest—unicorns who are in dire need of Joey’s help.
Bell, Hilari. Flame.
Three young people, Soraya, Jiaan and Kavi, are caught up in intrigue as the Hrum army marches toward their peaceful land of Farsala.
Billingsley, Franny. The Folk Keeper.
Corinna is never cold, always knows exactly what time it is, and her silvery hair grows two inches every night. An orphan, she disguises herself as a boy so that she can become the folk keeper of Rhysbridge, sitting hour after hour in the dark cellar, drawing off the anger of the fierce, gremlin-like folk. She does this until she is summoned by Lord Merton to the vast island estate of Cliffsend where she is to be both Folk Keeper and. Inexplicably, a member of the family.
Brennan, Herbie. Faerie Wars.
Distressed by the disintegration of his family’s world, Henry offers to help the elderly Mr. Fogerty around the house. He expects to discover a mess. He does not expect to discover a Faerie Prince attempting to escape from the Faeries of the Night.
Buffie, Margaret. The Watcher.
When Emma learns a strange board game from an ecentric neighbor, she becomes embroiled in alternate worlds where they are warring over her sister. As she fights to protect Summer, Emma uncovers the truth about her own identity.
Also recommended:
The Seeker
Chabon, Michael. Summerland.
After the death of his mother, Ethan Feld and his father move to Clam Island where the children all play baseball in an always sunny spot called “Summerland”. Ethan is the worst baseball player in the world, but he agrees to keep playing and is recruited by Ringfinger Brown to be a hero. Summerland connects a series of alternate worlds and magical creatures who are in danger of being destroyed by the trickster Coyote. They need baseball and Ethan to save them.
Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl.
Artemis Fowl, the twelve-year-old criminal mastermind, captures a fairy and demands a ransom in gold in an attempt to restore the family fortune.
Also recommended:
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Seeing Stone.
In the England of 1199 lives a young lad named Arthur whose life is changed completely when his friend Merlin gives him a magical stone in which he can see the life of the once and future king.
Also recommended:
At the Crossing Places
Dickinson, Peter. The Ropemaker.
When the magic in their enchanted Valley begins to fail, teenagers Tilja and Tahl, together with their grandparents, venture forth to make their way to the heart of the evil empire in search of the powerful magician who cast the spell of protection in the first place.
Also recommended:
The Tears of the Salamander
Ferris, Jean. Once Upon a Marigold.
Chris, a child of six, who is both strong-willed and clever, runs away from home. He’s determined to live on his own in the forest, but Eldric the troll gives him shelter, and Chris grows up inventing things and watching a princess from afar, never dreaming that one day he might meet her or that his inventions could save the entire kingdom.
Funke, Cornelia. Inkheart.
Twelve-year-old Meggie lives a quiet life with her father until the mysterious stranger Dustfinger disturbs their peace. Gradually Meggie uncovers the implausible truth about her father. He is not just an ordinary bookbinder; he can read characters to life. When Meggie was three, he released several characters from the book Inkheart into the world while at the same time he lost his wife in the world of the novel. Now, danger abounds from these characters and Meggie must help find a way to put things right.
Also recommended:
The Thief Lord
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Just Ella.
Ella learns, to her dismay, that finding Prince Charming isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. When she tells him that she’d rather not get married after all, he has her thrown in the dungeon. With no fairy gosmother to help her out, Ella must use her wits to escape and create her own destiny.
Hale, Shannon. The Goose Girl.
Princess Ani, a shy but magically talented seventeen-year-old, journeys to a strange kingdom to marry a prince she has never met. Along the way she is betrayed by her lady’s maid and serves as a goose girl while she searches for a way to regain her rightful place.
Hoffman, Mary. Stravaganza: The City of Masks.
Lucien, weakened by chemotherapy treatments, becomes a traveler between worlds when he rescues a notebook from the trash and journeys to a magical city of Talia.
Also recommended:
Stravaganza II: The City of Stars
Jacques, Brian. Redwall.
