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
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500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
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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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Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
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1969 printing from Macmillan
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Adventures of Pinocchio
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by Thornton W. Burgess
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The Knights' Tales Book 4
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The Knights' Tales Book 3
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The Knights' Tales Book 1
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by John Dashney
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Aesop's Fables
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Aesop, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
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Alice in Wonderland
Dover Evergreen Classics
by Lewis Carroll
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by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by June Goulding
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Windermere Series 1
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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 2
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Puffin Classics
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$7.99
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Sterling Classics
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Scott McKowen
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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
from Templar Books
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by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Peter Weevers
from Hutchinson of Australia
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by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Justin Todd
from Lynx
for 3rd-6th grade
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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
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
All the Mowgli Stories
Junior Deluxe Editions
by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Richard M. Powers
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
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American Fairy Tales
by L. Frank Baum
from Dover Publications
for 3rd-6th grade
$4.00 (1 in stock)
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
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$14.95
Animal Stories
by Joel Chandler Harris, illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats
from Junior Deluxe Editions
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Animal Stories
by Edited by Walter de la Mare
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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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Ant and the Elephant
by Bill Peet
from Sandpiper Books
Animal Fantasy for Preschool-4th grade
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$9.99
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Royal Ranger #6
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from Viking Press
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Archer's Cup
by S. D. Smith
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Armstrong
by Torben Kuhlmann, Translated by David Henry Wilson
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by Dawn L. Watkins
from Bob Jones University Press
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$8.99
Arthur, High King of Britain
by Michael Morpurgo
from Harcourt
for 2nd-6th grade
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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
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Austere Academy
Series of Unfortunate Events #5
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by Elaine Waisglass
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