Archive for the ‘Fiction: Fantasy’ Category

Guardians of Ga’Hoole: The Capture by Kathryn Lasky

ISBN: 0439405572
240 pages
published in 2003.

I love animal fantasy — and it’s no secret. I picked up this book originally in MIDDLE SCHOOL but put it aside in favor of some other books and eventually forgot about it completely. Recently a good friend of mine told me about them. It’s one of her favorite series and once she got talking about them, I realized that I owned a copy of the first book. I’m glad I finally got around to reading them, as in the subgenre of juvenile fantasy, it’s quite strong.

In another world, owls live in kingdoms based upon species and in climates and environments that suit their species ideal living arrangements. They are much like normal owls, but there are some key differences. Talking being one. Keeping snakes as nursemaids for owlets is another. Exchanging stories and legends about a group of brave and fierce warrior owls is perhaps the strangest of all. Little owlet Soren loves hearing these stories and grows up in a hollow in a fir tree in Tyto with his family — his mother and father, his older brother and the newest addition — his little sister. Everything seems great until one day he finds himself at the bottom of his fir tree, too young to be able to fly back up to the hollow and save himself. He is snatched by a patrol of mysterious owls that take him to a place where hundreds and hundreds of other young owls are kept. It’s there that he learns about the secrets surrounding the hollow rocks and caverns of the place called St. Aggie’s and about the terrible danger that not only Barn Owls like himself face, but all the owls kingdoms in the world are threatened by.

It’s a very fun story and I love hearing all of the tidbits and information placed in the story about actual owl behavior and anatomy. It’s clever in that way, and although sometimes things seem a bit awkward (such as owls being able to read, etc. while still being anatomically real owls) it opens up the door for a lot more fantasy elements which of course makes it more fun to try and predict where the story will go. I got a bit sick of the preachy element and the almost quasi-religious sentiments that showed up towards the end (mostly the echo of “belief” without proof, which made me a bit nervous — though I can understand why it’s used and perhaps even appropriate in a story of this nature). All in all it was a good read, and with the movie coming out in September, I plan on getting through the first three so that I can go into the film with the plot in mind and perhaps make a post on here about the film in comparison to the first three books of the series (which it will be based upon.)

I would perhaps not recommend it to children older than junior high age, however, unless they have a strong interest already in animal fantasy. It has the potential to be an interesting and complex story, I think, but the writing is very simple and the characters are perhaps not as 3 dimensional as some older children might expect and desire.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

ISBN: 0142410314
176 pages
published in 1964.

Another popular (and rightfully so) book by Roald Dahl. It looks like Arpad & I are on a kick with Dahl recently (I’ve been reading these outloud, I think we’re starting Matilda next). I think people are most familiar with this book of all of his (if not the book itself then the story, thanks to the multiple movie adaptations.) It is a really great story, and the movies don’t really deviate much from the book (except in some sort of little and frustrating ways — but in general.) Wonka is such a lovable and exciting character. His excitement throughout the story is exciting to the reader, and as the first 1/3rd of the book helps us get to know Charlie, we really feel for him, too. Despite the fact that it is a children’s story and a fantasy one at that, it is very easy to feel attached to Charlie and think of him as a real person. We really understand how poor he is and desperately want him to do better. This is why his finding of the golden ticket is so exciting.

It is sort of a dark story as children’s books go, but not nearly as dark as I expected it to be — especially not with the way that people like Johnny Depp & Tim Burton portray it. The darkness in the book comes from the fact that the children are the ones committing the evil / naughty acts. It is not Wonka himself that is at fault — and in fact I don’t picture him as coming across as particularly sinister at all throughout the entire story. I think he is meant to come across as eccentric, but kind. He doesn’t do anything nasty to the children at all. Everything that goes wrong is entirely their own fault (and this really seems to be the point of the book, in the first place!) Charlie stands out simply because he IS such a “good nut” in comparison to all of the spoiled and blind little children that come into the factory. He cares genuinely about other people and he knows not to do things that he is told not to do.

The exchanges with Mike Teavee are particularly funny (“If you think gum is so disgusting,” said Mike Teavee, “then why do you make it in your factory?” “I do wish you wouldn’t mumble,” said Mr. Wonka. “I can’t hear a word you’re saying. Come on! Off we go!”) His evasion of Mike’s rather telling questions sort of make it quite apparent that Wonka is very aware of what he’s doing. This doesn’t make him evil at all though, simply a good businessman and very dedicated to his work. Clearly he’s not simply money-hungry (he does, after all, seem to have no issue about giving away lifetime supplies of chocolate to all of the kids, even the ones that disobeyed him). However, he is picky about who he wants to run his factory for him when he was gone, and I do think he’s quite right. Only a child would be able to pick up where he left off, and an obedient child like Charlie is the right way to go.

Despite the fact that I adored this book immensely, this does leave me with a small, sourish taste in my mouth. It’s a good book to discourage kids from disobeying their parents and not being selfish, and gluttonous, and spoiled, etc., but the underlying message (that if you never question anyone [like Mike Teavee] and you never do anything for yourself and simply hope for the best and be good-natured, etc., etc., that you’ll eventually turn out alright) is a bit unsettling.

The BFG by Roald Dahl

ISBN: 0142410381
208 pages
published in 1982.

