The Bookworm: A touch of the fantastic

By SUSAN COUTURE

Your children loved the Harry Potter books. But those have long been read and re-read, and you’ve probably seen the movies as well. Children’s fantasy books are filled with magic and supernatural forces. Settings in children’s fantasy books lead them into worlds totally different from our own, complete with laws of nature that permit magic, and many departures from reality.

Other books you might consider if your child likes fantasy are “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, for older readers ages 12 and up, or “The Tale of Despereaux” by Kate DiCamillo, for readers in grades three through six.

Some famous fantasies for children are “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien and, of course,the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis.

“It’s Me” by Eric Drachman, illustrated by Isabella Decenciere, is a book for children who are starting to read to themselves. One of the great things about this book is that it comes with an audio CD that plays the story out loud—complete with sound effects and audible page turns. Children can follow along as they learn to read.

Patricia has a taste for fantasy herself—she loves to play dress-up. She shows her family different costumes: a beautiful princess, wicked witch and a “little mommy”. Each time she needs to tell them exactly who she is dressing up as. The family plays along with her game. But then when she comes out dressed as herself, the family tries to guess who she is. She keeps telling them “It’s me, Patricia,” until they finally realize she is dressed as herself.

Books for very young children, frequently dealing as they do with talking animals, have a built-in fantasy element. An old favorite to read to the little ones is “Duck in the Truck” by Jez Alborough. Short sentences and simple verse follow along at the bottom of each page. Lush illustrations show a wooded countryside. Duck is driving home in his truck and gets stuck in the muck. Some of the other animals, Frog and Sheep, come along. They try to to help push him out, but do not have any luck. The truck is still stuck in the muck. A relaxing goat trolls by in his motorboat and hears Duck calling to him. Goat has a plan to pull out the truck. So the truck gets unstuck, but the animals (all but Duck) are left stuck in the muck.

Older children, however, may develop more of a taste for real-life tales like “Small Steps” by Louis Sachar. In this book the character Armpit is going to school and working with a landscape company. His friend X-Ray comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme, scalping tickets to teenage pop star Kaira DeLeon’s concert, and talks a reluctant Armpit into going in with him. Events in the scheme get out of control and Armpit and X-Ray face serious consequences. Armpit agrees with Ginny, his friend and neighbor: taking small steps in the right direction is the only way to go.