Fantasy Fiction

The "fantasy=escapism" equation is older than the genre as we know it. People in the old days boycotted the Theater, not just because it was a potential hotbed of wickedness, but because it was something other than Real Life and therefore odious to Sensible People. Some radical Christian sects have prohibited the reading of fiction on grounds that only the Bible has any literary value (....even though Jesus clearly told fictional stories).

In our day, fantasy as a fiction genre is more narrowly defined than simply "that which is not established fact." It encompasses stories of dragons, elves, dark and mysterious woods, magic (or majyck, or whatever the kids are calling it these days), unicorns, gnomes, etc. High fantasy usually takes place in a world or realm other than our own; low fantasy imports fantastic elements into the-world-as-we-know-it.

Certainly, there is plenty of fantasy fiction that can be defended on no grounds. The flood of worthless literary drivel with images of buxom maidens and swarthy sword-wielding savages with pointy ears on their paperback covers began sometime in the 1960s and has only increased as its putrid waters have swelled. But there's plenty of good fantasy, too, some of it among the best fiction ever written.

Because good fantasy, of course, has something to say about the human condition. Sometimes taking characters out of the humdrum of Earth-bound existence allows authors more artistic freedom to create the situations necessary to tell the narrative they have burning a hole in their imagination. Or sometimes they just make the story a bit more fun. Sometimes they make it darker, or scarier, or just plain more weird.

