Juvenile fantasy facts for kids

Illustration from first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Juvenile fantasy is children's literature with fantasy elements: fantasy intended for readers not yet adult.

The protagonists are usually children or teens who have unique abilities, gifts, possessions or even allies that allow them to face powerful adversaries. Harry Potter is a powerful young wizard, one of the children of The Dark Is Rising series is an immature Old One with magical abilities, and in the His Dark Materials series the children have magical items and animal allies. The plot frequently incorporates a bildungsroman.

In the earlier part of the 20th century, C. S. Lewis noted that fantasy was more accepted in juvenile literature, and therefore a writer interested in fantasy often wrote in it to find an audience.

Juvenile fantasy books and series

Forerunners

• E. T. A. Hoffmann: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
• Charles Kingsley: The Water-Babies
• George MacDonald: The Princess and the Goblin, The Light Princess, At the Back of the North Wind
• Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-glass
• Carlo Collodi: The Adventures of Pinocchio
• Kenneth Grahame: The Reluctant Dragon

1900 to 1945

• L. Frank Baum: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its many sequels
• Kenneth Grahame: The Wind in the Willows
• J.M. Barrie: Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up
• E. Nesbit: Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Story of the Amulet, The Enchanted Castle, The Magic City
• Rudyard Kipling: Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies
• Selma Lagerlöf: The Wonderful Adventures of Nils
• A. A. Milne: Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner
• Zofia Kossak-Szczucka: The Troubles of a Gnome
• Erich Kästner: The 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas
• P. L. Travers: Mary Poppins series
• J. R. R. Tolkien: The Hobbit
• Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The Little Prince

Post-War and 1950s

• Jan Brzechwa: Pan Kleks trilogy
• C. S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia
• Astrid Lindgren: Pippi Longstocking series, Mio, My Son, Karlsson-on-the-Roof series
• Robert A. Heinlein: the Heinlein juveniles, a set of 12 books that includes Starship Troopers
• T. H. White, The Sword in the Stone and Mistress Masham's Repose
• Tove Jansson: the Moomin series
• Mary Norton: The Borrowers series

Late 20th Century

• Astrid Lindgren: Ronia, the Robber's Daughter, The Brothers Lionheart
• Michael Ende: Momo, The Neverending Story
• Susan Cooper: The Dark Is Rising
• Roald Dahl: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The BFG and others
• Diana Wynne Jones: The Lives of Christopher Chant, Charmed Life
• Alan Garner: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Owl Service
• Andre Norton: the Witch World series
• Ursula K. Le Guin: A Wizard of Earthsea and its sequels
• Brian Jacques: the Redwall series
• Anne McCaffrey: the Dragonriders of Pern Harper Hall trilogy
• Madeleine L'Engle: the Time Quartet
• Lloyd Alexander: The Prydain Chronicles
• Chris Van Allsburg: The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, Jumanji and Zathura, The Polar Express

More recent titles and series

• James Gurney: Dinotopia series
• Philip Pullman: His Dark Materials, Clockwork and The Firework-Maker's Daughter
• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter
• Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi: The Spiderwick Chronicles
• Cornelia Funke: The Thief Lord, Inkheart trilogy, Dragon Rider
• Mary Pope Osborne: The Magic Tree House series
• Tamora Pierce: The Song of the Lioness, Circle of Magic, and sequels
• Rick Riordan: Percy Jackson & the Olympians and other series in the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, The Kane Chronicles, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard
• Christopher Paolini: Eragon
• Angie Sage: Septimus Heap
• Erin Hunter: Warriors, Seekers, and Survivors series
• Jennifer A. Nielsen: The False Prince trilogy
• Chris Colfer: The Land of Stories
• Tui T. Sutherland: Wings of Fire series
• Maricar Banguis: Otuna's Flute