All is quiet at Redwall Abbey where the mice inhabitants cherish peace until the marauding rats, led by the evil Cluny, attack. Young Matthias Mouse goes on a quest for the legendary Sword of Martin the Warrior in order to defeat Cluny.
Also recommended:
Mossflower
Mattimeo
Mariel of Redwall
Salamandastron
Martin the Warrior
The Bellmaker
Outcast of Redwall
The Pearls of Lutra
The Long Patrol
Marlfox
The Legend of Luke
Lord Brocktree
Taggerung: a Tale from Redwall
Triss
Loamhedge
Jarvis, Robin. Thorn Ogres of Hagwood
Werlings, tiny forest creatures who can shapeshift, are in danger from the High Queen and her vicious Thorn Ogres.
Jones, Diana Wynne. The Merlin Conspiracy.
Arianrhod travels on the King’s Progree throughout an alternate Britain while Nichothodes yearns to walk between worlds. When he is pushed into Arianrhod’s England, they are caught up in a myriad of plots and counterplots.
Jordan, Sherryl. The Hunting of the Last Dragon.
Jude lives a quiet peasant life in an alternate 1356 England until a dragon destroys his village and his family. Bent on revenge, he befriends a Chinese circus woman who helps him in his quest.
Kindl, Patrice. Goose Chase.
Alexandra Aurora Fortunato only wants to take care of her geese, but when she brushes her hair gold dust falls and her tears become diamonds. This attracts the attention of King Claudio the Cruel and Prince Edmond of Dorloo. Clearly, she must escape, which she does with the hekp of the geese. But then she finds herself in even more trouble.
Levine, Gail Carson. Ella Enchanted.
Lucinda, a foolish fairy, bestows on Eleanor the gift of obedience. Consequently, all her life Ella is compelled to do everything she is told to do. In an attempt to break the spell, Ella ventures out on her own and encounters dwarfs, giants, wicked stepsisters and her prince charming.
Also recommended:
The Wish
The Two Princesses of Bamarre
Lewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Edmund, Susan, Lucy and Peter, siblings who are sent from London to the country during World War II, stumble upon a magic wardrobe. When they pass through the wardrobe, they enter the land of Narnia, where animals can talk but the White Witch rules.
Also recommended:
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and his Boy
The Magician’s Nephew
The Last Battle
McCaffrey, Anne. Dragonsong.
Mellony dreams to becoming a Harper of Pern but her father forbids her to make music of any kind. When she runs away from the Hold, she finds a clutch of fire-lizards and her life is changed forever.
Also recommended:
Dragonsinger
Dragondrums
McKinley, Robin. Beauty.
Contrary to her name, Beauty is not the loveliest girl in her family, but she is the cleverest, the bravest and the most honorable. When her father makes a terrible pledge to a beast who lives in an enchanted castle, Beauty fulfills her father’s promise. She enters the beast’s domain but all is not as it appears to be.
Also recommended:
Rose Daughter
Spindle’s End
Mahy, Margaret. Alchemy.
Seventeen-year-old Roland discovers his own magical powers when he becomes friends with Jess who is invertigating alchemy.
Morris, Gerald. The Princess, the Crone and the Dung-Cart Knight.
Sarah seeks revenge on the knight who murdered her mother and during the course of her quest, she witnesses the kidnapping of Queen Guinevere. She joins Sir Gawain and Squire Terrence as they search for a way to rescue the queen and learns the grim consequences of vengeance.
Also recommended:
The Squire’s Tale
The Squire, His Knight and His Lady
The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf
Parsifal’s Page
The Ballad of Sir Dinadin
Napoli, Donna Jo. Beast.
The story of Beauty and the Beast is retold from the Beast’s point of view. Here the Beast is a Persian prince who is cursed to be a lion until he wins the love of a woman.
Also recommended:
Breath
The Magic Circle
Zel
Nicholson, William. The Wind Singer.