If you're J.R.R. Tolkien, the fantasy element plays a different role (mythmaking) than that of the story it frames (the sinfulness of sin and the cost of redemption). The point is, good fantasy isn't just about the fantastical. In most cases (Ursula K. LeGuin comes to mind), the unfamiliar is used to show how even it is ultimately familiar, and if we can see ourselves in the Edmund Pevensies and Gurney Hallecks we read about, the fantasy has done its job.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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100 Cupboards
by N. D. Wilson
from Random House
Fantasy for 3rd-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$8.99
100 Cupboards - Paperback Trilogy
by N. D. Wilson
from Random House Books for Young Readers
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in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$24.62
Abel's Island
by William Steig
from Square Fish Publishing
Animal Fantasy for 3rd-5th grade
1977 Newbery Honor Book
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$7.99
Acceptable Time
Wrinkle in Time Series #5
by Madeleine L'Engle
from Square Fish Publishing
Fantasy for 4th-8th grade
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Ace, the Very Important Pig OSI
by Dick King-Smith
from Yearling
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Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel
Thornton Burgess Peter Cottontail Books #13
by Thornton W. Burgess
Revised ed. from Dover Publications
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Adventures of Peter Cottontail
Thornton Burgess Peter Cottontail Books #7
by Thornton W. Burgess
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Adventures of Pinocchio
Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
by Carlo Collodi, translated by M.A. Murray and illustrated by Fritz Kredel
from Grosset & Dunlap
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Adventures of Pinocchio
Illustrated Junior Library Series 1
by Carlo Collodi, translated by M.A. Murray and illustrated by Fritz Kredel
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Adventures of Pinocchio
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Adventures of Pinocchio
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Adventures of Pinocchio
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Adventures of Pinocchio
Travel and Adventure Library for Young Folks
by Carlo Collodi, translated and adapted by Angelo Patri and illustrated by Mary Liddell
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Fantasy for 3rd-8th grade
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Adventures of Sir Balin the Ill-Fated
The Knights' Tales Book 4
by Gerald Morris
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The Knights' Tales Book 3
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The Knights' Tales Book 2
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The Knights' Tales Book 1
by Gerald Morris
Reprint from Sandpiper Books
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$7.99
Adventures of Walter the Weremouse / Adventures of Mushka the Mousewere
by John Dashney
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Aesop's Fables
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Aesop, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fables for 2nd-6th grade
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Aesop's Fables
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Aesop's Fables
Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
by Aesop, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
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Airborn
Airborn Trilogy #1
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Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians #1
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Alice in Wonderland
Dover Evergreen Classics
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by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Milo Winter
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by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Milo Winter
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Windermere Series 4
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Milo Winter
1938 printing from Rand McNally
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Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
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by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
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by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Roberta Paflin
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by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
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Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Penguin Classics
by Lewis Carroll
from Penguin Classics
Fantasy for 5th-8th grade
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$11.00
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Michael Hague
from Henry Holt and Company
for 3rd-6th grade
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Puffin Classics
by Lewis Carroll
from Puffin Books
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Sterling Classics
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Scott McKowen
Unabridged from Sterling Publishing Co.
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Gwynedd M. Hudson
from Crown Publishers
Fantasy for 5th-8th grade
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Dover Thrift Editions
by Lewis Carroll
from Dover Publications
Fantasy for 5th-8th grade
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$4.00
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
from Candlewick Press
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Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Peter Weevers
from Philomel Books
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Children's Classics
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel and Bessie Pease Gutman
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Books of Wonder
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from HarperCollins
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, Illustrated by John Tenniel
from SeaWolf Press
Fantasy for 2nd-7th grade
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$6.89
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Michael Hague
from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
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by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Nick Hewetson
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Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Peter Weevers
from Hutchinson of Australia
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Justin Todd
from Lynx
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
Rainbow Classics
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from World Publishing Company
for 4th-10th grade
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll
from Dell Yearling
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
All the Mowgli Stories
Junior Deluxe Editions
by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Richard M. Powers
from Grosset & Dunlap
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American Fairy Tales
by L. Frank Baum
from Dover Publications
for 3rd-6th grade
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Among the Shadows
by L. M. Montgomery
from Bantam Books
for 5th-9th grade
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Ancient, Strange, and Lovely
Dragon Chronicles #4
by Susan Fletcher
Reprint from Atheneum
for 3rd-7th grade
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$12.99
Andrew and the Firedrake
by Douglas Wilson
from Canonball Books
for 4th-9th grade
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$14.95
Animal Stories
by Joel Chandler Harris, illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats
from Junior Deluxe Editions
for 2nd-8th grade
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Animal Stories
by Edited by Walter de la Mare
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 3rd-8th grade
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Annotated Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
Deluxe from Random House
for 3rd-6th grade
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$15.00 (2 in stock)
Annotated Peter Pan
by J. M. Barrie
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Fantasy for 4th-8th grade
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Annotated Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Fantasy for 4th-8th grade
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Annotated Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum, edited and annotated by Michael Hearn
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 5th-Adult
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Arazan's Wolves
Royal Ranger #6
by John A. Flanagan
from Viking Press
for 3rd-6th grade
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$18.99
Archer's Cup
Green Ember Archer #3
by S. D. Smith
from Story Warren Books
for 3rd-6th grade
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$12.95
Archives of Anthropos series
by John White
from InterVarsity Press
Christian Fantasy for 5th-8th grade
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Armstrong
by Torben Kuhlmann, Translated by David Henry Wilson
from NorthSouth
for 2nd-6th grade
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$21.95
Arrow
by Dawn L. Watkins
from Bob Jones University Press
for 3rd-5th grade
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$8.99
Arthur, High King of Britain
by Michael Morpurgo
from Harcourt
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Assassination of Brangwain Spurge
by M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
from Candlewick Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
At the Back of the North Wind
Everyman's Library Children's Classics
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Arthur Hughes
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Fairy Tale for 4th-Adult
$20.00
At the Back of the North Wind
Books of Wonder
by George Macdonald, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
from HarperCollins
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At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Colleen Browning
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
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At the Back of the North Wind
Macmillan Classics
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Harvey Dinnerstein
from Macmillan
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At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
Fairy Tale for 4th-Adult
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At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Frank C. Pape
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New Children's Classics
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by George MacDonald, illustrated by Charles Mozley
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by George MacDonald, Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
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Austere Academy
Series of Unfortunate Events #5
by Lemony Snicket
from HarperCollins
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Baaa
by David Macaulay
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Babe the Gallant Pig
by Dick King-Smith
1st edition from Yearling
Animal Stories: Fantasy for 2nd-5th grade
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