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 the powerful young wizard, one of the children of the 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.[1]
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Juvenile fantasy books and series
Forerunners
- 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
1900 to 1945
- L. Frank Baum: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its many sequels
- E. Nesbit: Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The New Treasure Seekers, The Story of the Amulet, The Enchanted Castle
- J. R. R. Tolkien: The Hobbit
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The Little Prince
Post-War and 1950s
- C. S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia
- 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
Late 20th Century
- Susan Cooper: The Dark Is Rising
- Alan Garner: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Owl Service
- Andre Norton: the Witch World series
- Mary Norton: The Borrowers series
- Ursula LeGuin: A Wizard of Earthsea and its sequels
- Brian Jacques: the Redwall series
- Anne McCaffrey: the Dragonriders of Pern series
- Madeleine L'Engle: the Time Quartet
More recent titles and series
- Philip Pullman: His Dark Materials
- J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter
- Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi: The Spiderwick series
- Cornelia Funke: The Thief Lord, Inkheart, Inkspell, Dragon Rider,
- Mary Pope Osborne: The Magic Tree House series
- Tamora Pierce: The Song of the Lioness, Circle of Magic, and sequels
- Christopher Paolini: Eragon.
References
- ^ C.S. Lewis, "On Juvenile Tastes", p 41, Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories, ISBN 0-15-667897-7
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