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by Peter S. Beagle
Thirty years ago Peter S. Beagle entered the delicate heart and mind of a unicorn who learns one day that "I am the only unicorn there is." Readers young and old were utterly enchanted by The Last Unicorn, and, with each generation, Beagle's beloved novel grew in popularity and stature to become one of the world's all-time fantasy classics. Here, then, is the enduring tale of the last unicorn's quest for life and love... of the bumbling magician and the indomitable woman who shared her dream... and the special magic that burns deep within every heart.
Giant Bones
A Fine and Private Place
The Innkeeper's Song
by Brian Jacques
Welcome to Mossflower Wood, where the gentle mice have gathered to celebrate a year of peace and abundance. All is well... until a sinister shadow falls across the ancient stone abby of Redwall. It is rumored that Cluny is coming — Cluny, the terrible one-eyed rat and his savage horde — Cluny, who has vowed to conquer Redwall Abby! The only hope for the besieged mice lies in the lost sword of the legendary Martin the Warrior. And so begins the epic quest of a bumbling young apprentice — a courageous mouse who would rise up, fight back... and become legend himself.
Mossflower
Mattimeo
Mariel of Redwall
by John Bellairs
What did Professor Childermass's eccentric brother mean by the mysterious riddle he attached to his will? And why does he insist the professor spend the summer on his deserted estate in order to earn his inheritance? The professor, Johnny Dixon and Johnny's friend Fergie are determined to find out. But when they journey to the ramshackle mansion, they make a horrifying discovery. Unless they unravel the baffling riddle fast, an evil madman will succeed in unleashing a force so powerful it could destroy the entire world!
The Eyes of the Killer Robot
The Mansion in the Mist
The Vengence of the Witch-Finder
by Tamora Pierce
Alanna of Trebond is no ordinary girl — her dream is to become a knight. So she disguises herself as a boy and begins training at the palace of King Roald. ...
Here begins Alanna's first adventure — one that will lead not only to fulfillment of her dreams but to the magical destiny that will make her a legend.
In the Hand of the Goddess
Lioness Rampant
by Paul Jennings
Unmentionable? Sure. But I'll try to tell you anyway. The mouth organ is inside my mouth. It is stuck in sideways. The pain is terrible. My eyes water.
Some things you just can't talk about...
Locked in the loo. Kissing a cold cold kid. Being a squirt. Burning your behind...
Unreal!
Uncanny!
Undone!
by Garth Nix
Ever since she was a tiny child, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the random power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won't stay dead. But now her father, the Mage Abhorsen, is missing, and to find him Sabriel must cross back into that world.
Though her journey begins alone, she soon finds companion: Mogget, whose seemingly harmless feline form hides a powerful — and perhaps malevolent — spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage long imprisoned by magic, now free in body but still trapped by painful memories.
With threats on all sides and only each other to trust, the three must travel deep into the Old Kingdom, toward a battle that will pit them against the true forces of life and death — and bring Sabriel face-to-face with her own hidden destiny.
"Sabriel is a winner, a fantasy that reads like realism. Here is a world with the same solidity as our own, created with invention, clarity, and intelligence. I congratulate Garth Nix. And I look forward to his next piece of work." — Phillip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass
Lirael sequel to Sabriel
Shade's Children
by Orson Scott Card
"Aliens have attacked earth twice and almost destroyed the human race. To make sure the humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses — and then training them in the arts of war... The early training, not surprisingly, takes the forms of 'games'... Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses: he wins all games. ... He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet?"
— The New York Times
Ender's Shadow
by Rob Thomas
What's the matter with Steve York?
Houston, Sophomore Year
Steve is on the top of the world. He and his friends are the talk of the school. He's in love with a terrific girl. He can even deal with the astronaut — a world-famous hero who happens to be his father.
San Diego, Senior Year
Steve is bummed out, drugged out, flunking out. A no-nonsense counselor says he can graduate if he writes a 100-page paper. And in telling how he got to where he is, Steve discovers how to get to where he wants to be.
Slave Day
Satellite Down
Doing Time: Notes From the Undergrad
by Raold Dahl
A little magic can take you a long way... When James accidentally drops some magic crystals by the old peach tree, strange things start happening. The peach at the very tip of the tree starts growing and growing and growing... until it's as big as a house! When James crawls inside, he meets a houseful of oversized friends: Grasshopper, Centipede, Earthworm, and more. With a snip of the stem, the peach starts rolling away, and the adventure begins!
The B.F.G.
The Twits
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Diane Wynne Jones
In the multiple parallel universes of the Twelve Related Worlds, only an enchanter with nine lives is powerful enough to control the rampant misuse of magic — and to hold the title of Chrestomanci...
