Favourite Children's Books - Part 2

Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda

Emily Rodda writes great fantasy adventure for kids. The books are short and action packed, so they are great for kids who are having trouble getting into reading. They are about a trio of heroes--a blacksmith's son, a palace guard, and a wild forest girl--who find themselves on a quest to rid the land of Deltora from the evil Shadow Lord. The stories are refreshing as there are no wizards, vampires, or werewolves. There is lots of puzzle solving involved, which I loved as a child. There are also plot twists, fantastic creatures, and monsters. You will fall in love with the main characters and watch them grow throughout the series. The series order is #1: The Forests of Silence, #2: The Lake of Tears, #3: City of the Rats, #4: The Shifting Sands, #5: Dread Mountain, #6: The Maze of the Beast, #7: The Valley of the Lost, and #8: Return to Del.

Junior Jedi Knights by Nancy Richardson

These books got me reading at a young age. I read them over and over again. They are about Han and Leia's youngest son Anakin who goes to the Jedi Academy at the age of eleven to begin his training. On his first day there, he meets a girl named Tahiri, and they discover that they are stronger in the Force when they are together. They also find out that they share a dream about traveling down the river by the academy on a raft, and that there is some secret to be discovered there. This series is about adventure and friendship--great for young kids. The series order is #1: The Golden Globe, #2: Lyric's World, and #3: Promises. There is also #4: Anakin's Quest and #5: Vader's Fortress, though they are by a different author and the writing is not quite as wonderful as it is in the first three.

Chrestomanci by Diana Wynne Jones

I read these when I was in college and fell in love with Diana Wynne Jones's magical worlds and whimsical story telling. The series is about Chrestomanci, which is the title for a wizard who is in charge of supervising the use of magic in southern England. The pictures Jones paints are colourful, full of adventure and magic, and just plain fun. The series order is #1: Charmed Life, #2: The Lives of Christopher Chant, #3: Witch Week, #4: The Magicians of Caprona, #5: Conrad's Fate, #6: The Pinhoe Egg, and #7: Mixed Magics.

The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton

This is another book that is just plain fun. My best friend and I read and re-read it throughout our childhoods. It is about siblings Jo, Bessie, and Fanny who take their cousin on adventures to the Magic Faraway Tree, where they introduce him to some crazy characters who live in the tree and the many different lands that appear magically at the top of the tree every so often, from the Land of Spells, to the land of Do-As-You-Please, to the land of Topsy-Turvy. They get into trouble and have wonderful adventures. This book is Enid Blyton's imagination at its finest.

A Wolf Story by James Byron Huggins

A Wolf Story is a Christian allegory and animal tale that follows the story of a silver wolf named Aramus. It is an action-packed, suspenseful tale about a battle between good and evil that rages across a harsh, frigid wilderness. I might class it as a darker version of Watership Down.







And there you have it, some of my favourite childhood books. Tell me about yours!