Thank you to everyone who responded! My request for fantasy books for 4th, 5th and
6th yielded lots of results. Sorry it took me so long to compile them. I ordered
over 80 new books and all but about 6 of them were checked out. I'll need to get a
couple extra sets of the Percy Jackson books!
I had a lot of great suggestions and compiled them into one list, starring the most
often suggested:
Animorphs
Artemis Fowl series (Eoin Colfer)
***The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. Percy finds out
that he is the son of a Greek god, and is suddenly thrust into a weird world where
Greek mythology meets our modern world.
#1 The Lightening Thief
#2 The Sea of Monsters
#3 The Titan's Curse
DuPrau's City of Ember, People of Sparks
Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
The series is called Chronicles of Ancient Darkness
I really liked this one. A boy loses his father to a demonic bear and meets up
with a wolf whom he realizes he can talk to.
**The series is called The Edge Chronicles
This one is good but could be a bit scary - lots of fighting with gnomes and a tree
that might eat you. The main character is Twig and he is quite captivating.
***The Warriors Series by Erin Hunter the first book is called Into the Wild
a cool fantasy about 4 clans of cats that begin to clash with each other after
years of living together.
Missing Magic by Emma Laybourn
I love this one. Ned has no magic in a world where everyone else does. When he
goes to magic school things to learn magic, things just get worse for him.
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede. A lovely "fractured fairy tale"
series (and it has dragons!)
The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. An older series, but one with classic
good vs. evil and Arthurian themes. Also, there's a related movie coming out this
Christmas (which doesn't look anything like the book, really, but you could
probably do a tie-in).
The Pit Dragon series by Jane Yolen. In this case, dragons are an alien life-form
on a different planet, but it's a good sci-fi series.
Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series (so far, titles include "The Wee Free Men,"
"A Hat Full of Sky," and "Wintersmith"). The story of Tiffany Aching, who wants to
become a witch, and is learning the hard way; rescuing her brother from the Queen
of the Fairies, fighting a creature who took over her body, and making sure that
Winter goes away and Summer comes again.
The Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens series by Tamora Pierce. The story of four
outcasts who learn to control their magic together and become friends.
The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. Will probably appeal to kids who liked
Harry Potter, but it's got a much better moral basis (IMHO) and more realistic
characters. Might be a little "old," but content-wise is appropriate for fifth and
sixth grade
*** Emily Rodda series - Dragons of Deltora, Deltora Quest, Shadowlands, Rowan,
Fairy Realm
Charlie Bone series by Nimmo
Into the Wild by Sarah Durst. Although the main character is older (around 15 I
think) the book would still be very appropriate for 5th graders. Into the Wild is
about a young girl named Julie who lives in the real world. But her mom is
Rapunzel and her grandma is the wicked witch from the fairy tales. Her mom and
most of the other fairy tale characters had escaped from an entity known as "The
Wild". But now the wild is back and it wants to trap not only Rapunzel but Julie
as well.
Dragons: truth, myth and legend by David Passes
Hatching Magic by Ann Downer
Dragon Keeper by Carole Wilkinson
Patricia Wrede's series
Lawrence Yep's dragon books
Stewart_ The Mysterious Benedict Society
Osborne_ Night of the new magicians
Ransom_ Time Spies series
Winterson_ Tanglewreck
Anderson_ Whales on stilts!
Pratchett_ Only you can save mankind
Kay_ The Divide
Lasky_ Guardians of Ga’Hoole series
Mucci_ Bram Stoker: Dracula (graphic novel)
Poulsen_ The Book of Vampire (Salt & Pepper Chronicles, 4)
Greenburg_ Secrets of Dripping Fang series
Ruby_ The Chaos king
Eldest and Eragon--Paolini
Pendragon Series by MacHale
**Redwall series by Jacques
The Keys to the Kingdom series starting with Mister Monday (by Garth Nix)
**Septimus Heap books by Angie Sage
Beyond the Deep Woods by Paul Stewart
The Divide by Elizabeth Kay (also a series. I've read these and enjoyed them. .
.Magic, alternate universe, etc.)
***Spiderwick Chronicles (series)
Cornelia Funke: Dragon Rider, Inkspell, Inkheart
Coraline by Gaiman
**The Sisters Grimm. It's wonderful! My girls love them!
Dr. Ernest Drake's Dragonology handbook by Drake
Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye by Kingsley
Gregor the Overlander series (by Suzanne Collins
The Bartemaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud is wonderful
Molly Moon books by Byng
Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer
Gregor the Overlander books (there are 5) by Suzanne Collins
Some boys really love the Merlin books by T.A. Barron there are 5 of
them as well, Lost Years of Merlin, Wings of Merlin, etc
Gary Paulsen's Time Hackers is hysterical and great fun
Bruce Coville has quite a few good ones
Patrick Carmen's Books--there is the Atherton:
House of Power and the Land of Elyon series
Tom Swift has been revampted and actually the
boys tell me that they are quite enjoyable. Appleton is
still the author listed.
You might try Ender's Game and the rest of
that series from Orson Scott Card. I just finished it
myself and while it was a bit disturbing, I think many jr.
high boys could probably tolerate the violence more than
I. (I was feeling guilty over break about not reading any
SciFi.)
Gail Carson Levine has a ton of fantasy out
there for various age groups.
They are older, but Robin McKinley's "Hero and
the Crown" and the sequels were very popular back a few
years ago. I haven't pushed them here yet with our girls
but I may try that.
The Keys of Time series starting with Mister Monday.
The Naming", "The Riddle", byAlice Croggen
Here there be Dragons--James Owen
Kate McMullan's Dragonslayer Academy: Class Trip to the Cave of Doom
Books by Tamora Pierce: She has several Quartets dealing with Magic
Circle of Magic is one quartet
The Circle opens is the follow up quartet
a new series by Michael Scott called the adventures of the immortal
Nicholas Flamel: the Achemyst is book one
Bruce Coville's alien series: My Teacher is an Alien
The Sight (about wolves)
Dr. Ernest Drake's Dragonology handbook by Drake
Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye by Kingsley
Get Rich Quick Club by Dan Gutman
Lloyd Alexander titles
"Mistmantle" by M.I. Mc Allistar
Candy Shop War, Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
Leven Thumps series by Obert Skye
Mary Jo Enders, librarian
Children's University
Arlington, TX 76017
chapelst-mj@charter.net
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