The Chants are a family strong in magic, but neither Christopher nor Cat can work even the simplest of spells. So how can they hope to thwart the schemes of an avaricious enchanter and a ruthless young witch — schemes that could destroy all the worlds of Chrestomanic?
"Mad about Harry? Try Diana."
— U.S. News & World Report
Castle in the Air
Hexwood
Year of the Griffin
by Robert A. Heinlein
One minute, down and out actor Lorenzo Smythe was — as usual — in a bar, drinking away his troubles as he watched his career go down the tubes. Then a space pilot brought him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knew, he was shanghaied to Mars.
Suddenly he found himself agreeing to the most difficult role of his career: impersonating an important politician who had been kidnapped. Peace with the Martians was at stake — failure to pull off the act could result in interplanetary war. And Smythe's own life was on the line — for if he wasn't assassinated, there was always the possibility that he might be trapped in his new role forever!
The Door Into Summer
Red Planet
Friday
Dragonsongby Anne McCaffrey
Menolly, a young fisher's daughter, had dreamed all her life of learning the Harper's craft. When her stern father denied Menolly's destiny, she fled Half Circle Hold just as Pern was struck again by the deadly danger of Threadfall, the killing ropes of death that fell from a nearby star. Taking shelter in a cave be the sea, Menolly made a miraculous discovery that insured her a new home among the master musicians of Pern's Harper Hall.
Anne McCaffrey's best-selling "Harper Hall Trilogy" is a wonder-filled classic of the imagination. Dragonsong is the enchanting tale of how Menolly of Half Circle Hold became Pern's first female Harper, and rediscovered the legendary fire lizards who helped save her world.
Dragonsinger
Dragondrums
by Robin McKinley
Sixteen-year-old Beauty has never liked her nickname. Thin, awkward, and undersized, with big hands and huge feet, she has always thought of herself as the plainest girl in her family — certainly not as lovely as her elder sisters, Hope and Grace. But what she lacks in looks, she makes up for in courage. When her father come home one day with the strange tale of an enchanted castle in the wood and the terrible promise he has made to the Beast who lives there, Beauty knows what she must do. She must go to the castle and tame Beast — if such a thing is possible...
Here is the unusual love story of a most unlikely couple: Beauty ... and the Beast.
The Hero and the Crown
The Blue Sword
by Phillip Pullman
Lyra's greatest adventure would begin closer to home the day she heard hushed talk of an extraordinary particle. Microscopic in size, the magical Dust — found only in the vast Arctic expanse of the North — was rumored to possess profound properties that could unite the whole universe.
Catapulted into the heart of a terrible struggle, Lyra was forced to seek aid from clans, gyptians, and formidable armored bears. And as she journeyed into unbelievable danger, she had not the faintest clue that she alone was destined to win, or to lose, this more-than-mortal battle...
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass
by Daniel Pinkwater
Five classic novels by Daniel Pinkwater, who has been quietly, subversively producing books for the most intelligent and creative children and young people in America for more than 25 years. (Adults may know him as a frequent commentator on National Public Radio, essayist, book reviewer, and the author of The Afterlife Diet.) Well over a million copies of his books have been sold since the first, The Terrible Roar, was published in 1970. In this collection are:
— Alan Mendalson, the Boy from Mars
— Slaves of Spiegel
— The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death
— The Last Guru
— Young Adult Novel
Lizard Music
The Hoboken Chicken Emergency
by Clive Barker
Mr. Hood's Holiday House has stood for a thousand years, welcoming countless children into its embrace. It is a place of miracles, a blissful round of treats and seasons; where every childhood whim may be satisfied... There is a price to be paid, of course, but young Harvey Swick, bored with his life and beguiled by Mr. Hood's wonders, does not stop to consider the consequences. It is only when the House shows its darker face — when Harvey discovers the pitiful creatures that dwell in its shadows, — that he comes to doubt Mr. Hood's philanthropy. The House and its mysterious architect are not about to release their captive without a battle, however. Mr. Hood has ambitions for his new guest, for Harvey's soul burns brighter than any soul he has encountered in a thousand years...
(but not necessarily recommended for children):
Coldheart Canyon
Weaveworld
Imajica
Books of Blood
Tailchaser's
Songby Tad Williams
Meet Fritti Tailchaser, a ginger tom cat of rare courage and curiosity, a born survivor in a world of heroes and villains, of powerful feline gods and whiskery legends about those strange, furless, erect creatures called M'an. Join Tailchaser on his magical quest to rescue his catfriend Hushpad — a quest that will take him all the way to cat hell and beyond...
"For anyone who loves and understands cats... a fantasy of epic proportions in the vein of Watership Down."
