My first thought was "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 as a children's book. And with the popularity of the movies, it should appease and "dark phase" thoughts your parents have. If this seems a little too much for your brother, you could also give him any of the books based on Dungeons & Dragons worlds (Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, etc). Since I am not sure how your parents feel about RPGs, I will leave this to your discretion. I often see Sci-fi/fantasy grouped together at book stores. If your brother is interested in the sci-fi side of things, Douglas Hill wrote some books years ago (I think they may be out of print, but I have seen a few around). The series is called the "Last Legionary." The titles for the four books are: Galactic Warlord Deathwing Over Veynaa Day of the Starwind Planet of the Warlord I read these books in 6th grade, and they introduced me to sci-fi/fantasy. I have been hooked ever since. Hope this helps. Curtis ----- Original Message ----- From: "H. T." <electrictwilight at hotmail.com> To: <dragaera at dragaera.info> Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2002 5:05 PM Subject: A question re: Begining Fantacy for Youth > 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? > > I have an 11-year old step-brother who very much enjoys fantasy, and he has > asked me what else there is in this genera to read. I, however, do not know > exactly what to tell him. To tie this post a little bit into this discussion > board, I will say that I hesitate to tell him to read Steven's novels, > because (no offence to the author), but, my experience in reading his works > is that they are written to a more mature audience (which is great because > we do need something to read that is not tiresome because it is geared at > children). Though I think Steven is at least the most interesting if not the > best fantasy writer out there today, and I would love to give my > step-brother a copy of TPG or Jhereg because then we could have many > not-so-great discussions regarding Steven's works, I also hesitate at doing > this because my father or his mother would murder me if I were to give him > something to read above his maturity level (they have been asking me for the > last nine-years when I am going to get out of this "dark phase", so I can > only imagine what they would do if I were to help my step-brother into one). > Because I did not start reading fantasy until I was already an adult, I have > mostly been geared to authors that write for an older audience, so with very > few exceptions, I do not know what is out there that is appropriate for him. > (I also might add that I have not the faintest idea of what the maturity > level of an 11-year old is these days, so again, I have no ideas). Do any of > you that started reading all of this when you were his age, have any > thoughts? > > P.S. For those of you that cringe at poor syntax and diction please forgive > me, I only had a few seconds to write these thoughts down. > > _________________________________________________________________ > Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online > http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 >