35 Middle Grade Fantasy Faves [Wyrd & Wonder]

Preamble

Today’s post features my favourite middle grade fantasy books. I chose titles that are personal faves. These books were all 4+ star reads for me. A list of ‘best middle grade fantasy’ would look a little different. These books represent what I think of when I hear fantasy. For me, fantasy features happenings that could never occur in our world. Fantasy roots itself in imagination and magic. (I am not the person to explain the difference between fantasy and science fiction, but my view is that science fiction has more basis in real possibilities and technology.) This post is part of Wyrd & Wonder, a month long celebration of the fantastic (Flaming phoenix by Sujono Sujono).

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Overview

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Category Guide

The six emojis in the above list correspond to six categories into which I’ve grouped the books. These categories aren’t genres. I just lumped them together by what I consider their broadest defining feature. 😛

• 🏞️ Secondary World (11 books)
  • Books outside this category take place in or are connected to the real world (i.e. portal fantasy).
• 👻 Ghosts (7 books)
• 💀 Creepy (7 books)
  • Books that have a creepy/dark/unsettling atmosphere that’s not attributed to ghosts. A few titles don’t fit here perfectly but they were close enough.
• 🐲 Creatures (4 books)
  • The main attraction of these books is mythical creatures or anthropomorphized animals.
• 🧚🏼 Fairies (3 books)
• 🌍 Historical (3 books)
  • The real world historical setting is integral to the story being told. Two of the books in this category might be described as religious fantasy. For example, the fantastical elements are portrayed as miracles of a certain religion. This type of fantasy intrigued me so much I wrote a paper on it for my master’s degree, lol (“Blurring the Line between Speculative and Historical Fiction: Representations of Christianity in Post-Medieval Historical Novels for Children”).

Titles link to my reviews were applicable. #ownvoices identifications are what the author has publicly identified as, as far as I could find.

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🏞️ Secondary World

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👻 Ghosts

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💀 Creepy

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🐲 Creatures

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🧚🏼 Fairies

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🌍 Historical

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Conclusion

And that’s it! Whoo, I think I spent more time on this post than any other. (I’ve just realized I didn’t include Inkspell?! Ah well. I should note that I purposefully excluded The Hobbit, as I count that as part of my Tolkien ‘fandom’ rather than my middle grade ‘fandom’.)

This list introduced you to a number of my personal favourites, but middle grade authors are really shining right now and there so many more excellent books that I still need to read. The best middle grade features characteristics I love and don’t always find in adult fiction: clear and simple yet evocative prose; characters who try to be better friends or family members; magic that does not have to cater to an adult’s sensibilities. If you haven’t read middle grade fantasy recently, I encourage you to give them a shot.

I’d like to conclude this post with a shout out to bloggers who review middle grade fantasy. Bloggers marked with 📚 primarily review middle grade (including fantasy), while bloggers marked with 📙 occasionally review MG fantasy.

📚 Alex @ Randomly Reading
📙 Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense
📚 Brandy @ Random Musings of a Bibliophile
📚 Brenda @ Log Cabin Library
📙 Briana and Krysta @ Pages Unbound
📚 Charlotte @ Charlotte’s Library
📙 CW, Skye, and Joce @ The Quiet Pond
📙 Jessica @ Spooky KidLit
📚 Katy @ A Library Mama
📚 Mary @ Book Craic
📙 Nandini @ Novels and Nebulas
📚 Rosemary @ Mom Read It

Do you read middle grade? Have you read any of these books? What are your favourite middle grade fantasies?