Entries Categorized as 'Fantasy'
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Mysteries, Older Readers, Review
Tags:city, Cornelia Funke, detective, Venice
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Prosper and Bo are orphans. Their aunt Esther wants to adopt Bo, but not Prosper, so the boys run away to Venice to escape being separated. There they join a gang of other orphaned children, led by a boy who calls himself The Thief Lord. Things get interesting when a strange man commissions the kids to steal a wooden wing for him, and Esther hires a detective to track down her nephews.
At first glance this story is quite simplistic. But wait until you get about a hundred pages in, and you have a very complex book in your hands. Nothing is really as it seems here. Unfortunately, near the end the story takes a completely unexpected turn toward fantasy, which while interesting and clever, is also confusing without any foreshadowing. Other than that, though, The Thief Lord is worth reading.
Posted by Sarah
Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fantasy, Fiction, Incredibook!, Review
Tags:Award Winner, Carol Kendall, Minnipins
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Years ago the hero Gammage had led the Minnipin people to safety in The-Land-Between-The-Mountains. Now the Minnipins have grown soft and won’t listen when five of the villagers tell of seeing campfires on the supposedly impassable mountains. One thing leads to another, and the five are finally outlawed from the village. It is up to Muggles, Mingy, Gummy, Curley Green, and Walter the Earl to save the very ones who have cast them out.
I very much enjoy this book. The characters are well-portrayed, and the story itself makes you pause and reflect. There is not much adventure until the end, but it doesn’t come across as slow. Overall it is an excellent read.
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Award Winner, Funny, Lynne Reid Banks, The Indian in the Cupboard
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Omri receives a cupboard and an ancient key for his birthday. That night, he wants to try out the cupboard, so he puts an Indian toy inside, turns the key, and then goes to bed. The next day, Omri opens the cupboard to discover that his toy has become a real live Indian named Little Bear. At first Omri thinks having an Indian living in his room will be fun, but he soon begins to change his mind when Little Bear begins to make demands.
I had heard of this book for most of my life, and finally decided to give it a try when my family picked it up at a book sale. The concept behind the story here is very interesting and worth exploring. Banks’ writing style is quite reminiscent of many of my favorite classic fantasy authors, which drew me into the story even more. My only real problem with The Indian in the Cupboard is with the somewhat clichéd I-can’t-tell-anybody-because-they-won’t-believe-me syndrome that every kid in a fantasy novel seems to have. But if you can overlook that or you don’t mind, this one definitely deserves a look.
Posted by Sarah
Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fantasy, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Annals of Aeliana, Eric Reinhold, Foxes, leopards, raccoons
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One night Ryann Watters is visited by the angel Gabriel and assigned the task of finding the king’s sword. He is given three objects to help him in his quest: a ring, a horn, and a staff. However, that same night Drake Dunfellow, a boy living in the same town, is visited by a dark angel who charges him to stop Ryann. Join Ryann and his friends Liddy and Terell as they travel to and from the world of Aeliana; meet new friends; discover the powers of the ring, horn, and staff; and eventually are swept into a clash of good and evil where only one side can be victorious.
I enjoyed this book. At the climax I didn’t want to put it down! Figuring out how to handle the parent characters in stories like these can be a challenge for an author (I know from experience) and I think Eric Reinhold pulled it off nicely. Overall a good read, and I am looking forward to when the sequel, Ryann Watters and the Shield of Faith, comes out! (As a note, I went ahead and categorized this book for all ages, but I would recommend it for readers somewhere around 10 and up.)
Posted by Jordan
Categories: Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Cornelia Funke, Inkheart, Long Read, Sad, Scary
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A year after the events in Inkheart, Dustfinger has finally found somebody to read him back to the Inkworld. However, Orpheus, a conceited man with the gift of reading, tricks Dustfinger and leaves his assistant Farid behind. Fearing the book’s original tragic end for Dustfinger, Farid asks Mo’s daughter Meggie to read him to the Inkworld as well, which she does, but she comes along. What they find is a very messed up Inkworld that seems to be writing its own story. Meggie tries to help Fenoglio (the author of the book they are now in) fix the story, while Farid attempts to save Dustfinger from disaster.
And if you think that was complicated, wait ’til I tell you that I left out two or three plot lines! In other words, Cornelia Funke’s brilliant sequel is deeper than the original. Inkspell raises multitudes of very good questions, such as, “What would it be like for a man to be the god of a world?” To find out the answer, you’ll need to stay tuned for not only Inkspell, but also the sequel Inkdeath, as Inkspell ends at quite the cliffhanger. Well worth the time to read it.
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