10 best fantasy books for middle schoolers
Middle school is anything but fantastical. It’s the time in a child’s life when they’ve gained social awareness, but haven’t quite developed… tact? As a result, middle school can be an emotionally rough time, where socializing is often a full contact sport. It’s no wonder why kids might want to seek refuge in the pages of a book – reality can bite. If your little cousin confesses that they needs a place of literary refuge at the next family gathering, you’ll be prepared with this list of 10 best fantasy books for middle schoolers.
The Edge Chronicles
Written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell, The Edge Chronicles features one of the most unique settings in all of fantasy: a continent sized cliff jutting off into oblivion! Life on the precipice is hard for the denizens of The Edge, as the mainland away from the infinite drop is hardly a walk in the park. It’s a brutal world, full of man eating trees, man eating bird people, man eating space jellies from beyond the stars. A whole world of man eaters, honestly. But the children of The Edge survive! Mostly by wandering the Deepwoods and befriending gentle giant bears, or stowing away on a ship of sky pirates, or joining an order of knight/scholars dedicated to spreading knowledge and sticking a sword into monsters that babble ignorance. In this world, it takes all kinds.
The Earthsea Cycle
Ursula K. Le Guin’s set out to write a children’s fantasy novel when she began chipping away at A Wizard of Earthsea, but in the process she created a work of classic fantasy fiction that both children and adults can enjoy. Set in a globe straddling archipelago of islands, the first book in the series centers around a young boy named Sparrowhawk, who decides to ditch his middle of nowhere island home (and a promising career as a goatherd) in order to become the greatest wizard in all the land! I mean sea! I mean… both! While the novel begins as a classic “chosen boy seeks power” narrative, Le Guin subverts expectations by weaving a tale where a wizard’s greatest achievement is not to work grand spells, but to achieve balance with the natural world – a balance that Sparrowhawk screws up by summoning a dark spirit from another plane of existence, and must seal away again.
His Dark Materials
Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials revolves around a middle school aged girl on a quest to kill God. Taking place in a world almost but not quite like our own, young Lyra Belacqua discovers a metaphysical secret of the universe that a world-ruling church would rather keep under wraps (by any means necessary). In order to uncover the truth of existence, Lyra goes on a multiverse hoping quest guided by a mysterious compass that may or may not serve as a direct link to the angels above. The series was inspired by John Milton’s Paradise Lost (borrowing its title from a verse) and seeks to tell the age old Adam and Eve narrative from an alternate perspective. Pullman reframe’s humanity’s quest for knowledge (the thing that got us ejected from The Garden of Eden, if you believe the hype) as the source of our divinity, rather than the architect of our fall from grace.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Rick Riordan Percy Jackson and the Olympians is nepobaby fantasy at its finest! These kids don’t just have powerful parents, they have divine parents. After discovering that he’s the son of Poseidon (you may have heard of the guy) the titular Percy Jackson goes off to develop his budding godlike powers at Camp Halfblood, a summer camp for demigod preteens. While honing his abilities and getting into summer camp drama, Percy and friends discover that they may just be the only things standing between world peace and the rise of the ancient Titans that seek to shatter the status quo. After all, the Titans were done dirty by the denizens of Olympus long ago, and if one thing is true about Greek mythology, it’s that the gods know how to hold a grudge.
The Jumbies
The Jumbies is a Caribbean inspired tale written by Tracey Baptiste, centered around one little girl’s battle with forces from beyond. Corinne La Mer grew up with stories of Jumbies, believing that they were nothing more than boogeymen made up by parents to get children to behave. Everything changed after she saw a pair of glowing eyes in the forest late one night, that in no way could have belonged to anything natural – human or otherwise. The plot thickens after a charismatic stranger named Severine shows up on the island, and though the newcomer’s beauty has everyone fooled, Corinne sees through the facade. Severine is a Jumbie, a very real Jumbie, who intends to use supernatural means to claim the island for her kind – unless Corinne can stop it, that is.
Children of Blood and Bone
Set in a fantasy world inspired by West Africa, Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone centers around an age old conflict between the magical divîners and the non-magical kosidán. A decade before the book’s events, the kosidán King Saran figured out away to cut off the divîners from their magical power, allowing him to subjugate them under his people’s rule. Years later, a young divîner girl named Zélie Adebola forms an unlikely friendship with a kosidán princess after saving the runaway royal from pursuing palace guards in the city’s capital. The Princess Amari is in possession of a scroll that’s capable of restoring the magical power to any divîner that touches it, and the two girls embark on a quest to restore magic to the mundane world.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Rigg’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is the story of sixteen-year-old Jacob Portman, who isn’t having a very good time. He just found out his grandfather died covered in blood while delivering a cryptic message about a gravestone and a bird. Traumatized by the news (and a few recent monster sightings) Jacob is sent away to his grandfather’s home by his psychologist in order to confront his trauma. Instead Jacob finds that his pop-pop’s house has been inhabited by a little girl who can conjure fire with her hands, who takes him to a manor run by the peculiar Miss Peregrin, where more supernatural children reside. As Jacob learns more about Miss Peregrine and her spooky wards, he realizes that his grandfather’s enigmatic last words, the children, and the strange monsters he’s seen are all somehow connected.
Eragon
When it comes to fantasy tales, it doesn’t get more classic than Christopher Paolini’s Eragon. Set in a fantasy world resembling medieval Europe, the plot revolves around an unassuming farm boy named Eragon who discovers a curiously sized egg while rambling in the woods. Instead of an undiscovered species of forest ostrich, the egg belongs to a dragon! Out of its shell pops a juvenile fire breather that Eragon names Saphira, and after the hero to be is gifted a sacred sword by a wise old storyteller, he’s ready to embark on a quest to overthrow the evil King Galbatorix, who has been spending his royal time hunting dragons to extinction. Not on Eragon’s watch.
Howl’s Moving Castle
Before it was a whimsical Studio Ghibli film, Howl’s Moving Castle was an equally charming romance tale penned by Diana Wynne Jones about the titular wizard and his perambulating domicile. After the mean old Witch of the Wastes curses young Sophie Hatter to take the shape of an old woman, the afflicted girl finds work as a housekeeper in Howl’s castle. Sophie strikes a deal with the castle’s resident fire demon Calcifer that if she can figure out away to break the spirit’s bond of servitude toward Howl, then Calcifer must break the curse in return. Things get complicated when Sophie starts crushing on the wizard, and the enigmatic spell caster returns the feeling.
How To Train Your Dragon
Cressida Cowell’s How To Train Your Dragon is the story of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the unlikeliest of Vikings. Despite his threatening name, young Hiccup has a rough time fitting in on his island home of Burke, where his small stature and sensitive temperament are at odds with Viking culture at large. Hiccup finds equally unlikely purpose after befriending a cantankerous dragon sans dentures that he names Toothless. After Hiccup successfully trains Toothless with the magic of positive reinforcement (a new concept for Vikings) the pair team up to do battle against a powerful dragon threatening to gobble of the denizens of their island home. If you were a fan of the Pixar flick and its many sequels, odds are you’re gonna like this book.
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