Fantasy Favourites From Abarat To Oz! Fans of hobbits and Harry Potter have had a magical SS TED PRE TED A I C effect on the world of O SS fantasy fiction. We take A you inside this exploding J.R.R. Tolkien genre where the impossible is possible! BY DAVID MARC FISCHER J.K. Rowling © Pierre Vinet/New Line Productions Vinet/New © Pierre © 2009 Scholastic Canada Ltd. V001 Flights of Fantasy 1 of 12 eroes and heroines. Fantasy books have lightning-bolt scar and a Dungeons and dragons. frequently dominated the knack for riding broomsticks. H Swords, sorcerers, U.S. Young Adult Library When J.K. Rowling’s first witches, and warlocks. It’s the Services Association poll of Harry Potter book hit U.S. stuff of fantasy fiction, and it young readers’ favourites. bookstores in 1998, no one has cast a powerful spell on Books on the Top Ten list could have predicted its teen readers everywhere. have included Cornelia impact. Harry Potter and the “Fantasy fiction has helped Funke’s The Thief Lord, Garth Sorcerer’s Stone (“Philosopher’s sculpt the person I am today,” Nix’s Abhorsen, and Holly Stone” in Canada) topped says 17-year-old Nick Feitel, who Black’s Title: the best-seller lists, where it enjoys fantasy sagas from J.R.R. A Modern Faerie Tale. was quickly followed by every Tol k ien’s The Lord of the Rings to other book in the series. Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic. POTTER POWER The boy wizard you grew up “I think I became a lot more Why is fantasy so popular with continued to set sales creative as a result of reading among young readers? records. In its first 24 hours these impossible stories.” Many credit a boy with a on sale, Harry Potter and the Flights of Fantasy 2 of 12 Deathly Hallows, the seventh the four-year period from Today, publishers print and final book in the series, 1999 to 2003, according to more fantasy books than ever. sold a record 8.3 million the research firm Ipsos They even have a special copies in the United States. BookTrends. name for the current crop of After Harry hit the scene, “We’d all forgotten how thick-as-a-brick spellbinders demand for fantasy novels exciting that kind of fiction fighting for your attention. increased. The number of could be,” said publisher It’s “big fat fantasy” fiction— fantasy books purchased for Philippa Dickinson in “BFF” for short. teens went up 22 percent in Publisher’s Weekly, Spring 2004. Flights of Fantasy 3 of 12 Abarat by Clive Barker, 2002. The Lord of the Rings by A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, From boring Chickentown, dive into the J.R.R. Tolkien, 1954-1955. 1968. Three great books are followed by forgotten world of the Abarat. If you love the movies, you have to a fourth with a different point of view. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, 2004. Beware, read the books! The Wonderful Wizard of Oz matey! Pirates ahead! The Once and Future King by by L. Frank Baum, 1900. The book’s even Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland T.H. White, 1958. A great version of the King wilder than the movie! by Lewis Carroll, 1865. The great, original Arthur legend. romp with a rabbit—and Alice! The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke, 2002. An Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, 1977. adventure as twisted and magical as the streets Cat’s life turns upside down when he arrives at of the city it’s set in—Venice, Italy. Chrestomanci castle. Children of the Lamp by P.B. Kerr, 2004. When teen twins get their wisdom teeth, they discover they’re genies! Circle of Magic: Daja’s Book by Tamora Pierce, 1999. Four strong girls, outcasts at home, earn respect for their powers in an enchanted land. Tamora Pierce Lewis Carroll Flights of Fantasy 4 of 12 ENTERING WORLDS impossible and the possible. of a book is that you can Rebecca Bass, 17, is caught “It’s like your life—plus one,” imagine things and make up in the excitement. she says of Rowling’s gift things look the way you “I was into the Chronicles of for combining realistic, want them to look.” Narnia [by C.S. Lewis] when believable relationships— I was, like, 8,” recalls Rebecca. such as Harry and Ron’s “I just liked the idea of going friendship—with horrifying into a wardrobe and coming spells, villains, and monsters. out in a totally different This fantasy fan says she world.” A few years later, she prefers the books to movies. fell for Rowling’s books too. “In a movie, everything is Rebecca says she loves the spelled