H.T. asked: > 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? Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever is notably missing from the discussion so far. My favorite of these is the middle volume, The Illearth War. I'd also recommend his short story collection Daughter of Regals and the two volume Mordant's Need series (The Mirror of her Dreams and A Man Rides Through) was reasonably entertaining. I think by the time these came out I was older than your brother is now. I was given the first of Raymond E. Feist's books, Magician, later released in two volumes in massmarket paper on hard cover for Christmas '82 when I was 12. I ate it up. K. Kurtz's Deryini and Camber trilogies were fare for my summer vacation earlier that same year. The rest of these have all been mentioned by others and are books that I read by 14 or so. Note that I read Jhereg when it first appeared in 1983. Read everything else Drageran as it came out. As a side note, I'm fairly certain I read the Three Musketeers, a few of the sequels (Twenty Years After and The Man in the Iron Mask) as well as the Count of Monte Christo about that time, so TPG and FHYA should be fine for him. I'm vaguely looking to get my hands on a copy of the translation that Steve recommends for these to go back and reread them after I've finished with Paths. A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels by L'Engle is great, but can't tell if they'd go over his head. I read them at 9, a bit too early. I read The Phantom Tollbooth around the same time and loved it. A Wizard of Earthsea and the next two sequels I read at about 11 and love to this day. I also enjoyed Tehanu and the more recent stuff LeGuin has done in the milieu although plenty of people will tell you to stay away from them. They follow a progression and do get darker as they go along. The basic Tolkein package is a definite winner, although I'd start him on the Hobbit and let him come back to the Lord of the Rings on his own. Lloyd Alexander, Robin McKinley and McCaffrey's Harper Hall books were all favorites of mine at 10 or 11. I read the Dragonriders trilogy at 12. CS Lewis's Narnia he can definitely handle. Prince Ombra, by Roderick MacLeish is a great book. It links up lots of hero myths, esp. King Arthur, which is itself a great category to look at.