I first read The BFG in elementary school, I think as a requirement. I remember ratty mass-market paperback copies of it being passed out to the class. I had never heard of Roald Dahl before, although my teacher sung his praises up and down to us. I do know, however, that the moment I started reading it I was totally hooked. I had never thought that I would be interested in stories about things like giants before (I was much too caught up on vampires and werewolves and beasts of THAT nature at the time), but I guess I was. The BFG — and Sophie — are two of the most lovely characters in children’s literature, I think, and the story itself is funny and sly and sweet.

Snatched out of her bed one night by a giant, Sophie — an orphan — is brought to Giant Country, where live 9 terrible, people-eating giants… and one other giant who does not eat people. The Big Friendly Giant. The BFG. Rather than spending his nights eating children from all over the world as do the other giants, he goes out and blows dreams into the heads of sleeping kids that he collected from a mysterious dream land. Sophie experiences all of this, and while the BFG also strongly disapproves of what the other giants do, he is a “runty” giant compared to the others and is not able to stop them. Together, Sophie and he come up with a plan to stop the giants.

The relationship between Sophie and the BFG is the sweetest, nicest part of the story — although the descriptions of the giants and the dreams and the way that people react once they first see the giants (and especially the arrangements that the Queen of England must make to accommodate the BFG at breakfast) are very good, as well. Sophie learns valuable lessons from the BFG — as he is someone who is not stuck in the middle of human society and can thus look at it objectively. The BFG of course is able to solve his problems with the other giants and no longer has to eat hideous, foul-tasting snozzcumbers. Both of them gain each other’s friendship.

I’m happy that I re-read it, and I’m especially happy that I was able to read it as a child. It was still magical and wonderful to read, but for a child it is ten-times over. The surprising and charming ending really helps in the suspension of disbelief and makes the story really come to life.

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

ISBN: 0440238137
368 pages
published in 1995.

I first read this book a few years ago. I found the story itself captivating, as well as the idea of the daemons, like many readers before me. It was recommended to me many times before I finally got around to reading it, and by the time I did, I wished I had read it sooner, because I feel like I would have appreciated it even more as a child. In any case, most of us are familiar with the movie version that came out a couple years ago, which I did go to see and was very happy with.

The Golden Compass, known throughout most of the world as Northern Lights, is the first book in a trilogy about Lyra Belaqua, a young girl from Oxford, who exists within a world parallel to our own. Everyone in her world has a daemon, a manifestation of their soul that takes the form of an animal. Daemons are able to change form when a person is young, but as soon as puberty is reached, they assume a fixed shape and stay that way for the duration of the person’s life. Consequently, Lyra’s daemon, Pantalaimon — or Pan, as she calls him — is Lyra herself, yet a separate entity from her own body. The bond between human and daemon is the strongest in the world and for normal humans, even being far apart from each other causes intense physical pain for both. In this world is also witches, whose daemons can travel far from them, ghouls and ghosts and various sorts of ghasts, and armored bears, bears who are larger than normal bears and who can talk and have their own society in the North, on Svalbard, and who make themselves armor out of metal.

Lyra befriends members of all of these groups as she seeks to find out about the Gobblers, a group that has been stealing children from Oxford and from other places around the world, are up to. A device that tells the truth and thus can answer any question, the alethiometer, also falls into her hands. All of these circumstances are caught up in the question of Dust, a substance that has been causing great controversy among theologians and philosophers around the world, Lyra’s Uncle Asriel and a mysterious, enticing woman named Mrs. Coulter.

I’ll be starting the second book in the series, The Subtle Knife, as soon as I can. I really love this series and I can’t wait to find out what happens. I never got beyond the first book.

Redwall by Brian Jacques

ISBN: 0441005489
352 pages
published in 1986.

I loved these books as a child. Recently, my boyfriend and I have been getting back into them. We just finished this one tonight (we like to read aloud to each other) and we’re very excited to move on through the rest of the series. I didn’t read all of the books that had been published when I was younger, but I did read quite a few of them. I believe there are 21 in total right now (as one is due to be published in February). It’s really mind-boggling that Jacques continues to publish as I believe he is 70 by now!

Redwall is the first book in the world-famous Redwall series of books, about various woodland animals (most typically mice, badgers, otters, rats, foxes, etc.) This particular story takes place at Redwall Abbey in Mossflower Wood, where a community of peaceful mice live deep in the forest, caring for the animals that live around them and generally promoting peace and prosperity in the land. An infamous evil rat shows up and threatens to take over their home, and the peaceful mice and their allies must fight back to defend themselves. At the heart of the conflict is Matthias, a young mouse from the abbey that longs to be as strong as Redwall’s mythological hero, Martin the Warrior. Given the opportunity to prove himself, Matthias struggles to find Martin’s sword and fight for his home.

The storytelling is wonderful. The description is vivid and beautiful. The characters are charming and well thought out. Each one of them is distinct, even the minor characters. The only major problem I have with this book, and furthermore, the series, is the way that creatures are divided by species as “good” or “evil” and rarely (really — never) cross that line. Rats are always evil, mice are always good. There is no grey. Jacques has confirmed this himself in his answer to a question that was sent in by a fan on his website, and this left me with a bit of a sour taste in his mouth. However, it doesn’t detract from the quality of the novels and I’m excited to relive the ones I know and discover the ones that are new to me.

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