10 best fantasy books for 10-year-olds to enjoy
Childhood ain’t fantasy enough? Kids get to experience the magic of the world around them and you’re telling me they wanna read about somewhere ELSE!? There are some pretty fantastic books for kids to augment their already pretty fantastic lives. Here are ten of the best fantasy books for 10 -year-olds, ranked.
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials is about the life and times of talking polar bear riding, gay angel befriending, multiverse hopping, universal truth discovering, God-toppling 12 year old Lyra Belacqua and the ferret critter that serves as the living embodiment of her soul. Set in a world almost but not quite like Oxford, England in the Edwardian Period, young Lyra discovers that the powerful church that runs the world is involved in a conspiracy to kidnap children for bizarre research. After Lyra discovers truths about the universe that the church would rather keep secret, she goes on the run through dimensions attempting to find Heaven and interrogate God for herself. This series teaches kids one of the most important lessons: don’t trust authority, especially on matters of spirit.
The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
Written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell, The Edge Chronicles is a sprawling 10 book fantasy series that children and adults are sure to find both whimsical and traumatizing (as all good children’s stories should be). The Edge is a continent sized rock jutting out over oblivion, populated by all manner of wonders and horrors. I’m talking man-eating trees, man-eating bird people, man eating rock demons, literally everything on this god-forsaken chunk of rock has a taste for flesh. Nevertheless, the denizens of The Edge seek out adventure by becoming sky pirates, demon hunters, and librarian knights. The place is also home to a species of semi-sentient and totally fuzzy bears that are willing to lend a paw to anyone in need, so it’s not all bad!
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
The first of the Inheritance Cycle, Christopher Paolini’s Eragon may never have made cinema history with a solid onscreen adaption, but this series is nevertheless one of the most popular and enduring works of children’s fantasy ever penned. Our story begins in with a farm boy who discovers a curiously sized egg while rambling through the forests of the Medieval-inspired fantasy kingdom he calls home. The egg hatches, and out pops a dragon that becomes his instant bestie – ready to aid him in a quest to overthrow a tyrannical king and fulfill and ancient prophecy. Flying fire breathers, magic swords, wise old wizards, Eragon is classic Arthurian fantasy packaged in a way that a child can understand.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
While the original source material is decidedly adult, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians takes a kid-friendly approach to Greek mythology, one where the gods aren’t total degenerates (only partially so). After young Percy Jackson learns that he is the demigod son of Poseidon, the lad scampers off to Camp Half-Blood to learn how to fight monsters, master his godlike powers, and make friends with the other divinely-parented children. Perfect timing, because the Titans have broken free from their bondage and want revenge against the ex-pats of Mount Olympus, and Percy will have to go toe to toe with primordial forces of chaos in order to save the world from ruin.
Redwall by Brian Jacques
Brian Jacques’ Redwall may SEEM like an innocent little story about anthropomorphic mouse-knights, but the villains in series are top tier evil. The first book in the series centers around young Matthias, a mouse who seeks the legendary Sword of Martin in order to defend his titular abbey from the predatory animals that wish to gobble up the clergy. The nefarious rat Cluny the Scourge has raised an army of furry ne’er do wells against Redwall, the Matthias and his allies must put a stop to the rodent warlord before it’s too late. You thought the rat was bad? Wait ’til the gang have to fend of foxes and cats, that’s when REAL heroes are made.
How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
Before it was adapted into one of the best children’s fantasy movies ever made, Cressida Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon was a charming book series about firebreathers and the Vikings that fly them. Set on the island of Burke, the young Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III struggles to fit in with his island’s warrior culture due to his small frame and gentle temperament. After coming across an irascible young dragon that he names Toothless on account of the beast’s apparent lack of chompers, Hiccup slowly befriends the unruly dragon and teaches his community that despite their past battles, humans and Vikings can coexist in peace. He couldn’t have picked a better time, because an ancient and powerful dragon is waking up from its slumber, and it may soon decide to breakfast on both human and dragon kind alike unless Hiccup and Toothless can do something about it.
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin takes place in a fantasy reimagining of ancient China, telling the tale of a young girl who sets off to find The Old Man of the Moon who can solve her family’s monetary woes. On her quest for financial freedom she takes a page out of Hiccup’s book and befriends a dragon that is unable to fly. I wish I could tell you that the friends that she makes along the way are reward enough, but she really, really needs the cash.
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart is the story of Meggie and Mo, a father and daughter duo who bond over their mutual love of a good story. Meggie’s father really knows how to make a story come to life. I mean literally – whenever he reads a story to her, the characters of that world slip into their own. This is all well and good depending on the story, but things get unwell and bad when Mo accidentally summons the villainous Capricorn from a story called Inkheart – who then uses Mo in order to incarnate even more villains from stories that will allow him to take over the real world.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Like Inkheart, A Wrinkle In Time is a sci-fi/fantasy epic about a little girl who has to save her father from a problem of his own creation. After a scientist creates the tesseract – a magical piece of geometry that allows its wielder to hop between dimensions – he is kidnapped and taken to the planet of Camazotz, where he becomes the prisoner of a mind controlling entity known as IT. Aided by a trio of next door neighbors who turned out to be space aliens, the scientist’s daughter Meg Murry journeys to the dark planet in order to free her father (and the rest of the populace) from its Orwellian grip on their psyches. At its core, A Wrinkle In Time is the story of one of the most insidious villains in modern society: conformity – and why children should resist it at all costs.
The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
Inspired by Caribbean folklore, Tracey Baptiste’s The Jumbies is the story of Corinne La Mer, who believes that the mythical evil spirits for which this book is named are just that, myths. Jumbies are nothing more than a fairy tale used by parents to scare kids into behaving, at least that’s what she thought until she saw a spectral pair of yellow eyes glowing in the woods one night. Her island home is soon visited by a strange woman named Severine, who is actually a jumbie in disguise that wants to claim the island for herself. Lucky for Corinne, she’s the inheritor of an ancient magic that will allow her to stand against the forces of darkness that wish to do her community harm.
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