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Selected Reading For Young Adults
Fantasy
General Fantasy
The World of Wizards
Myths and Fairy Tales
The Arthurian Legend
Magical Creatures
"Must Read" Series
| General Fantasy |
Yon Ill Wind
The mage Numair, the knight Alanna, and Queen Thayet enlist thirteen-year-old Daine's help to battle the dreadful immortal creatures that have recently begun to attack the kingdom of Tortall.(Anthony, Piers)
Abarat
Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota, one day finds herself on the edge of a foreign world that is populated by strange creatures, and her life is forever changed. (Barker, Clive)
Paths of the Dead
In a Dragaera decimated by Adron's Disaster, an experiment in wizardry gone horribly wrong, the descendants of Khaavren, Pel, Aerich, and Tazendra join forces with a surviving Phoenix heir to take on the enemies of their Empire. (Brust, Steven)
Inkheart
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. (Funke, Cornelia)
Stardust
Living in a Victorian countryside town overshadowed by an imposing stone barrier, Tristran is compelled to retrieve a fallen star for the woman he loves and crosses to the wondrous other side of the barrier, where he encounters dangerous rivals for the star. (Gaiman, Neil)
Wild Magic
The mage Numair, the knight Alanna, and Queen Thayet enlist thirteen-year-old Daine's help to battle the dreadful immortal creatures that have recently begun to attack the kingdom of Tortall. (Pierce, Tamora)
The Thief
Gen flaunts his ingenuity as a thief and relishes the adventure which takes him to a remote temple of the gods where he will attempt to steal a precious stone. (Turner, Megan Whalen) |
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| The World of Wizards |
The Secret of Platform 13
Odge Gribbie, a young hag, accompanies an old wizard, a gentle fey, and a giant ogre on their mission through a magical tunnel from their island to London to rescue their King and Queen's son who had been stolen as an infant. (Ibbotson, Eva)
Castle in the Air
Having long indulged himself in daydreams more exciting than his mundane life as a carpet merchant, Abdullah unexpectedly purchases a magic carpet and his life changes dramatically as his daydreams come true and dangerous adventures become daily fare.
(Jones, Diana Wynne)
The Blue Sword
Harry, bored with her sheltered life in the remote orange-growing colony of Daria, discovers magic in herself when she is kidnapped by a Hillfolk king with mysterious powers. (McKinley, Robin)
Sabriel
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. (Nix, Garth)
A Plague of Sorcerers
When a magic plague begins to take its toll of the wizards in the Empire, Jermyn, a newly-apprenticed wizard, and Delia, his skunk familiar, must find a way to stop it. (Zambreno, Mary Frances) |
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| Myths and Fairy Tales |
Tithe
Sixteen-year-old Kaye, who has been visited by faeries since childhood, discovers that she herself is a magical faerie creature with a special destiny. (Black, Holly)
Truly Grim Tales
A guilt-ridden prince with a foot fetish seeking his glass-slippered dance partner and a beauty contest winner as Snow White's murderous stepmother are featured in two of the original "grim" plots in this young adult collection loosely based on eight traditional fairy tales. (Galloway, Priscilla)
Beast
Elaborates on the tale of Beauty and the Beast told from the point of view of the beast and set in Persia. (Napoli, Donna Jo)
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
A talking cat, intelligent rats, and a strange boy cooperate in a Pied Piper scam until they try to con the wrong town and are confronted by a deadly evil rat king. (Pratchett, Terry)
Quiver
When her father commands that she produce an heir, the huntress Atalanta gives her suitors a seemingly impossible task in order to uphold her pledge of chastity, as the gods of ancient Greece look on. (Spinner, Stephanie)
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| The Arthurian Legend |
The Seeing Stone
In late twelfth-century England, a thirteen-year-old boy named Arthur recounts how Merlin gives him a magical seeing stone which shows him images of the legendary King Arthur, the events of whose life seem to have many parallels to his own.
(Crossley-Holland, Kevin)
Parzival
A retelling of the Arthurian legend in which Parzival, unaware of his noble birth, comes of age through his quest for the Holy Grail. (Paterson, Katherine)
I am Mordred
When Mordred learns the identity of his father, he struggles with feelings of hatred, but also fights the fate which determines that he kill the good and gracious king. (Springer, Nancy)
The Crystal Cave
Merlin spends his childhood in the court of his grandfather, the King of Wales, where he keeps secret his ability of "second sight." (Stewart, Mary)
The Once and Future King
Arthur becomes king of the Britons under the guidance of Merlin. (White, T.H.)
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| Magical Creatures |
The Last Unicorn
The last unicorn's quest for her vanished race leads her to the magical kingdom of a wicked ruler. (Beagle, Peter)
Aquamarine
A love-struck mermaid named Aquamarine supplies adventure and insights to two twelve-year-old girls, life-long friends who are spending their last summer together before one of them moves away. (Hoffman, Alice)
Joust
Vetch, an Altan serf, must learn the secret of the Tian jousters and their dragons in order to save his people. (Lackey, Mercedes)
Eragon
In Aagaesia, 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. (Paolini, Christopher)
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