Dragaera

A question re: Begining Fantacy for Youth

Sat Nov 23 17:20:54 PST 2002

On Sun, Nov 24, 2002 at 01:05:42AM +0000, "H. T." <electrictwilight at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Since it appears the majority of everyone that had typed in the discussion 
> of "fantasy" had began reading fantasy when they were still young I thought 
> I might ask what is appropriate for a young fantasy reader?

Anything he is capable of understanding and appreciating.  I 
believe a children's book is marked more by the style of writing 
than any kind of self-censorship of topic.  

With that in mind, the initial Vlad Taltos books are probably 
perfect for that age -- and they will allow him to grow 
intellectually as the books become more complex.

Other excellent "children's" books that are still enjoyable as 
adults:

* Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy (the first three books only)
* The Dark is Rising sequence (I can't recall the author)
* Heinlein's young-adult novels -- most are science fiction, but 
there are some fantasy novels.  

Those are the real gems.

-- 
Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org)
Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp
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