— San Diego Union
"Williams; understanding of nuances of feline behavior and psychology, as well as his riveting storytelling and memorable characters, make the book a classic of its genre."
— Cat Fancy Magazine
Otherland Series
The Dragonbone Chair
by Will Shetterly
I should tell you about the Nevernever. Problem is, time and space are strange near the Border. The lands change as you go through them, and so do the seasons. You might walk from summer to fall or from desert lands to ice fields by going around a hill or through a clump of brush. Once I was away for six days and found a month had passed in Bordertown.
I made maps during my first explorations, but they never did me any good on later trips. It's as if the landmarks move or change, as if space and time are as whimsical as magic is here. Maybe the gods of Faerie have incredibly stupid senses of humor.
The Nevernever was scary at first, I admit, and it continues to be scary at times. Most good things are worth a little fear.
Cats Have No Lord
Witch Blood
Elsewhere
by Susan Cooper
On the Midwinter Day that is his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton discovers a special gift — that he is the last of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to keeping the world from domination by the forces of evil, the Dark. At once, he is plunged into a quest for the six magical Signs that will one day aid the Old Ones in the final battle between the Dark and the Light. And for the twelve days of Christmas, while the Dark is rising, life for Will is full of wonder, terror, and delight.
"Susan Cooper is one of the few contemporary writers who has the vivid imagination, the narrative powers, and the moral vision that permit her to create the kind of sweeping conflict between good and evil that lies at the heart of all great fantasy. Tolkien had it. So did C.S. Lewis. And Cooper writes in the same tradition."
— Psychology Today
Seaward
Dawn of Fear
Greenwitch
by Sharon Shinn
Through science, faith and force of will, the Harmonics carved out for themselves a society that they conceived of as perfect. Diverse peoples held together by respect for each other and the prospect of swift punishment if they disobeyed their laws. Fertile land that embraced a variety of climates and seasons. Angels to guard the mortals and mystics to guard the forbidden knowledge. And Jhovah to watch over them all...
Generations later, the armed starship Jehovah still looms over the planet of Samaria, programmed to unleash its arsenal if peace is not sustained. But an age of corruption has come to the land, threatening that peace and placing Samarians in grave danger. Their only hope lies in the crowning of a new Archangel. The oracles have chosen for this honor the angel named Gabriel, and further decreed that he must first wed a mortal woman named Rachel.
It is his destiny and her's. And Gabriel is certain that she will greet the news of her betrothal with enthusiasm, and a devotion to duty equal to his own.
Rachel, however, has other ideas...
The Shape-Changer's Wife
Wrapt in Crystal
Heart of Gold
Harry
Potter and the Sorcerers Stoneby J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick. He's never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon. All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.
But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed. There he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him... if Harry can survive the encounter.
H.P and the Chamber of Secrets
H.P. and the Prisoner of Azcaban
by Michael Ende
Bastion Balthazar Bux is shy, awkward, and certain;y not heroic. His only escape is reading books. When Bastion happens upon an old book called The Neverending Story, he's swept into the magical world of Fantastica — so much that he finds he has actually become a character in the story! And when he realizes that this mysteriously enchanted world is in great danger, he also discovers that he has been the one chosen to save it. Can Bastian overcome the barrier between reality and his imagination in order to save Fantastica?
Jim Knopf and Lukas
the Engine Driver
Momo
by Lewis Carroll
Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen and the White Rabbit are all now familiar figures in writing, conversation and idiom. So, too, are the delightful verses such as the Walrus and the Carpenter and the inspired jargon of that masterly Wordsworthian parody, The Jabberwocky. Follow Alice down the rabbit hole and relive her adventures in Wonderland...
Through the Looking Glass
Hunting of the Snark
Sylvie and Bruno
by Alan Garner
Told to stay out of the way while their house is packed up for the next day's move, the four Watson children wander into the slims of Manchester. There they tumble into the ruined land of Elidor and learn that they are somehow bound up with its fate. Back in their new house the children are constantly besieged by evil forces surging to escape into their dimension. Finally, after months of tension, the children return and face Findhorn, a fierce and giant unicorn, who must sing before the land can be redeemed and the children safe again.
"One of the better fantasies, British or American...."
— Library Journal
The Owl Service
The Stine Book Quartet
by Francesca Lia Block
Block's luminous saga of interwoven lives will send the senses into wild overdrive. These postmodern fairy tales chronicle the thin line between fear and desire, pain and pleasure, cutting loose and holding on in a world where everyone is vulnerable to the most beautiful and dangerous angel of all: Love.
Girl Goddess #9
I Was a Teenage Fairy
Violet and Claire