In Aramanth everyone must constantly improve. When the Hath family fails, twins Kestrel and Bowman set out on a perilous journey to find the mysterious voice of the wind singer in hopes that it will restore their home.
Also recommended:
Slaves of Mastery
Firesong
Nix, Garth. Mister Monday.
Arthur Penhaligon is an ordinary boy with asthma until Sneezer passes him one of the seven keys that leads him to the world of the House. Here he could become Lord Monday, master of the Lower House, if the other denizens don’t kill him first.
Also recommended:
Grim Tuesday
Sabriel
Lirael
Abhorsen
Paolini, Christopher. Eragon: Inheritance, Book One.
When Eragon finds a blue stone in the forest he hopes to be able to sell it so he can buy food for his family, but this is no ordinary stone. It is a dragon egg and the hatching of the fledgling changes Eragon’s life forever.
Pattou, Edith. East.
Rose was raised in a small Norwegian village and her mother would like to keep her close to home, but she has a wandering spirit. When her sister becomes ill and a white bear offers a cure in exchange for Rose, Rose chooses to accompany him to his castle-in-a-cave. While her sister recovers, Rose finds enchantment and danger in her new home.
Pierce, Meredith Ann. The Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood.
Hannah, a healer with unusual powers, leaves the wizard she has always served and, along with her animal companions, begins a journey which uncovers the truth about her real nature.
Pratchett, Terry. Wee Free Men.
In Diskworld (where the world is a flat disk, rather than sphere) nine-year-old Tiffany sets off to Fairyland to rescue her brother armed with only a frying pan.
Also recommended:
A Hat Full of Sky
Prue, Sally. Cold Tom.
Half elf and half human, Tom runs from the elves who raised him when they decide to kill him because he is part human. In the human city, Anna takes him in and although his ability to call on the stars and become invisible saves him from some danger, he eventually must learn to cope in his strange new world.
Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass.
Lyra lives in an alternate world, similar to modern day England, but different in some very significant ways. Like everyone in Lyra’s world, Lyra has a daemon, a creature that is like an animal form of her spirit. They live in Jordan College and are being raised by Oxford professors. Lyra is not a good student but she is curious. Her curiosity sets her on a path of adventure, armed only with a golden compass that will answer her questions,
if only she could learn how to read it. On her journey, she meets witches and an armored bear, and learns of an evil plot. A group of scientists are kidnapping children and using them and their daemons in horrifying experiments.
Also recommended:
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass
Schmidt, Gary. Straw into Gold.
Pursued by greedy villains, two boys on a quest to save innocent lives meet the banished queen whose son was stolen by Rumpelstilskin eleven years earlier and she provides much more than the answer they seek.
Smith, Sherwood. Wren to the Rescue.
With the help of a prince and an apprentice wizard, Wren strives to rescue her best friend, a princess named Tess, from the fortress of a wicked king.
Also recommended:
Wren’s Quest
Wren’s War
Stewart, Paul and Chris Riddle. Beyond the Deepwoods.
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.
Stroud, Jonathan. The Amulet of Samarkand.
Nathaniel, a magician’s apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkind from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit.
Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who is half the size of a man, likes living comfortably in his hobbit-hole. Despite his protests, the great wizard, Gandolf the Gray, lures him away to adventure. Traveling with dwarfs, Bilbo is headed for the Lonely Mountains, home of Smaug the Magnificent, the most dangerous dragon in Middle Earth.
Also recommended:
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
Wrede, Patricia. Dealing with Dragons.
Princess Cimorene is sick and tired of sitting in the castle working on her embroidery. She runs away to live with the dragons and uncovers a plot being hatched by wicked wizards.
Also recommended:
Searching for Dragons
Calling on Dragons
Talking to Dragons
Yolen, Jane. Wizard’s Hall.
Even though he doesn’t seem to have much talent, Henry wants to be a wizard. His mother promptly sends him to Wizard’s Hall for training. There he is pupil 113, the student that everyone is relying on to keep the Hall safe from its greatest enemy.
Also recommended:
The Sword of the Rightful King