Our Top Ten Favorite Kids' Fantasy Book Series

I intended this post to be a list of favorite kids' chapter books, but I started writing down our favorites, and realized that most of them are series.  Then I noticed that they were mostly fantasy.  Then I kept thinking of others that I had forgotten about.  Maybe I will do another post with favorite stand-alone chapter books, and maybe one with non-fantasy books (there must be 10 they liked...). The series on this list range from the ones we read together when we first started reading chapter books to books my kids have been reading on their own more recently.

Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osbourne
These were Swimmah's first chapter books that she read.  When she had progressed beyond them and was reading other books, she still wanted to read "the whole series".  I pointed out that a new book comes out every 6 months or so, she decided that maybe she didn't really need to read them all.  These are great for introducing history (there's one - or a "mini-series" of four - on the Olympics, fyi).  The only down side I found was all the incomplete sentences.  I know the author/publisher wanted easy-to-read, but couldn't they have done that and still be grammatically correct?  It just irked me...especially after listening to upwards of 20 of them!  Hence my need to point out that a new one comes out every 6 months - "You'll NEVER be done with them!"

Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin
These are great beginning chapter books for cat lovers!  Mrs. Jane Tabby doesn't know why her kittens are all born with wings...

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
More great beginning chapter books, but if I remember correctly, we read these aloud, at least the first time.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
I first read these to my girls to appease them for not reading Harry Potter to them.  Now, don't get me wrong, I am (and was then) a huge Harry fan.  But I don't think they are appropriate for 7 and 5 year olds.  I thought that Narnia was a little less violent and scary, but still exciting.  They have loved this series!  I read them aloud, we have listened to them on CD, they have each read them to themselves.  And we've seen the movies that have come out so far (isn't the next one due soon??)

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
I think these were the first chapter books Turtlegirl read completely on her own.  More action and adventure, without being too scary.

Redwall by Brian Jacques
Oh my.  Turtlegirl loved this series.  It has all her favorite things: animals, action/adventure, and humor.  She picked up the first one at the library when she was about 8 years old.  She tried reading it by herself, but found it too difficult, so she asked me to read it to her.  Well, I found it a bit difficult myself.  Each type of animal has their own British accent - and the moles!  I'm not sure what part of England they're supposed to be from, but I never did master that one (although Swimmah got pretty good at it).  I was thrilled to discover that our library has recordings of some of them, but unfortunately only the first 5 or so.  Then it was back to me reading aloud.  But Turtlegirl was so taken with the series that she sat down, at 8 yrs old, and sewed little stuffed animals of many of the characters. (just a little bragging)

Martin the Warrior and Cornflower on a whale watching trip.

And Winifred the otter came with us almost everywhere for a while:

She's much larger than the mice, but then, otters are bigger than mice.  At a butterfly conservatory.

Tales From Dimwood Forest by Avi
More talking animals, more of Turtlegirl's favorites.  There are five books in this series: Ragweed; Poppy; Poppy and Rye; Ereth's Birthday; and Poppy's Return.

Warrior Series by Erin Hunter
Feral cats, prophecies, warring clans.  These were Swimmah's favorites for a few years.  We read these at bedtime for a while, until I got really bored with them and told her that she had to read the rest on her own.  I'm mean like that.  She continued to read them and love them, but Turtlegirl admitted that she got bored with them after a while, too.  Depends on the kid, I guess.

The Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky
This time the animals are owls.  I never read these, as the girls both read them on their own.  I saw the movie - does that count?  Part hero legend, part dystopian society.

Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
Perhaps you are familiar with this one?  Unless you are living under a rock, I'm sure you've heard of Percy Jackson.  Great fun, great introduction to Greek mythology.

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Did you really think I could write a list of favorite fantasy novels and not include this?  I love this series as much as my kids do.  I started reading HP when they were babies, after my sister, who had read the first two with her sons, recommended them to me.  I put off reading them to the girls as long as I could, back during the height of Harry mania.  I knew that they get progressively scarier, so didn't want to rush into the series too soon for them and ruin the experience.  I read them aloud, we listened to the audio recordings (Jim Dale is fantastic as the narrator), and they read them to themselves, and we watched the movies (disappointing).  They still listen to the audios and re-read them from time to time.  They are truly modern classics - every time we read them, we discover something new.

Wait, that's 11 already!  I could go on...  I didn't even mention the Lord of the Rings trilogy!  The automatic numbering gets messed up when I add pictures, so I've stopped using that.  I suppose I could just manually type the numbers in, but that seems so archaic.  Another time I will list non-fantasy favorites.  What are some of your favorites?

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.