out for you,” she way fantasy blends the explains. “Much of the appeal P.B. Kerr Flights of Fantasy 5 of 12 “Every society has its stories of magic and heroes, people who go out from home and come back changed, or to change things. Fantasy connects with that.” — Author K.V. Johansen, in Canadian Children’s Book News, Spring 2008 with thanks, Annick Press Flights of Fantasy 6 of 12 WRITING MAGIC fantasy is also an enchanting warriors. She discovered For authors, writing fantasy experience. “I get the feeling, Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring can be just as magical as when I am writing, that I am when she was in the seventh reading it. Adult-thriller more than just myself, that I grade. She remembers being writer P.B. Kerr tried his hand open up, inhale, and overcome by “the grandeur at writing fantasy with his experience what is not me,” and the passion” of the hobbit kids’ novel Children of the Funke says. “I express what saga. “It just swept me up and Lamp: The Akhenaten everybody feels, fears, and dumped me safely and Adventure. It was a chance, wonders about.” securely in another world for Kerr says, to let his Author Tamora as long as I was reading it.” imagination run wild: Pierce shares Yet some aspects “I just wrote. To some extent similar feelings. of The Lord of it was like being a child again Pierce’s recent the Rings books myself.” Tricksters Series left Pierce For The Thief Lord author includes strong unsatisfied. She Cornelia Funke, writing female was, for example, Cornelia Funke Flights of Fantasy 7 of 12 unhappy that the female her own. “It was a way to paint in the Underland,” she says of warrior Eowyn gave up the world as I wanted it to be,” the bizarre realm of giant rats, fighting. Pierce says she Pierce recalls. bats, roaches, and spiders that wanted to read about women Suzanne Collins, author of she introduced in her warriors, but they were hard to Gregor the Overlander, also Underland Chronicles series. find in books. So she started feels the power of writing creating resilient heroines of fantasy. “Oh, I’m very happy Flights of Fantasy 8 of 12 Author info © C a Meet Suzanne Collins p P r y o Suzanne Collins wrote for children’s TV for years. r Gregor the Overlander and its sequel were her first novels. Q. How did you get the idea for Gregor? A. I’d been walking around New York City thinking about Alice in Wonderland. I got this image of a boy falling down, down, down beneath the city and encountering a giant cockroach. Q. Why do you write for young adults? A. Young people are the best audience possible. They will consider new ideas. Q. What do you like to read? A. I am crazy about Greek mythology. The people and the gods experience a wide range of human emotions in a magical world. —David Marc Fischer Flights of Fantasy 9 of 12 FANTASY FOREVER These days, some teens are With so much new interest Some people criticize doing the “telling” themselves. in this age-old genre, could we fantasy fiction as being Two well-known young be living in a new Golden Age childish. Ursula K. Le Guin fantasy authors are French of Fantasy? Pierce used to disagrees. teen Flavia Bujor and reject the concept, but lately “Fantasy, fairy tales, and American Christopher Paolini. she’s had second thoughts. myths—all the stories that use Paolini is author of the best- “It’s hard to compare some our imagination—are the selling boy-meets-dragon tale of what’s being done to things oldest kind of story we tell, and Eragon, which he began when probably the most important he was only 15. “I wanted to © kind,” says the acclaimed write a story that I’d enjoy Bettmann/C author of the Earthsea Cycle. reading myself, using elements “Only through them can we from fantasy books I’d read OR B understand certain matters at growing up plus ideas of my I S all.” own,” Paolini says. Ursula K. Le Guin Flights of Fantasy 10 of 12 like The Wizard of Oz, published out there.” Pierce young fantasy readers grow up The Once and Future King, can reel off dozens of new to write even greater fantasy and Tolkien,” Pierce says. works that could be fiction? “But I’ll tell you: there are tomorrow’s classics. Le Guin has no doubt about some amazing books being And could today’s crop of the answer: “Absolutely!” n Flights of Fantasy 11 of 12 Many Worlds Don’t pass by the fantasy shelves just In the end, the point of fantasy is just a travels in search of her fencing teacher, who has because you’re not crazy about magic rollicking good read.